Putting brake on soaring costs

Jun 4 2008 By Andrew Mernin

CHECK your vehicle fleet’s routines and practices closely and you’ll minimise adversity in the currently soaring fuel costs.

That’s the advice to businesses big and small from Northgate plc, which has 130,000 vehicles to maintain and run in its own daily activities.

Northgate, sponsor this year for the first time of The Journal’s annual listing of North-East 250 Companies, suggests that only a horse and buggy business is likely to escape the present drain on revenues.

Phil Moorhouse, managing director of the Darlington-based plc, said: “Some steps we are taking are by no means rocket science. Some may be as old as motoring itself. But during better times earlier many of us may have tended to forget or overlook the benefits they bring.

“While it is unlikely the worst effects will show up in profit figures for some time yet, they will show up some time for sure. So now is the time to act.”

Mr Moorhouse says a growing number of commercial vehicle operators are fitting telematics devices to vehicles, not only to clamp down on fuel usage but also to improve productivity and journey scheduling, and keep a lid on operating costs generally as well as improving driver safety.

Almost a quarter of fleet decision-makers the firm recently surveyed said they had introduced in-vehicle telematics systems. But that means three-quarters have not.

Mr Moorhouse said: “Evidence from our customers suggests that monitoring their vehicles by fitting them with our in-cab vehicle monitoring technology raises productivity and profitability by around 15%.”

Northgate is itself determined to stay high in the North-East Top 250 which it first entered in 20th place in 1998. Since then it has appeared every year bar one, and last year it was up to 16th.

A FTSE-250 company on the London Stock Exchange, it is planning moves into new markets.

PAGE TWO: Northgate's tips on saving fuel.