Category: Press Release

A new artificial intelligence (AI) tool soon to be introduced by FleetCheck is enabling fleet managers to scan invoices into its software in a matter of seconds.

Peter Golding, managing director at the fleet software specialist, said that the advance, which is currently undergoing customer testing, would mean thousands of hours saved every year across the company’s user base.

“When we survey our users, one of the things they find really time-consuming is manually keying all of the information on an invoice into the system. The new tool means it’s as fast as scanning the invoice, turning a job that would normally take an average of five minutes into one that can be completed in under 10 seconds.

“All of the important details on the document are automatically recognised from the image and populated into our system. They can then be passed directly to your company’s accounting software in the appropriate format.

“We already have several fleets trialling the tool and the feedback we have received from them is extremely positive. It’s a really good use of AI and an example of what it can be used to achieve for fleet managers.”

The new tool follows FleetCheck’s first use of AI in its Licence Assured licence checking product. Introduced in September, it allows users to upload an image of a driving licence, with its details automatically populated into the system.

Peter continued: “We learnt a lot about AI from creating the licence scanning tool, especially the fact that employing the technology is not necessarily easy. To get this to a stage where the data can be accurately extracted has taken quite some time.

“However, we’re now at a point where we can reliably examine images and identify the relevant data, and we’ll be applying the same principle not just to invoice scanning but to other documents in the coming months and years. It’s a question of identifying which tasks are most suited to AI and deliver maximum benefits for users.”

He added that FleetCheck’s view of AI was very much that it shouldn’t be seen as a means to reduce the number of people carrying out administrative fleet tasks but instead should free them to spend more time looking at data and making strategic decisions.

“The time saved by the new invoice and licence scanning tools should be used by fleet managers to look at their operations in more detail, identifying areas where improvements can be made, whether that means operational benefits, cost savings or improved safety. For us, that is what AI is all about.”

The Reader Recommended programme reveals the brands that companies running fleets trust most to deliver an outstanding service. Fleet News conducts research among fleet decision-makers, who are asked to nominate their best suppliers, but also their worst. The research is analysed and the top performing company is granted ‘Reader Recommended’ status for a full year. For 2024, FleetCheck is the ONLY Fleet Management Software Solution that has been selected.

At FleetCheck, we believe that everybody has the right to be safe on the roads. Our business was created so that we could improve the safety of drivers, vehicles, and the public by providing education and solutions that lowers the cost of compliance for fleet managers.

We are working towards a time when everyone responsible for vehicle fleets is using appropriate tools and solutions. Our part in achieving this is to help remove barriers to fleet management by providing simple, easy to use and cost-effective solutions.

When FleetCheck started in 2006, our motivation was to make life easier for the thousands of people responsible for company vehicles. Many of them didn’t even think of themselves as fleet managers because managing the vehicles wasn’t the only role they had in the business and they were simply trying to do the best they could, with limited resources and experience.

Spreadsheets are normally the go-to-tool for those managing vehicles and their drivers. There’s no extra cost and little training is needed as it’s simple and intuitive to use. However, putting more data into ever-more complex spreadsheets can lead to a variety of data problems that are difficult to undo. Lost data, inconsistent formatting and numbers that don’t add up can be difficult to troubleshoot. Key dates such as MOT, road tax, servicing and driver checks can all be missed or worse, accidentally deleted.

Chasing paperwork from drivers for daily vehicle checks is another common bugbear. It’s hugely time-consuming, some records don’t get filed, they must be sorted manually to identify faults, and further time-consuming processes are required to manage repairs.

These problems are preventable with a fleet management software solution. It provides a secure online platform for multiple users, unlimited document storage for any vehicle and driver related files and documents and handles your fleet tasks proactively. FleetCheck can also integrate with other data, such as your fuel card information or telematics system, and provides a comprehensive reporting facility for your fleet activities.

At FleetCheck, we work with businesses as a trusted partner. By eliminating paper-chasing and manual processing, our software helps our clients save time, save money, and enjoy peace of mind that their compliance requirements are being met.

Our clients trust us to deliver excellence. We know that we make a difference when we come together to solve problems and develop ever more effective solutions, increasing road safety for everyone.

Go paperless with FleetCheck – fleet management software you can trust

The extension to full expensing announced in last month’s Autumn Statement provides fleets with a perfect opportunity to replace “tired” vans that have been continually extended following the pandemic, says FleetCheck.

Moves by the Chancellor mean fleets that outright purchase vans, either from cash or using hire purchase, could save substantially on their corporation tax bills.

Peter Golding, managing director, said: “The government made two key announcements to encourage business spending. The Annual Investment Allowance was extended, meaning you can claim 100% tax relief on the purchase of second hand and new plant and machinery – including vans – up to £1 million per annum.

“An accompanying extension to full expensing gives an uncapped amount of tax relief on plant and machinery expenditure, so long as it is brand new and unused, with vans again qualifying. What this means is that a fleet that spends, for example, £400,000 on vans should receive £100,000 off a corporation tax bill for a company paying at the current 25% rate.”

Peter said that many fleets were now operating vans that had been extended several times and should ideally be replaced.

“As is widely known, the pandemic threw van replacement cycles into disarray. Fleets that operated vehicles for perhaps typically five years now often have eight-year-old examples on their books. These vans are tired, often fail, and are expensive to keep on the road. There are even sometimes questions over their safety.

“What the new government initiatives provide is an ideal moment to replace these vehicles. Supply of vans, which has been a major disincentive, has improved and both diesel and electric models are available in reasonable timescales.

“The financial and operational imperatives for replacement have aligned in our view, and fleets should give serious consideration to taking advantage of the new rules.”

Before buying any vehicles however, Peter said that businesses should seek professional advice to ensure they qualify to take advantage of these opportunities.

“All financial circumstances are individual and fleets should look to in-house expertise or, where this is not available, speak to their accountant. We would also be happy to help.”

Driving style is potentially having a greater impact on tyre wear for electric vehicles (EVs) than their petrol and diesel equivalents, FleetCheck is suggesting.

The fleet software specialist says the additional weight and performance of EVs means that employees who drive company cars more aggressively are getting through sets of tyres much more quickly than would be expected.

Peter Golding, managing director, said: “The data behind this is still relatively scarce and much of what we are hearing is anecdotal but it seems as through the range of wear you can expect from different driving styles is wider for EVs than you would see for petrol or diesel, with drivers having an outsized effect.

“The reasons for this are, it appears, the facts that EVs tend to be much heavier, model-for-model than internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and often offer faster acceleration. This means that a driver who accelerates sharply and brakes hard puts a lot of pressure on their tyres and can get through a set very quickly indeed.

“At the other end of the scale, it looks as though EV drivers who are much more circumspect in their approach are achieving much lower tyre wear, perhaps not as good as the average for petrol and diesel vehicles, but much closer to being acceptable for fleets.”

Peter added that the potential rate of wear made it arguably much more important to monitor behaviour of drivers using EVs.

“If EV drivers are, for example, adding an extra set of tyres for an average four year car life cycle, this will have a big impact on fleet service and maintenance costs and fleets should be taking proactive action. Telematics and connected car technology can provide a lot of useful information about individual driving styles and this can be imported into software such as ours for analysis, linking this directly to the rate of tyre replacement.

“Of course, there are other potential considerations. A vehicle used largely on the motorway will get through tyres at a much slower rate than one that is used mainly on country B roads, but it is still very much possible to see the impact of driving style in the data.

“It appears there is a strong incentive to introduce driver training and other measures to ensure that EV drivers adopt a more conservative style on the road, something that is proven to work in the vast majority of cases. Encouraging drivers to slow down and be more careful will also have a positive impact on accident rates.”

A new strategic partnership announced this week between FleetCheck and VDO will bring a wide range of tachograph benefits to commercial vehicle operators.

Integration of VDO’s tachograph analysis into FleetCheck’s platform will provide customers of both companies with a seamless and simplified approach to Driver Hours compliance, delivering a reduced administrative burden and enhanced overall fleet performance.

Ben Klarich, head of new business at VDO UK, said: “We are thrilled to collaborate with FleetCheck to bring our expertise in tachograph analysis to their comprehensive fleet management solutions. This partnership represents a significant step forward in providing businesses with the tools they need in crucial areas of vehicle operations.”

“We’re very pleased to be working with FleetCheck in this way. The new partnership represents a significant step forward in compliance that maximises the benefits of our tachograph expertise and the capabilities of FleetCheck’s software.”

Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck added: “VDO are the tachograph provider of choice for many of our customers and this partnership will provide important advantages to them when it comes to safety and ease of use, as well as opening up new commercial possibilities for both companies.”

He added that both FleetCheck and VDO were also becoming resellers of each other’s products to their respective customer bases.

“There’s an obvious synergy between FleetCheck and VDO in terms of our offerings to commercial vehicle operators and, even before the partnership was formally announced, cross-sales have started taking place to fleets who want to take advantage of the benefits of the integration. There is clear potential here.”

As well as bringing data from VDO tachograph analysis into the FleetCheck platform, plans are in place to also create a combined Earned Recognition dashboard using VDO data showing key performance indicators for both maintenance and Driver Hours.

Peter said: “There are several ways that we could develop the partnership in the future and creating deeper integrations of this type is one that will bring further, innovative benefits to both sets of customers.”

Based in Kemble, Gloucestershire, and started in 2006, FleetCheck is one of the UK’s leading fleet software and management specialists, with a customer base of almost 2,000 customers operating more than 220,000 vehicles and assets.

Established in 1929 and headquartered in Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany, VDO is a premier global provider in innovative solutions, currently serving over 20,000 customers operating more than 200,000 tachograph equipped vehicles in Europe.

Fleets need to check new entrant Chinese manufacturers for credibility before committing to buying their vehicles, FleetCheck is warning.

Peter Golding, managing director at the fleet management software company, said that electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers from China were undergoing a period of rapid consolidation, and that some were likely to export simply as a survival strategy.

“The Financial Times recently reported that the number of Chinese EV makers is likely to fall from around 50 to 12 in the next decade. That’s a big change in a growing market and it means fleets can’t really afford to treat all of the new entrants as equal.

“Exporting to markets like the US and Europe is one obvious way for these manufacturers to attempt to survive in the kind of disruptive situation that China is seeing, and it seems credible to suggest that not all of the car and van makers who come here will end up staying.

“The potential danger for fleets is that they will end up owning or operating EVs from a manufacturer that comes to the UK and then leaves, with all of the obvious difficulties that could entail.”

Peter said that it was simply a case of fleets doing their homework on potential suppliers before committing to add vehicles to their fleet.

“It is clear that most of the new entrants that we have seen so far are credible. BYD, for example, is the fourth biggest EV manufacturer in the world while MG is a long-established market presence in the UK in its Chinese iteration.

“Also, it is important to underline that the quality of most of the Chinese product that is arriving here appears to be competitive, at least, and well-priced. The comments I’m making are not intended to put people off these cars and vans but simply to tread carefully in light of what is likely to be a fluid situation over the next few years.”

Peter added that it was difficult to predict the eventual role of the new entrants in the fleet sector but that some parallels could be drawn from the arrival of Japanese manufacturers in the 1970s and, more recently, Korean car makers starting in the 1980s and 1990s.

“What we are most likely to see is an initial situation where products are designed to be competitive and well-priced above all else and then, over several years, the Chinese manufacturers with the biggest market presence will start to compete directly with the established market leaders and move their prices in line. However, this is a process that could take some time.

“The big unknown here is the effect of trade barriers, should the EU and other countries choose to adopt them. Certainly, there is a strong argument that the Chinese market has been unfairly subsidised in competition terms, and it is possible that stringent tariffs will be added that affect the speed of market penetration.”

New app tools designed to enable easy checking of abnormal loads have been immediately adopted by a quarter of the UK’s police forces.

The enhancements – made to the FleetCheck Driver app – are already in use by Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG), Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Gwent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Staffordshire forces.

The tools are based on new checksheets created by the fleet software specialist working in conjunction with National Highways and CMPG, which have also been added to the College of Policing web site. These have been built into the Driver app, with the two main documents covering instances when the police stop a vehicle with an abnormal load or are escorting one through their area. These exist in variants for both UK registered and foreign vehicles.

A driver-facing version of the checksheets has also been incorporated into the app for private companies that specialise in escorting abnormal loads in order to self-audit compliance.

Barrie Wilson CMILT, commercial fleet consultant at FleetCheck, said: “CMPG have been running an initiative called Operation Nightstare that is designed to clamp down on illegal abnormal loads and has found a very high level of non-compliance. The work we have been doing with them and with National Highways is very much designed to dovetail with this campaign, helping operators to meet their legal obligations and the police to inspect vehicles.

“The checksheets have been added free to all commercial users of our Driver app – in use by fleets totalling 220,000 vehicles – and mean that legal requirements can be checked quickly and easily using any smartphone or tablet in a structured manner, helping both compliance and enforcement.”

Marie Biddulph, National Highways assistant regional safety co-ordinator for the Midlands, said “Drivers carrying abnormal loads have a huge responsibility, and it is vital for the safety of all road users that they comply with the appropriate regulations. The work we have been doing with CMPG and FleetCheck will help to ensure that more meet their legal responsibilities.”

The FleetCheck Driver app, introduced in 2017 and regularly enhanced ever since, is designed to streamline legally-required vehicle inspection processes for fleets, removing the need for manual paper trails while also providing additional features such as fit to drive declarations, fuel purchase details and incident reporting.

An abnormal load is a vehicle that has a weight of more than 44,000kg, an axle load of more than 10,000kg for a single non-driving axle and 11,500kg for a single driving axle, a width of more than 2.9 metres, or a total length of more than 18.65 metres.

FleetCheck is debuting the first ever use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its software products with new technology designed to make driver licence checking faster, easier and more accurate.

The enhancement, to the company’s Licence Assured, allows users to upload an image of a driving licence – which can be as simple as a picture taken on smartphone – and its details will be automatically populated into the system.

Peter Golding, managing director, said that the tool would allow slicker and more precise data entry for fleets wanting to add new drivers to the system in order to undertake licence checking for essential health and safety purposes.

“In using AI for the first time within our fleet software, we decided to take a proof of concept approach, automating a single task that we know takes time for our users and making it faster, easier and more accurate.

“Now that we know the core idea works, we will be able to use the same principle across a wide range of other processes within our product range, especially when it comes to sorting documentation and collecting data. It perhaps looks like quite a small step forward but the potential applications are extensive, we believe.”

He added that the idea behind the technology was straightforward but the coding required had taken a substantial amount of effort.

“What we have learnt about AI in creating this new tool is that employing the technology is not necessarily easy. To get this to a stage where the data is reliably and accurately extracted has taken quite some time. It is not something that we expect to see be rapidly adopted across the fleet software sector for this reason.”

Licence Assured is FleetCheck’s driving licence checking product, designed to enable fleets to quickly and easily look at the vehicles which employees are eligible to drive and to check their licence for points and convictions. Checks can be automated to happen at predetermined intervals and based on individual risk profiles, with data presented in a dashboard format.

FleetCheck are exhibiting at Fleet and Mobility Live at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, on October 3-4, on stand P75.

Fleet purchasing of supermarket petrol and diesel has fallen by around 15% on last year, FleetCheck is reporting using data from across its user base.

The fleet management software specialist says that the trend has emerged following widespread accusations that supermarkets have profiteered on fuel following the Ukraine war, with the government discussing making the publication of live fuel prices compulsory in response to the controversy.

Peter Golding, managing director, said: “There has been much discussion about the pricing of supermarket fuel over the last year or more, with the RAC reporting as recently as last month that their margins had doubled and they were failing to pass on reductions in wholesale prices at the pumps.

“Fleets are clearly cognisant of these developments and they appear to have had a direct impact on fuel purchasing among our users. A 15% change such as this over the course of a year is a pretty significant shift and shows that businesses are skewing their petrol and diesel purchasing towards other sources.

“We wouldn’t claim that this is entirely representative of something that is happening across the entire industry but from the fuel data we hold, there is clearly a trend underway.”

FleetCheck’s data is based on almost 430,000 transactions through its software during 2022 and 2023.

Peter added: “The ability to track fuel spending using data from fuel cards is one of the most important uses of fleet management software and many of our users regularly examine the outlets that their drivers use and steer them towards cheaper options.

“Since fuel prices began to rise sharply at the start of the Ukraine war, we have seen a more proactive approach as fleets have attempted to use our reporting to minimise the impact of those cost increases. It very much appears as though the move away from supermarkets is a direct result of these strategies.”

Car and van lease contracts and warranties should be moved to align with the new real world fleet replacement cycles that have emerged following the pandemic, FleetCheck is advising.

The fleet management software specialist says that cars across its user base are now generally being operated for close to five years compared to 3-4 previously, while vans have moved from around 5-6 to up to 7-8.

Peter Golding, managing director, said: “Post-Covid shortages have meant most fleets have been forced to operate vehicles for much longer than originally planned and, in the process, have learnt that they can be safely and economically be operated on longer cycles.

‘If you add to this the higher initial prices and uncertain residual values of electric vehicles pushing up costs, then there is considerable overall impetus to lengthen replacement cycles permanently, and this is something that we are starting to see happen on a formal basis with many companies now leasing for longer periods as a matter of course.”

The main issue around these lengthening cycles was the need for businesses to upgrade their service, maintenance and repair (SMR) arrangements, he added, and there was a strong argument that longer manufacturer warranties should form part of this move.

“While modern cars and vans tolerate age and mileage much, much better than in the past, they do inevitably need higher levels of maintenance over time, especially when it comes to the kind of unexpected breakdowns that cause the most disruption.

“What we feel really needs to happen now is for manufacturer warranties to align to these new cycles. Obviously, some do offer warranties ranging from 5-7 years but there are several major fleet car and van makers who only provide three and, to our mind, this is inadequate for modern fleets and the lengths of time for which they now operate vehicles.

“Of course, extended warranties mean manufacturers are likely to keep SMR within franchise dealer networks for longer, so this is something that potentially makes sense for all.”

Peter added that there were human resources considerations around longer replacement cycles but that, from the feedback it was receiving, objections from drivers were limited.

“To some extent, this is sector-dependent but in many industries, most car drivers are accepting five-year replacement cycles. Modern vehicles don’t just last for longer mechanically and electrically, but they are also better cosmetically over time. Employees are content to keep a car for longer if it stays looking good.”