America's private truck fleets are increasingly employing telematics to help drive down the cost of doing business, according to industry leaders responding to a survey commissioned by PHH FirstFleet. In addition, truck fleets are "going green" in order to implement environmentally sound practices. The survey of private truck fleets was conducted online and during PHH FirstFleet's recent Fleet Management Conference attended by senior fleet operations managers for Fortune 500-level companies. In the PHH FirstFleet survey,
  • 60 percent of the fleet managers said they are adopting telematics devices to track equipment status and driver activities.
  • 79 percent said they were installing the technology in 75 to 100 percent of their fleet.
  • 42 percent reported the main reason for installation was to track delivery times.
  • 38 percent thought their drivers would perform better and drive more responsibly if they knew they were being monitored.
  • Equipment endurance (18 percent) and security (20 percent) were lower on the scale as motivation to install telematics
  • 83 percent said that telematics helped improve performance
  • Between 50 and 54 percent said they would probably install or expand a telematics program in their fleets this year, including the adoption of related policies and procedures on the data collected. When asked about the reliability of ease of implementation of telematics devices,
  • 33 percent saying it was easy.
  • 25 percent suggested it was difficult.
  • 15 percent indicated their drivers had technical problems operating them. "Going Green" turned out to be popular at the fleet managers' companies:
  • 65 percent report that some type of environmentally conscious initiative had been put in place.
  • 59 percent use outside contractors to conduct recycling programs and handle waste products, but investments have not been big and programs remain very low key.
  • 67 percent report plans for additional investments this year. Fleet managers' other top concerns included using data to improve fleet performance, escalating operating costs including fuel management, and the fast-shrinking pool of qualified truck drivers. For a full summary of the PHH FirstFleet National Survey of Fleet Managers, visit http://www.phhfirstfleet.com.
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