Driving and Fleet Efficiencies at Entegro

By Rob Ingham, Group Fleet & Facilities Manager

The movement of the fleet daily within Entegro is a critical factor to our success for our clients. Entegro’s lived ethos of “right first time – fit for purpose” is paramount to decisions made in an ever-changing climate of commercial vehicle availability.
 
It's easy for companies to look at a job and pick a vehicle without much consideration for the employee. At Entegro we invest in not only our safety culture but also the individual that is employed to conduct a variety of work and will spend 95% of their day on the road.
 
Here at Entegro we fully understand the risks associated with our drivers and negate as much risk as we can, 90% of incidents resulting in serious injury or fatalities are related to human distraction or error, mobile phones, fatigue, speed or being under the influence of drink or drugs. Education to our employees is critical whether they are fleet drivers or a passenger. Regular toolbox talks, fliers and site meetings take place giving all our staff education on risks, these have included:
 
 1.  Impact of Speed in an incident
 2.  Limitations on the vehicle they are driving
 3.  Types of roads and potential hazards
 4.  Summer Driving, Winter Driving
 5.  Mobile Phones & Smoking in vehicles

Entegro continues to educate all staff, if they are office based or out on the road, whether they are driving a company vehicle, hire car or their own vehicle the risk remains the same. With the introduction of driver behaviours modification, education, and continued training Entegro will strive for an average safety score of 98.
 
Effective management of the vehicle fleet will always bring value and efficiencies to any business the intelligent element is how we will use this data. With the current fluctuation of fuel costs, it is critical for every vehicle to be optimized as much as possible, therefore routing, loads, crews and job locations all need to be evaluated on a daily/weekly basis.  Entegro are currently upgrading the telematics due for completion during Q1 2023 which will provide information on the vehicle, and part of the analysis will include:
 
 -  Complete transparency on the vehicle usage
 -  Reduce vehicle downtime
 -  Vehicle Idling
 -  Fuel savings due to better routing where possible
 -  Improved SLA for our customer base
 -  Improvement of driver performance
 -  Maintenance forecasts
 -  Fault Diagnosis
 -  Peace of mind (the employees are safe)
 
The key part of the process is, of course, the employee, bringing in efficiencies doesn’t take away any safety factors for our employees, in fact, we are enhancing it.  
 
Electric vehicles continue to be high on the agenda with the ability for Entegro to reduce our carbon footprint with such investments. In 2022, Entegro shared the addition of the Peugeot 2008 Electric Vehicles to its fleet. In case you missed it, you can read about the news here.
 
An important decision when placing electric vehicles into your fleet is who will drive them, the type of work and the location of adequate charging points for the driver. It is well documented in regard to the saving to be made when we look at the Electric Vehicle, running costs, maintenance, emissions and lower car tax.
 
Moving into 2023, we look forward to seeing continued success and growth for the future of the Entegro Fleet.