It’s no secret that one of the main causes of poor fuel consumption is the person operating the pedals, and fleet drivers with no accountability for fuel or maintenance costs can sometimes be costing their companies a significant amount of money — often without even realising it.

At the same time, drivers can resent heavy-handed monitoring and telematics. One system that aims to tread the fine line between helping and interfering is Ashwoods Automotive ‘s Lightfoot Eco-Drive system, which aims to provide drivers with real-time feedback enabling them to reduce fuel consumption and improve their driving technique.

Autoglass was the first major UK fleet operator to roll out the Lightfoot system, and the company has already reported a 15% saving in fuel costs across the Autoglass fleet, which is estimated to be equivalent to 1,000 tonnes of CO2 each year. Commenting on the Lightfoot roll out, Matthew Mycock, Managing Director, Autoglass said:

What we love about Lightfoot is that its sole focus is on improving driver efficiency from the moment they turn on the ignition. Within a couple of days of using the tool we see many of our drivers go from spending 55%-60% of their time in the green zone to hitting 90% and higher.  Our savings in fuel costs speak for themselves.

The Lightfoot system monitors acceleration, revs and idling and provides traffic-light style greed, amber and red feedback to the driver, who is able to adjust their driving technique in real time. Feedback to fleet managers is limited to a single email every week, summarising each driver’s performance and the associated fuel cost and CO2 savings, so Lightfoot isn’t overly intrusive or time-intensive to manage.

I know from personal experience that driving technique and a heavy right foot can make a big difference to the fuel consumption of modern vans, and 15% sounds pretty realistic to me — it is broadly the same as what I’ve achieved in my own Ford Transit. The Lightfoot system is essentially a more sophisticated version of the gear change indicators that have already appeared on current model Fords (and other marques), and I expect to see this kind of thing become more widespread over the next few years, as high fuel prices continue to motivate drivers to improve their vehicle’s efficiency.