Key to Lewis Hamilton victory holds lesson for road hauliers

Telematics was key to Lewis Hamilton winning the Formula 1 World Championship on Sunday – and it is key to the survival and prosperity of road haulage companies.

The McLaren race team got the very best from Hamilton and his car using telematics to plan, monitor and learn. In the same way, truck operators can use telematics to get the best from their trucks and their drivers.

Driver behaviour in terms of engine revving, braking, idling, as well as mpg; journey times and delays on the road and at customers; identification of serious cash savings. All these are readily available to even small fleets using low-cost telematics.

“The key is to install a simple but effective system and then to use the information it generates to save money and improve your service and profits. Any firm operating even a small number of trucks should be looking seriously at what telematics can do for its business,” said RHA Director of Policy Jack Semple.

“Some firms have already placed telematics at the centre of their operation and are achieving new levels of performance. Increasingly, firms that do not embrace the concept risk becoming back markers,” he said.