Tesco.com, one of more than 50 public and private sector organisations that have earned business champion status under the Driving for Better Business campaign delivered by RoadSafe, has been presented with a European Road Safety Charter award.

The Excellence in Road Safety Awards recognise businesses, federations and associations, institutions, non-governmental organisation and local authorities that stood out for their commitment to road safety in 2010.

Tesco.com, which is a signatory to the Charter, won the award in the category for large multinational enterprises and was the only UK-based winner among the six recipients this year.

The award was collected in Brussels by Tesco.com’s groceries operations director Keith Price, who, reflecting on the current harsh economic climate, said: 'In a time when budgets are tight, investing in road safety pays for itself.'

He added: 'Once again Tesco.com is proud and delighted to be recognised for its contribution in managing occupational road risk.

'The safety of our drivers (customer delivery assistants) and members of the public are of paramount importance and we are continually reviewing ways to improve our position.'

Most recently that has included the installation of telematics systems across its fleet of 2,400 vehicles, which make approximately 74,000 deliveries per day to homes across the UK.

The technology is part of a comprehensive suite of tools introduced across the fleet. Tesco.com calculates that its range of measures – which focus on improving efficiency, reducing the fleet’s carbon footprint as well as improving the safety of the company’s almost 8,000 drivers and other road users – is savings millions of pounds.

For example, almost double-digit fuel savings are being achieved as employees improve their driving style; delivery rates have been improved by about 10%, thereby increasing productivity and further improving customer service; and accident damage is down, thus also saving money as well as contributing to reduced vehicle downtime.

Additionally, to improve the monitoring of vehicle speed the company has recently added speed limits on the nation’s roads to the system that supports the telematics technology.

Mr Price said: 'We don’t want employees breaking the law when they are making deliveries. By matching speed limits to the speed vehicles are being driven we can further improve the management of our drivers. However, the very fact that all of our drivers know about the technology will, we believe, further encourage them to drive appropriately.'