Citroen offers increased LCV safety

The reduction of accidents and road safety improvement are key concerns for any light commercial vehicle operator. Citroen understands this. Not only does Citroen offer a state of the art LCV range providing class leading primary safety standards, but the company has also moved LCV safety further ahead of its competitors.

Citroen is the only LCV manufacturer to offer a proven and effective secondary safety initiative – thanks to its standard fitment of Trafficmaster’s Smartnav satellite navigation system on virtually all Berlingo, Dispatch and Relay panel vans.

Now, in a new initiative, Citroen – through its partnership with Trafficmaster – is offering the Fleet Director system at a subsidised rate of just £19.99 +VAT, per month.

Fleet Director, a real-time fleet management programme utilises the Smartnav telematics platform to build upon the safety benefits already provided by Trafficmaster’s Smartnav technology and also helps fleet managers meet Duty of Care responsibilities for remote and lone workers by providing direct communication with, and exact location details for all their drivers. Independent reports also indicate that on-board navigation systems can considerably lower driver stress levels and reduce the incidence of accidents by around 12 per cent – a significant safety benefit.

Robert Handyside, Citroen’s commercial vehicle operations manager, explains, “This new initiative not only enables companies to improve the safety credentials of their LCV operations, but also to make efficiency and environmental gains. In terms of safety, Fleet Director allows the managers to identify those drivers in greatest need of driver training, allowing valuable training resources to be used most effectively – with those individuals who need to improve their driving standards most.”

Trafficmaster’s Fleet Director also offers a full range of services to ease the workload of transport managers, including a Map Control Centre with live vehicle reporting, two-way messaging as well as vehicle and driver management reports. It allows both vehicles and drivers to be benchmarked and compared to others in the business. In addition, it gives exception reports and alerts – including warnings of unscheduled stops or deviations from normal routes. It can also ‘geo-fence’ vehicles, identifying, for instance, if the vehicle strays outside a specific area or if employees make unauthorised or excessive use of vehicles at weekends or evenings.