The £100 million company, with sites across the UK and Ireland, turned to Quartix after trialling two different systems. The first suffered from a spate of breakdowns; the second was removed when the operating company went into administration.

The Quartix system is being used on the company's mixed fleet of vehicles including 3.5-tonne Iveco models.

Canute financial director Steve Ely calculates the company saves £1,000 per vehicle per year – an annual total of around £300,000.

IT manager Mark Longhurst agrees: 'There is definitely a cost saving per vehicle as idle times have decreased and our depots use the system to re-route their vehicles to new jobs whilst they are out on the road.

'Also, there has been a decrease in the number of calls made to and from drivers; the less time our drivers and other staff are on the phone to each other the more they can focus on other areas of business.'

However, he considers the biggest benefit of using Quartix 'is Quartix themselves.'

'The after-sales support is excellent and we have a fantastic working relationship with the entire team,' he said.

Canute is working with Quartix to develop the systems further and to seek more cost and control benefits.