CIA takes the high ground on safe driving
Getting behind the wheel of a car is the one of the riskiest things most people do every day. And most at risk are business drivers. Statistics show that a thousand business drivers are killed in road traffic accidents every year, and collision rates are 30-40% higher for commercial drivers than for private motorists.
Christie Intruder Alarms Ltd (CIA) in Waterlooville has a 100-strong fleet of vehicles and their trademark red vehicles with the distinctive ‘running man’ logo are a familiar sight on roads throughout the South.
“As a company, we take our responsibilities very seriously,” says Andy Jenkins, CIA’s Fleet Manager, “I needed to know we’d done all we could to make sure that our guys were safe and also that they were responsible road users.”
So when Portsmouth City Council offered CIA a Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) grant to install Lightfoot – in-car driving technology that encourages safe driving – they jumped at the chance.
“Lightfoot,” Andy says, “is like having a driver training professional sitting next to you every second of the journey, encouraging good driving habits and making sure that there is no backsliding.”
From the reports generated by the Lightfoot software, Andy keeps an eye on each driver’s performance and the company’s Driver of the Month scheme rewards those who are doing well. Engineer driver Dave Hedges says, “I clock up an average of 34K miles a year so it’s good to know that CIA cares about safety, and there’s friendly competition between us to become Driver of the Month, it’s a bit of fun.”
Already widely used by the likes of councils, the police, the NHS, universities and multi-nationals, CIA is the first independent medium sized company to take the Lightfoot challenge. Mark Roberts from Ashwoods who supplies Lightfoot says, “It is encouraging to see Portsmouth City Council get behind a new initiative like this which supports safer, sustainable and more efficient driving. In fact, they are the only council that we are aware of who were progressive enough to look at driver behaviour when they applied for their LSTF funding so we are extremely pleased to be working with them and CIA on this project.
“For us, it’s win-win,” says CIA’s Andy. “Responsible driving not only lowers the risk of accidents, it also reduces CO2 emissions which as we all know is great for the environment, but ultimately our customers benefit because the savings we make on fuel means we can keep our prices down.”
