The tool, which has already been installed in over 40,000 units to date in the UK, is primarily intended to provide vital telematics data to companies for cost and risk reduction, safer driving and fuel monitoring. However, it has also proved pivotal in stolen vehicle recovery – to date it has been responsible for assisting the police and ALD Automotive customers recover over 120 missing vehicles.

The results have been even more significant since GPS technology was added to the system.

For vehicles fitted without GPS functionality (pre-June 2010) the recovery results already showed that 50% were retrieved within seven hours of the police being notified. With the fitment of GPS units (June 2010 onwards), recovery times have been further improved, with the majority of vehicles being recovered in less than one hour, significantly reducing both the stress and cost to the driver and their employer.

Rhys Harrhy, ProFleet2 development consultant for ALD Automotive, commented: ‘Having worked closely with several police teams to recover these vehicles, we can confidently say that our customers have reaped many benefits from ProFleet2's location facility. This includes reducing employee downtime and replacement hire costs, and in some cases cutting expenditure of company equipment. One self-insured customer of ours has saved more than £470k from the recovery of 19 vehicles alone.’

Rob Cohen, financial director for ALD customer Morelli, added: ‘We're really impressed with ProFleet2's stolen vehicle location facility. Although we use the tool primarily to help us gain a better understanding of our fleet operation and how we can improve efficiency, this added feature has saved us from potentially hefty damage costs and also helped to keep our insurance premium down.’