The technology forms a complete picture of vehicle movements and driver behaviour, as well identifying fuel cost savings, and has now been certified by the Transport Research Laboratory to offer a crash detection rate accuracy of 92% – said to far exceed the industry average of 70%.

The RAC Telematics units, currently in about 2,000 Addison Lee vehicles in London, provide a constant stream of data about how vehicles are being driven, their location, speed and idling time.

The firm said 92% crash detection rate is crucial in the event of an accident at slow speed as it can determine whether the collision was with another vehicle, or simply hitting a kerb or taking a speed bump too quickly.

RAC Telematics MD Nick Walker explained: “In other systems there are a lot of false positive readings, which renders them useless because you don’t know what to trust, but the RAC Telematics unit is now so accurate that you can trust what it’s telling you.

“There are many other benefits as a result of fitting RAC Telematics, such as a reduction in wear and tear, speeding and accident levels are reduced, and there are significant savings on fuel because of the more efficient driving behaviour.”



Rob Daniels, head of fleet at Addison Lee, said:  “For us it’s absolutely critical to know as much as possible about vehicles and how they are being driven. We have been working with RAC Business for almost two years now and the data which we have obtained has been absolutely invaluable, particularly in obtaining insights into driver behaviour.

“Our passengers demand the highest quality service and that includes smooth driving. RAC Telematics data helps us to ensure that our drivers are driving safely as well as identifying the rare occasions when our vehicles are involved in an accident.”