Light Commercial Vehicle Driver Behaviour Proof of Concept

Light Commercial Vehicle Driver Behaviour Proof of Concept

Branches will wish to note that over the last two years, an agreed trial has been conducted in the North West that was being overseen by Bill Steel to identify if the fitting of vehicle in-cab technology can assist in significant fuel savings by influencing/changing driver behaviours /driving style. At that time the West Region had secured central funding to fit this hardware into an agreed mix of different size and types of vehicles dependant on the type of operation (collection, delivery, rural etc).

Due to in-cab technology the only vehicles used were Transit TDCI and Vauxhall Combo. There was zero impact on the operation. The results from that trial were significant and far exceeded the 5% success factor that was anticipated. Eleven Delivery Offices were included in the original trial, and Ashwood’s who provided the “Lightfoot Technology” extended the equipment to a further 120 Royal Mail vehicles out of operational hours in order to minimise vehicle downtime.

Subsequently the provision of the technology was put out to competitive tender and a company called Trimble became the successful supplier, therefore a proposed proof of concept now needs to be carried out to understand if similar levels of success can be achieved with the new supplier’s hardware. We have agreed to conduct this in six Delivery Offices across the East, North and West regions under similar conditions to that of the previous Ashwood Lightfoot trial in the North West. The Delivery Offices agreed are Derby, Chesterfield, Leeds, Worksop, Kidderminster and Knutsford.

Branches will note that the timelines indicate that Installation will commence as from Monday the 6th July 2015. This is to allow the installation of the technology in advance of the proof of concept trial commencing. In recognition of this Royal Mail have provided us with written confirmation that whilst hardware installations at the six proposed sites will go ahead as planned, they will not commence with the trial or turn on any of the functionality until the Postal Executive has endorsed the trial which they did on the 7th July 2015.

The trial will run until the 21st August 2015 with a review of the success criteria taking place later the following week.

There is no requirement to associate the driver with the vehicle and data gathered during the trial will be not be used to initiate or support conduct charges or allegations. Additionally there will be no changes to drivers’ duties, earnings or attendance times with the anticipation that driver safety could potentially be increased by a change in driver style.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 300

Email address: hnutley@cwu.org or Mstewart@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

 

Bob Gibson

CWU Assistant Secretary