Opinion: Investing in responsibility on the roads

Driving behaviour has generated a significant amount of media attention over the past couple of weeks, with several high-profile figures in the spotlight at the moment.

But, for someone like me who oversees a large logistical operation with a fleet of hundreds of vehicles, driving behaviour is obviously always at the top of my priority list.

At Hermes, alongside our ongoing significant investment in innovative technology to create a great customer experience, we have also been making significant investments in continuing to improve safety and efficiency on the roads.

"We have been making significant investments in continuing to improve safety and efficiency on the roads"

Many people with a background in logistics will be aware of telematics and their vital role in fleet management, especially in recording vehicle locations and route optimisation.

Last year, we went a step further by investing in Lytx camera technology, which reduces risk by increasing driver accountability and acts as a catalyst to have informed conversations about driver behaviour and tailored coaching.

As a result, we are pleased to see that our overall driving style scores increased by 15.5% between January 2017 and January 2018.

We are also very proud of our in-house driving school, which delivered 847 days of training in 2017, including 48 courses of Driver CPC periodic training to 323 people.

We all know that investment in convenient customer-facing solutions will continue to grow in importance over the coming years, however it is also vital that both retailers and third-party suppliers operating fleets continue to invest in innovative technology that improves safety levels on our busy roads.

• Martin Colloff is head of client and network distribution at Hermes UK