Why Fleets Need to Wrap Operations in an ‘App, Track, Protect’ Approach

Vehicle security and technology specialist, HH Driveright, is driving home a message that it says fleet manager’s need to adopt, if they want to benefit from a holistic protection of both their livelihoods and their managers and drivers’ liberties.

“App, Track, Protect should be every fleet’s ‘motto’, within an ever-increasing regulatory world for fleet operators, in which there is a growing number of penalties that a fleet can face,” says HH Driveright’s managing director, Rebecca Hall. 

“With greater theft risks, due to economic uncertainty, plus the ramifications of a Highway Code that puts more responsibility for the safety of other road users on the shoulders of drivers of HGVs and LGVs, a fleet needs to cover all three of the aspects represented by App, Track and Protect.”

Hall explains that the App stage is that of pre-use and ongoing compliance with the legal requirements of roadworthiness and right to drive.  To cover this base, HH Driveright’s fleet clients can use an App that takes on board much of the legwork within these areas, by creating prompts, forms and documentation uploads that help a fleet stay compliant.

The App walks drivers through the daily walkaround check that is a legal requirement for any driver using a commercial vehicle and ensures their observations are logged and able to be acted upon by the fleet manager.  The same is true of checks conducted at other times, as part of an ongoing maintenance regime.  

The App can provide live updates of defects, whilst a vehicle is out on the road, facilitating a speedier response to rectification, to keep the vehicle roadworthy, or an instant decision to take a vehicle off the road, according to the issue.

“The App phase of fleet management is very much about not just doing what the law expects of a fleet operation but being in a position to prove that everything has been done to the letter,” explains Rebecca Hall. “It is about carrying out all required checks on both vehicle health and driver licenses, medical records and rights to work but then ensuring that the completion of a check is documented, with a signature included, to demonstrate that an individual has taken responsibility for their part of the process.  

“It is about easy collection of hard evidence, using sophisticated technological tools that do not cost the earth.  Live and archived evidence can be called upon, should a fleet need to mount a defence, having been involved in an incident, or cited in another form of legal case.”  

Details required for insurance claims reporting can be done from the roadside with Hall’s App, keeping insurance costs as low as possible, by speeding up first notification of loss (FNOL) and ensuring that the fleet’s insurer can keep control of claims costs.

Once the App phase of fleet operations has been covered, a fleet manager should focus on the Track phase that sits alongside it.  This is about trouble-shooting and thinking ahead.  It involves spotting potential issues before they escalate and become incidents or insurance claims, or lead to defects developing on a vehicle, way before might be anticipated.  

This phase involves monitoring driver behaviours.  For HH Driveright clients, it is a phase in which data is collected by the vehicle’s ‘silent witness’ – an advanced HH Driveright GM 2020 device – and then analysed through an intuitive dashboard.

This Track phase, for any fleet manager, should be identifying which drivers are most likely to require training but also pinpointing where weaknesses lie.  This allows such weaknesses to be addressed before they become an incident or claims statistic.  

At the same time, a fleet manager should be able to utilise the intelligence to help save costs.  By eradicating bad habits such as harsh braking and cornering, they can save fuel.  The same is true if they stop drivers from idling when stationary.  Creating better drivers means less likelihood of claims, which means lower premiums.  With the HH Driveright solution, they can also collate evidence to demonstrate their CO2 footprint – something that can help attract more environmentally conscious clients.

Having covered two of the three main areas of fleet management, just Protect is left.  This is a must-have aspect for any fleet, given the volume of vehicle, goods and tools’ thefts in the UK.  

Whilst many manufacturers will charge a huge premium for the privilege of owning a device that will protect a vehicle, HH Driveright adopts the realist’s viewpoint – the one that is informed by the management team having day-to-day and many years’ experience in running and operating their own fleet.

The reality check is one that relates to cost, with each device that normally fulfils the Protect brief within the market typically costing hundreds of pounds and requiring payment upfront.  The impact of fitting every vehicle with a new device is one that constitutes too great a hit on most operators’ cash flows to actually happen.  Consequently, a piecemeal approach to vehicle protection can take place, with perhaps just newer vans protected, leaving others vulnerable, purely because the cost of protection is too great.

HH Driveright set out to smash this model of vehicle protection last year, creating an S7 GPS tracker that is top-drawer but without the typical industry price-tag.  Its S7 GPS Tracker has Thatcham approval but can be fitted at a fraction of the cost of comparable devices.  

The cost saving on other devices has two elements.  Firstly, the overall cost of the device is far lower than that of other trackers.  Secondly, only a small down-payment is required and the fleet manager can then fit the device and pay for it, over a period of time, through a monthly subscription payment. Once all the payments are tallied, the saving to the fleet can be a phenomenal one.  Meanwhile, cash continues to sit in the bank account, protecting this business asset.

The S7 tracker will both track a stolen vehicle but also issue security alerts, ahead of a theft, to the owner, via a dedicated call centre service.  Alerts could relate to aspects of vehicle security such as battery tampering, power disconnect and vehicle towing.  Alerts are issued in real-time, enabling the vehicle owner or driver to assess what is happening to their vehicle and seek help, if necessary, by contacting the police.  Alternatively, the call centre team can get help out to the owner’s location.

Should a fleet manager also wish to add vehicle immobilisation to the tracker, they can do so, with this addition of manual immobilisation again coming a cost significantly lower than that of the few other devices that can offer this extra layer of protection.

This highlights a key aspect to the HH Driveright App, Track, Protect approach, which is that the whole of this holistic protection can be built around an individual business, with bespoke solutions produced by the HH Driveright team.

“We like to think of this as the ultimate wraparound for a fleet,” says Rebecca Hall, “but rather than being a luxury, the tightening legal framework is making it more of a necessity. 

“Too many fleets are buying in a bit of protection in one part of the App, Track, Protect sequence here, and then another bit there.  Often, these things sit in silos and do not talk to each other or support each other.  Then we have the issue relating to off-the-shelf solutions that are leaving gaps in compliance or tracking, because all operations are unique and one size does not fit all.

“This is why we have developed a completely different approach, having viewed how commercial fleets are increasingly being scrutinised or targeted.  If a client comes to us, we will analyse their operation, assess how they work and where the risk loopholes are, whether that is in terms of compliance, insurance premiums and soaring costs, or theft.  From there, we can go away and create bespoke features, which integrate with our core solutions, but which really close the risk gaps for that individual client.

“App, Track and Protect should not be a static trio of processes but a living strategy for keeping a fleet on the road.  With our wraparound service and realistic price-points, we can offer any fleet the sort of totally personalised protection that is impossible to find off-the-shelf elsewhere. Every fleet business is different and the technology wraparound should reflect that but also make life as simple as possible for those running the operation, by dovetailing with the way they do things and the elements they wish to report on.”

Whatever approach a fleet takes, thinking ‘App, Track, Protect’ is essential in a world in which prosecution and prison sentences are now replacing fines as the preferred method of punishment, as evidenced in the relatively new charge of ‘Causing Serious Injury by Careless or Inconsiderate Driving’.

With lawyers and juries now involved more than ever, there is a greater need to call upon solid evidence of roadworthiness and driving compliance but also to try to prevent a case ever reaching a court in the first place.  

Having the means to also ensure that such good practice can continue to be shown, by keeping hold of an asset, rather than losing it to opportunist thieves or organised criminal gangs, is also vital.  

To talk through a bespoke programme of App, Track and Protect for your fleet, or the reasons why particular solutions are so necessary, talk to the team at HH Driveright, on 01937 830144.    

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Editors notes

HH Driveright is an award-winning vehicle security and compliance specialist, with exciting and advanced solutions for van drivers, caravan owners and car drivers wishing to protect their vehicles, livelihood and reputation. It won the 'Keeping Your Show on the Road' award at the 2022 Logistics UK Van Awards and is continually finding ways to achieve that goal, to keep vehicles and their drivers or owners safe and protected.