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Case Study: Esitu Solutions enables Specflue to Reduce Collisions, Driver Errors, and Insurance Costs.
About
With over 30 years’ experience Specflue are leaders in the supply of prefabricated chimney and flue systems in the UK. They attribute their success to following their guiding principles, which are as relevant now as they were when they first started the company. These principles are innovation, the provision of quality products, and the delivery of outstanding customer service. This ethos, coupled with the technical knowledge of its staff, have propelled Specflue to become one of the UK’s leading suppliers of flue, chimney, and renewable heat products.
Based in Sudbury, Suffolk, with depots in Honiton in Devon, Castleford in West Yorkshire and Stirling in Scotland, Specflue can efficiently service almost the whole of the UK with their own fleet of vehicles.
Based in Sudbury, Suffolk, with depots in Honiton in Devon, Castleford in West Yorkshire and Stirling in Scotland, Specflue can efficiently service almost the whole of the UK with their own fleet of vehicles.
The Challenge
Specflue noticed that they were getting an increase in the number of minor collisions resulting in damage to their fleet of 3.5-ton vans. Incidents relating to side mirrors and light clusters were a particular problem. Though these damages were relatively inexpensive to repair in-house, such repairs were becoming increasingly time consuming and having an impact on operational costs. Having identified this as an issue, Specflue’s challenge was to find a solution that could help to identify risk in their drivers and bring down the costs associated with these collisions.
“I had noticed that a few simple and niggling mistakes were being made by a small minority of my drivers. I wanted to try and understand what was happening and why,” says Stuart Wilkinson (Operations Director).
“I fully believe that it is our drivers and the service that they provide to our customers, which makes us stand out within our industry. We wanted to maintain this advantage by investing in quality training programs that would be of benefit to our logistics team and help identify any additional training needs,” said Stuart.
The Solution
Specflue recognised the need to find a solution that could identify the risk in their drivers, but also wanted to provide training that could help to mitigate that risk. This is where Esitu Solutions came in.
“I went to an industry-related event specifically to investigate if there was a suitable training program that could assist me, not just in reducing our on-road incidents but to help me and my drivers understand why they were happening.”
Specflue were immediately drawn to Esitu Solutions, based on our evidence-based approach to road safety:
“I spotted Esitu’s stand and was introduced to their Hazard Prediction and Perception techniques. I was immediately impressed with Esitu’s enthusiasm and industry knowledge behind the understanding of drivers’ behaviours and the use of technical data to support the training modules. The modules are also delivered in an interactive and fun-to-do style. There was even an option to run their training programs via virtual reality headsets.”
Esitu Solutions was brought in to provide an online assessment and training solution for Specflue’s drivers. Hosted on our system, EsituDrive, Specflue drivers are now able to complete modules online, and keep a track of their own performance via their own personal dashboard. Specflue review their drivers’ progress in real-time through an interactive manager dashboard. The ability to breakdown their drivers’ results by individuals and depots, as well as the ability to view aggregate scores for the entire fleet were important parts of Specflue’s decision to engage with Esitu. As a result, our system gives Specflue complete visibility of the potential collision risk in their drivers’ and provides training to reduce that risk.
“Being the Companies O licence holder, I have found the results and the format in which they are presented an invaluable tool to help identify those drivers with a particular driving ‘style’ who may need additional training as part of our proactive approach to risk management.”
Results
Specflue have not restricted the use of the online assessment and training to the commercial fleet, but instead decided to extend it to all staff who drive for company business. In addition, any new driver that joins Specflue is now required to complete the online assessment and training as part of their induction program.
“My initial thoughts had been for our Commercial fleet drivers to undergo this training however, we decided to roll this program out to all employees who drive on behalf of Specflue regardless of driving frequency. We have now adopted Esitu’s training modules for all new starter employees as part of our staff induction program.”
This proactive approach to road safety has helped create a safer driving culture throughout the business.
“Everyone really enjoyed the process and the challenges it brought. It certainly prompted discussions within individual groups of users resulting with the information being retained and, more importantly, being put into practice whilst driving.”
Specflue are now seeing the benefit of implementing the online assessment and training on their collision rates.
“Those small damages and the simple errors being made have now become so insignificant that I genuinely cannot recollect the last time we had any to report.”
Another outcome for Specflue was a direct reduction in their insurance costs:
“Having shared our plans for adopting Esitu’s hazard prediction and perception techniques with our insurance broker when negotiating our policy renewal, the underwriters commented on our positive approach to risk management. As such there was a small rate reduction on the policy. This reduction more than covered the cost for the Esitu training program.”
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