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A new integration between fleet management software provider FleetCheck and tachograph market leader VDO will mean fleets can access all their compliance data “in one place”.

A VDO drop-down menu is being added to FleetCheck’s core commercial vehicle platform, allowing tachograph information to be accessed directly, alongside other essentials such as maintenance records and walkaround checks.

Stuart West, product and business development manager at VDO UK, said: “We first announced a strategic partnership with FleetCheck just over a year ago and have been working with them on this integration ever since.

“It’s not just a simple data import but means that using a single login, all your compliance information is available in one place – both gathered through our tachographs and FleetCheck’s software covering areas such as walkaround checks.

“It’ll deliver, for example, a seamless and simplified approach to Driver Hours compliance, with a reduced administrative burden and enhanced overall fleet performance, as well as making qualification for Earned Recognition much simpler.

“Working with FleetCheck is a very good cultural fit for us. They share our commitment to delivering products that are not just a box ticking compliance exercise but help to create a genuine safety culture for fleets.”

Peter Golding, managing director at FleetCheck, added that the integration was a key strategic development for both companies, maximising the benefits of their respective technology.

“We’re very pleased to be working with VDO in this way. They are the tachograph provider of choice for many of our customers and this integration will provide important advantages when it comes to safety and ease of use.

“FleetCheck and VDO shared a stand at the recent Commercial Vehicle Show and the reception to the integrated version of the software from fleets was very positive. The benefits are obvious and we expect take-up to be high.

“The partnership represents a significant step forward in compliance that maximises the capabilities of our software and VDO’s tachograph technology.”

Based in Kemble, Gloucestershire, and established in 2006, FleetCheck is one of the UK’s leading fleet management software specialists, with a customer base more than 2,000 customers operating more than 260,000 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.

The government could need to revisit the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate for vans as early as next year, FleetCheck is predicting.

Peter Golding, managing director at the fleet software specialist, said that electric van sales in the first quarter of 2025 were less than half what was needed, and there was no reason to believe they would improve dramatically soon.

“The zero emissions target for the van market this year is 16% but even the best sales month we have seen so far has not exceeded 10%. There would have to be a decisive shift through Q2 to Q4 to hit the government’s target and there is no sign such a change is coming.

“For 2026, the target increases to 24% and again, it’s almost impossible to conceive that the market is going to gain the necessary momentum to get anywhere near that figure.

“The potential shortfall fines to manufacturers are now £15,000 per unit but the government insists that these will not need to be paid because of inbuilt flexibilities, including recent changes to allow trading off car versus van sales, but that’s just storing up further pressures for the future. It’s an exercise in can kicking, not a solution.”

A key point to recognise, he said, was that by revising the ZEV Mandate once, the government had already established that it would act to balance the health of the motor industry against its environmental policies.

“It’s clearly a positive that the government has listened and made some changes to the ZEV Mandate regulations but it also establishes a principle that they will make modifications to protect manufacturers and the wider sector. Having done this once, it seems probable they would do it again.

“By next year, it seems likely that it will become clear the gap between the real van market and ZEV Mandate projections are unbridgeable, and that further action will have to be taken. The underlying fault line which, to be fair, is one the government inherited, is that the ZEV Mandate is supply side based, when what the electric van market needs is a boost to demand.”

Additionally, Peter added, there were some signs that zero emissions projects in general were potentially going to become a more prominent political issue.

“While I’d underline that FleetCheck as an organisation is in favour of working towards net zero, there are some moves to make the entire subject of zero emissions much more contentious. Certainly, this is something that Nigel Farage is talking about now and he is very good at placing pressure on government policy.

“It may be that, in a year or so, a further relaxation of the ZEV Mandate could be something that this Labour administration perceives as not just sound industrial policy for the motor industry, but also something that has political value.”

The increasing use of passenger screens capable of showing films and video games should be factored into fleet risk management policies, says FleetCheck.

Peter Golding, managing director at the fleet software specialist, said these “co-pilot” screens were becoming more widely fitted to higher end cars, and studies showed they created a high level of distraction for the driver.

“There is already research showing driver screen technology such as Android Auto and Apple CarPlay can dramatically affect reaction times* behind the wheel and more recently, there have also been similar findings about passenger screens.

“A report from Tongji University in China** indicates that driver behaviour becomes more erratic when the co-pilot display is being used and again, reaction times are affected because of distractions from sound and vision.

“While this latest research doesn’t directly make the inference, these kinds of research often show the effects are comparable with drug and alcohol use, so these not small risks, and fleets should arguably be considering their effect on driving performance.”

Peter said that risk management policies could be modified to minimise the impact of screens on fleet road safety and that some fleets had already taken this step.

“The interiors of cars have changed massively in just a few years. Many manufacturers have followed the Tesla example of putting almost all controls on touchscreens and, as a result, some employers have guidance about using voice control whenever possible.

“However, there are times when the voice control fails and manually using the screen is unavoidable, such as to operate heating controls. This can involve taking your eyes off the road for extended periods of time, which is an obvious risk.

“Our view is that fleets need to do everything possible to engage with drivers and help them to use this technology as safely as possible, even though there are often no clear solutions.”

When it came to co-pilot screens, the obvious solution was to bar models with them from your fleet, he added.

“Driver screens are almost always part of the control layout of the vehicle and, while they are probably not a positive development for road safety, they need to be used.

“In contrast, passenger screens serve no real practical purpose for businesses operating vehicles and are there purely for the entertainment of the passenger. It’s difficult to arrive at guidance that allows them to be used safely and probably the most effective step is to keep vehicles with them fitted off choice lists.”

*IAM RoadSmart, 2020
**Exploring the impact of the passenger’s display on driver workload and driving performance, 2023

The dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled insurance fraud are growing for fleets as image quality continues to rapidly improve, FleetCheck is reporting.

Neil Avent, chief technical officer at the fleet software company, said there had been recent advances in the realism of both still and digital AI-generated images.

“There has been a real step change in the last few months with the more widespread availability of a technology called GANs – or generative adversarial networks. This uses two neural networks in competition to create images and is now being offered by the mainstream image generation systems, replacing previous diffusion-style techniques.

“The result is that there has been a jump in the quality of video and image generation. If you take an image of a vehicle that has been involved in an accident and asked AI to ‘add scratches and light dents along the door panel’ today then the output is much more convincing than it was even last year.”

The biggest potential for fraud, he explained, was in instances where an accident had occurred and AI was used to exaggerate the level of damage that had resulted.

“If an employee is involved in a collision, the driver of the other vehicle may take pictures of the damage incurred and ask AI to basically make it worse to increase the value of the claim. One of the advantages of GANs technology is that it can do this across multiple images with a high degree of consistency.”

At the moment, Neil added, AI images and video were probably not sufficiently convincing to make this kind of fraud possible but the tipping point was likely to be only a matter of months away, based on the current rate of progress.

“We’re reaching a stage where it is not easy even for experts to see that some images have been manipulated and fleets should be aware of the growing potential for fraud and its resulting impact on their insurance costs.

“However, there is a simple solution – asking your drivers who are involved in collisions to take pictures of all the vehicles involved, meaning that a complete record of the accident is created and later use of AI can be much more easily identified. This is something that can be done using our app, which provides prompts that walk the driver through the process.”

Nick Hutson, compliance and training manager at 1st Choice Insurance, which partners with FleetCheck, added: “Fraudulent and exaggerated claims have been a persistent issue for decades, but the methods used to carry them out have evolved significantly over time, becoming increasingly difficult to track and manage. With AI-generated images and videos advancing rapidly, it’s becoming harder to spot manipulations, and there’s a strong likelihood that we’ve already encountered such claims without identifying them.

“To help combat this, we encourage drivers to adopt additional procedures, such as taking comprehensive, clear photos from multiple angles and using technology to record accurate details at the scene. These simple steps can make a big difference in identifying and preventing fraudulent claims.”