Leading national baker, Hovis, has used TruTac’s software to make its fleet among the most compliant in the business.
The company operates a fleet of more than 350 HGVs, comprising around 245 rigids and 110 tractor units, plus 240 trailers.
It adopted TruTac’s TruAnalysis tachograph management and compliance reporting system in February 2023 and has used it to home in on and dramatically reduce speeding incidents.
“Hovis has always had good compliance and we took the view that we want to be one of the best at it,” explains Logistics Director, Adam Bassant, “we included occasions of overspeed – when a driver goes over 56 mph – in our metrics on the software, and we’ve been heavily focused on reducing them. Last year, we reduced those incidents by 96%.”
The company also developed its own speed awareness course to educate drivers and to follow up after incidents were initially identified by TruAnalysis.
“We created a bespoke speed awareness course within Hovis – very similar to what the police use,” says Adam, “if there’s an overspeeding incident, then drivers will be required to do a half-hour online course, which educates them about the implications of speeding, the need to reduce it, and the reasons why it happens in the first place.”
TruAnalysis is TruTac’s tachograph management system, which also includes a driver debriefing facility. It makes accurate compliance reporting quick and easy with fully automated email reports, configurable dashboards, and simple divisions management.
Hovis began using TruAnalysis because its telematics was provided by TruTac’s parent firm, Microlise, and Adam was keen to bring both services under one roof.
“We use Microlise for our telematics and I’m interested in the synergies and benefits we can get from having our tachograph compliance aligned with our driver behaviour metrics,” he explains, “Sales Director, Lee Oliver is a real advocate for change. He’s what I’d class as an operator – he understands how our drivers think and what they need – and I see great benefit in getting full visibility of driver behaviour from Microlise and compliance from TruTac.”
While Hovis is not officially a member of the DVSA’s Earned Recognition scheme – which reduces the chances of an operator’s vehicles being stopped for roadside inspection if they share data and confirm to recognised standards – Adam uses TruTac’s DVSA-approved software as a benchmark for vehicle operation.