At Brightmile, our mission is to make business driving safer, greener and cheaper, so we could not have been prouder to see the results of Heineken UK after the implementation of the Brightmile programme:
⇓ Speeding events: DOWN 50% over 12 months
⇓ Overall claims costs: DOWN 7.5% over 12 months
⇓ Collision & breakdown costs: DOWN 17.5% over 12 months
⇓ Fleet insurance: DOWN 8% over 12 months
⇓ Total fleet cost saving of £452,000 in 2022 vs 2021
Heineken’s superb achievements have led to the presentation of the Safety and Health Excellence Award 2023 for Best Driver Risk Management Performance. The accolade comes from Driving for Better Business which is backed by National Highways in association with RoadSafe.
Complex challenge
Heineken has a complex driving setup in the UK that can be hard to navigate. Its 326 company car drivers can use rental vehicles; use company cars for personal journeys; and, sometimes, allow nominated people in their family to drive their company car. As vehicle/driver profiles go, it’s far from straightforward, which makes its achievement even more impressive.
Reka Nagy joined as the company’s workspace and safety partner in 2019, and soon realised that its fleet needed engaged and comprehensive management.
Privacy-first telematics
A key step was the introduction of telematics. With the help of a legal and employee council, Reka decided to structure the programme so that:
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Managers could only see aggregate and not individually identifiable driving data;
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Employees receive their own reports in confidence;
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Drivers can request individual training if they felt it would be beneficial; and
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Team leaders can request training for their whole team.
Reka says: “We give drivers ownership of their data and their performance. It’s about trust and accountability.”
Mobile telemetry advantages
For a fleet with the profile of Heineken UK’s, there are many advantages of mobile telematics over hardware-based alternatives.
One of the disadvantages of hardware telematics is that it is less flexible than a mobile app. The Brightmile smartphone app can monitor a driver’s performance in any vehicle, including grey fleet and rental cars.
Privacy is ensured as the app only scores driving behaviour on trips classified as for “business” purposes by the employee, whilst reporting business mileage for expensing purposes is extremely easy.
Critically, an app-based solution is also more engaging for drivers, and Brightmile incorporates a number of gamification and engagement techniques. For example, every mile safely driven earns a point; these points can make drivers eligible for a prize draw or trigger a charity donation when the driver hits their target.
“Linking good driving behaviour to a bigger positive, such as charity, makes it about more than ‘just driving’”, says Reka. “I found it very powerful that by driving more safely, we can also help those who are in need.”
An invaluable tool
Although Heineken empowered its own drivers to push through behavioural change across all five behavioural pillars, having reviewed all the driving performance data, Reka decided to focus on reducing speeding events, on the basis that this would naturally facilitate other improvements.
For six months, Heineken monitored each group’s Speeding events per 1,000 miles, and the best-performing team received prizes of a spa weekend. The aggregate results were published every month, and if no improvement was apparent, teams were offered help and support.
Reka says: “Through our partnership with Brightmile, we have strengthened our commitment to fostering a safe driving culture and raised awareness of responsible driving practices across our business.
“The Brightmile App has proven to be an invaluable tool, offering personalised analyses of individual driving habits and incentivising safe behaviour with monthly rewards for employees. Our collaboration has been instrumental in driving positive change, embedding our safety-first culture, and ultimately driving down our collision rate.
“The programme has represented great value for us and I appreciate the continuous improvement that Brightmile strives for and the collaborative approach they have taken to make the platform even better for customers.”
Demonstrating leadership in driver safety
Andy Gardner, Brightmile’s Head of Customer Success and programmes, says that Heineken UK has been an “exceptional partner” that has fully embedded Brightmile into its road-risk mitigation strategy.
He says: “The company’s unwavering commitment to safety shines through in its achievements over the past 12 months.
“We extend our congratulations to Reka and her team for their well-deserved Safety and Health Excellence Award and eagerly anticipate further collaboration as we continue in our shared mission to continuously improve the safety of drivers in a manner that is both engaging and rewarding.”
