Air Products manufactures and supplies gases that are used in sectors ranging from medicine to space travel.
It operates a fleet of 278 vehicles and 358 drivers, and is responsible for making approximately 220,000 deliveries to almost 10,000 customers across the UK each year.
Due to the nature of its business, Air Products’ vehicles regularly transport extremely high pressure and low temperature products. This necessitates that they are well maintained, and that safety is treated as a priority. Over the last two years it has invested heavily in its fleet, by renewing or refurbishing older vehicles, and developing a bespoke slow speed manoeuvring solution. This system uses sensors, cameras, and verbal warnings to help drivers manoeuvre safely in challenging locations. Air Products has also introduced a fleet management system that lets it capture all vehicle walk-around checks, servicing, MOT and repair activity.
The result of this investment is that Air Products vehicles are now more fuel efficient and safer, with one incident recorded per month compared with 5 per month before the strategy was introduced. Maintenance savings of 21% have also been achieved, and slow speed manoeuvring incidents have reduced by 63%.
Air Products won the 2021 Safe Vehicles Award at the UK Fleet Champions Awards.
See more previous winners.