John Lewis Partnership hopes to save one million litres of fuel a year after fitting the Daimler FleetBoard telematics system to the entire heavy truck fleet for John Lewis and Waitrose.
It is looking for a four per cent cut in vehicle emissions, representing 3,000 tonnes of CO2, through a reduction in annual fuel consumption of one million litres or more. It would also save more than £1m a year in fuel costs.
The John Lewis Partnership runs some 430 trucks with gross weights of 18 tonnes and above, the majority of them four by two tractor units plated for operation at 31 tonnes gcw.
Kuehne + Nagel also operates 70 units on behalf of John Lewis Distribution which are also being fitted with FleetBoard. Although several truck-makers are represented on the fleet, including Mercedes-Benz, the majority of the John Lewis Partnership’s vehicles are DAFs.
The FleetBoard system is compatible with most vehicle makes and models. It analyses driver performance against a range of criteria and highlights areas such as revving, braking, idling, speeding and “green band” driving where improvements can be made to realise environmental and cost benefits.
Ray Collington, fleet engineer for the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Our target is to achieve an absolute reduction in operational CO2 emissions by 2020/21 of 15 per cent, against a baseline of 2010/11. On the evidence of the trials we’ve undertaken, we’re hoping that FleetBoard will help us achieve carbon savings of over four per cent from our fleet.”
The John Lewis Partnership also reckons that the system could result in significantly lower maintenance and repair costs, and reduce its accident rate.
