Ford points the way to huge van downtime savings

Yet its new survey found that 25% of fleet managers and 46% of van drivers are not monitoring vehicle health data daily to schedule urgent service work.

Small business drivers were least likely to harness vehicle data effectively, with 10% reporting they knew ‘a lot’ about how data could help save time and money, compared to 32% of van drivers as a whole, and 57% of fleet managers.

Hans Schep, general manager at Ford Pro Europe, said: “Connected vehicle data is the lifeblood of commercial vehicle efficiency. Like a fitness tracker for your fleet, it helps optimise vehicle and driver performance by providing both real-time updates and cumulative data for deeper analysis and richer insight.

“This new research has shown that there is a gap which separates the savviest in our business, who have seized the opportunity presented by connected data to save time and money, from those still relying exclusively on traditional management tools and not unlocking its potential. As an industry, we need to close this gap – and fast.”

The survey asked 3,000 van drivers and 150 fleet managers across Europe and the US about data and telematics. 97% of fleet managers and 94% of van drivers had concerns over the privacy of their data, although the study found that commercial telematics systems were more likely to be trusted than mobile phones, passenger cars and household devices.

Schep said: “We’re empowering vehicle operators with the tools they need to harness the power of data for their businesses. Our mission is to make running your commercial vehicles as easy and hassle-free as possible by putting everything our customers need in one place.

“The Ford Pro Intelligence platform leverages data from vehicle components, sensors, dashcams and electric vehicle chargers to deliver a comprehensive overview of a fleet’s operations – at a glance, round the clock."