Like every member of EMR's transport team, I am passionate about achieving the highest levels of safety, customer service and environmental sustainability on the road.
Meeting our ever-higher standards is an ongoing process that’s never complete. We are continually looking for any small-but-significant improvements our teams can make. If a driver can increase efficiency or safety by one percent every day – and then continue to build from there – we can ensure that EMR is operating in the manner that our customers expect.
Delivering these improvements means being able to measure accurately how our drivers are performing and how the tools they use are working to increase standards.
This is where telematics come in.
Telematics are already used by millions of drivers worldwide to reduce their insurance costs by recording and communicating best practice driving to insurers.
EMR’s use of telematics similarly allows our transport team to monitor the driving performance of every one of its fleet of vehicles, identifying over-revving, idling and harsh braking. All of these behaviours cause increased CO2 emissions and might lead to unsafe acts on the road.
It’s not just that EMR is always looking for marginal gains as it strives for excellence. New technologies and updates to regulations are also changing the nature of what ‘excellent’ means for our drivers.
For example, EMR is rolling out a new generation of cleaner Euro Six vehicles which cut the amount of exhaust emissions which our HGVs produce. This investment not only ensures that EMR meets our net-zero commitment but also allows us to operate within new inner city clean air zones. These are already in place in Bath and Birmingham and coming to other areas in the coming months.
These new vehicles also allow EMR to continue operating in central London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
By making effective use of telematics and upgrading to newer, more efficient vehicles, our drivers are actively participating in EMR’s journey to net-zero by 2040, as set out in our industry-leading sustainability strategy.
Alongside these environmental benefits, telematics also help EMR to maintain its reputation for on-road safety. The telematics data we capture will help our teams to obtain the voluntary Freight Operators Recognition Scheme (FORS) accreditation for safety.
As part of the FORS process, EMR has also invested in modern safety technology such as side vision cameras and Fresnel lenses to help protect other road users including cyclists.
Finally, telematics can help improve the level of customer service we provide. Our drivers have a particularly important role when it comes to service, as at the majority of our customer sites, our drivers will be the only EMR employee they see on a regular basis.
EMR has therefore developed its own planning system, called Ferian, which the transport team uses to plan drivers’ routes and to process customer bookings. We can also use this system to monitor performance and see when a job hasn’t been completed or when it’s late. If a job has been abandoned, we can see why and then liaise with the customer to improve our service in the future.
Of course, knowing more about our on-road transport only helps if it is used as a catalyst for change. As one of EMR’s Area Transport Managers, I see a lot of data come into the business, but what is important is that we have a team of dedicated driver trainers available to increase the quality of our driving wherever it is needed. These are the incremental, one percent improvements that help ensure our business is continually getting better.
At EMR, we aim to have the best safety, environmental and customer service standards in the industry. By using telematics in a sophisticated and reactive way, our dedicated teams of drivers are helping us to achieve this goal each and every day.
