Light Commercial Vehicle Driver Behaviour Proof of Concept

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Letter to Branches





To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague,

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

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Light Commercial Vehicle Driver Behaviour Proof of Concept
Terms of Reference

Background
A trial has been underway on 120 Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) in the West region using driver behaviour technology and a product known as Ashwood Lightfoot. The purpose of this trial was to identify if fitting of vehicle in-cab technology can assist in significant fuel savings by further influencing / changing driver behaviours / driving style and to further identify if this driving style change has the potential to further reduce road traffic collisions in line with the zero accident programme.
This technology provides real-time feedback to the driver in the form of warning lights and sounds which give the driver immediate notification when set parameters are exceeded. Therefore the system provides real time coaching to the driver. The trial is showing positive results and RMG would like to explore the fitment of such technology across a wider range of LCVs (approx. 13,000).
A competitive tender has been completed and the successful supplier was not the same supplier as the current trial, therefore, it has been proposed that a short ‘proof of concept’ trial be carried out with the successful company’s hardware to ensure that similar levels of benefits can be achieved.
Proposed Trial
The proposal is to install the hardware onto 101 vehicles in 6 offices. The plan is for the following criteria to be met within the trial:
A mix of different ages of vehicle
A mix of rural, town and city locations, across 3 regions
A mix of different vehicle makes and models to be captured.
National Fleet Engineering will again oversee all vehicle technical fitment / changes and assess the potential for the equipment to be fitted by Royal Mail Fleet Technicians. In order to gauge the success of the file the hardware will be installed into the vehicles and initially the feedback lights will be inactive. There will then follow a two week ‘blind trial’ during which data will be collected by the hardware without any feedback being given to the drivers. This data will act as a baseline. Following the two week period the real time feedback will be activated and the data will be monitored regularly. Before the system is ‘activated’ all sites and drivers will receive a face to face briefing. Data collected will be used to identify fuel savings potential and impact on RTA reduction. Outputs may be used to support and coach derivers on ECO driving and safe driving techniques.
The monitoring will be on a vehicle basis only and there is no requirement to associate the driver with the vehicle. No data gathered during the trial can or will be used to initiate or support misconduct charges or allegations against individual drivers.
There will be no changes to driver’s duties, earnings or attendance times.
There will be no expected Health & Safety issues, or changes to SSOW. It is the hope that driver safety could potentially be increased by a change of driver style.
The operational impact of the trial should be zero, all vehicles will be fitted with equipment out of operational hours to minimise vehicle downtime.
It is proposed that vehicles will be installed as follows:
Region
Office
Vehicles
EAST
DERBY DO
40
NORTH
CHESTERFIELD DO
8
NORTH
LEEDS CITY DO
10
NORTH
WORKSOP DO
12
WEST
KIDDERMINSTER DO
24
WEST
KNUTSFORD DO
7


101


Objectives
1. Install the Trimble hardware on 101 x light commercial vehicles.
2. Obtain accurate baseline data for a period of two weeks (real-time feedback disabled).
3. Deliver training to affected drivers on how the system works.
4. Activate the driver behaviour feedback.
5. Joint review of the data on a weekly basis to monitor progress. The review of this data will be shared with the CWU.
6. Success of the trial would be calculated in fuel savings – having to achieve a MPG improvement of at least 10%
Timelines
Installations – W/C 6th July 2015
Blind trials to commence – W/C 13th July 2015
Switch on of functionality – W/C 27thJuly 2015
Trial completed – 21st August 2015
Review meeting – W/C 24th August 2015



Bob Gibson Sarah Walker
Communication Workers Union Royal Mail Group