Fuel-saving eco:Drive Fleet wins another top award
eco:Drive Fleet, Fiat’s in-car device that helps business drivers save fuel and money while cutting down on exhaust emissions, has won another top industry honour.
The high-tech system has just taken the Fleet Driver Service Award in the 2011 Fleet World Honours, presented today in London.
Launched in March 2010, eco:Drive Fleet works through the Blue&Me information system, developed by Fiat and Microsoft, and found in all new Fiat vehicles. Plugging a USB stick into the Blue&Me port lets eco:Drive Fleet record information about the vehicle user’s driving style, offering suggestions on how to improve efficiency further by changing driving style.
Fleet World editor and chairman of the judging panel, Steve Moody, says: “As fuel becomes ever more expensive, drivers want to be actively engaged in looking at ways of driving more efficiently. Fiat’s brilliant eco:Drive allows them to do this quickly, cheaply and easily. Software linking car to PC enables fleets to analyse vehicle mileage and fuel consumption retrospectively, as well as suggesting sustainable driving behaviour for the future, with Fiat claiming savings of up to 15 per cent on fuel costs, as well as wear and tear, as a result.”
“We are delighted to receive this continued recognition for eco:Drive from such a professional organisation as Fleet World. This innovative product is proving very useful to both consumers and businesses, with the common goal of cutting costs and reducing CO2 emissions,” says Elena Bernardelli, marketing director, Fiat Group Automobiles UK.
To date, more than 57,000 users have downloaded eco:Drive, and more than four million journeys have been logged and analysed on its dedicated website, saving more than 3.99 million kg of CO2.