A European first to put Citroen van operators in total control

In a unique move, which is a first for any European light commercial vehicle (LCV) manufacturer, Citroen is providing its customers with access to Trafficmaster’s new Fleet Director fleet management tool. Citroen Berlingo, Dispatch and Relay panel vans are the only LCVs fitted as standard with Trafficmaster Smartnav satellite navigation – this provides the telematic access platform for optional low cost subscription to Trafficmaster Fleet Director.

Robert Handyside, Citroen’s commercial vehicles operations manager, explains, “Efficient fleet management can provide tangible environmental benefits as well as significant cost savings for all fleet operators, from the smallest to the largest. Thanks to the standard fitment of Trafficmaster Smartnav on Citroen Berlingo, Dispatch and Relay panel vans, our customers now have low cost access to Trafficmaster Fleet Director. This enables them to make efficient choices about vehicle use and make real savings in fuel, maintenance and labour, plus reducing emissions.”

Trafficmaster Fleet Director, an interactive system, offers a full range of services to ease the workload of transport managers, including a Map Control Centre with live vehicle reporting and vehicle and driver management reports. It allows vehicles and drivers to be benchmarked and compared with each other. It also gives exception reports and alerts, including warning the manager of unscheduled halts or deviations from normal routes. It can also ‘geo-fence’ vehicles, warning, for instance if the vehicle strays outside a specific area – or of employees making unauthorised or excessive use of vehicles at weekends or evenings.

Trafficmaster Fleet Director is available as a competitively-priced subscription option to the Smartnav package (supplied free of charge for three years on all Dispatch and Relay panel vans), from circa £25 + VAT a month dependent on the range of fleet management services selected. It enables busy fleet managers to optimise routing of their vehicles, organise their drivers’ workloads and keep a close and accurate check on fuel consumption and wear and tear.

Because Fleet Director data is so realistic, uniquely it can make intelligent choices. For instance, if Fleet Director needs to choose the next available vehicle for a job, it will find the one that is available the quickest, given available live traffic data. This might not necessarily mean the one that is physically the closest to the job – this feature is a first in a vehicle fleet management package.

Trafficmaster Fleet Director also enables the fleet manager to identify if the vehicle is being used for private or business use, for example if it is being used at the weekend or in the evenings – an important consideration now that the taxman is taking a close interest in this area. It also provides full vehicle and driver reports and can be fully integrated with customers’ own back office computer management systems.

Pat Gallagher, Trafficmaster’s director of in-vehicle products, says that US experience of some 4,500 fleet users of Teletrac (the name used in the USA for Fleet Director), has shown that users can expect to benefit from productivity gains of 12 per cent, reductions in fuel bills of 13 per cent, 15 per cent less overtime and a 12 per cent cut in unauthorised use of vehicles. Carbon dioxide emissions could be cut by 4.3 tonnes per vehicle per year.

In addition Trafficmaster Fleet Director users can expect to build on the already very substantial time and cost-saving benefits provided by Smartnav satellite navigation. These include time savings averaging four hours per month, while CO2 reductions are calculated at around a tonne per vehicle per year. Psychologists also estimate that onboard navigation systems considerably lower driver stress levels and can reduce the incidence of accidents by around 12 per cent.

Robert Handyside adds, “Trafficmaster Smartnav and stolen vehicle tracking is already delivering major operational benefits for our Dispatch and Relay panel van customers. With the optional availability of Trafficmaster Fleet Director, these customers can use advanced technology to make further major efficiency, productivity and environmental gains. Trafficmaster Smartnav and Fleet Director are true business-to-business propositions, which meet the needs of our fleet operator customers.”