The fleet industry should enter into talks with the Government to ensure that the technology chosen to operate the road charging system proposed in the Eddington report delivers fleet management benefits.

Fleet software market leader cfc solutions says that certain solutions that could be adopted for road charging could also be used to provide fleets with new and enhanced levels of control over, and information about, their fleet operations.

Business leader at cfc, Andy Leech, said, "Whatever fleets may think about the principle of road charging, it does provide a golden opportunity to adopt a whole new approach to fleet management.

"Firstly, if the Government agrees that fleets can be given access to information collected through the road charging infrastructure for the purpose of calculating payments, it will allow fleet managers to track vehicle use and driving patterns with a very high degree of accurately.

"Secondly, if the Government can be convinced that it is worthwhile, the road charging infrastructure could be used to monitor all kinds of other aspects of vehicle use. For example, an in-car black box could notify a central fleet management system that a mechanical problem has developed or even that pressure in a tyre is low.

"We could be looking at a much more advanced type of fleet management than is currently possible and, because it 'piggy backs' the road charging infrastructure, it could be achieved in a very cost-effective manner."

Leech added that a national road charging scheme would also see the amount of data handled by fleets increase massively. He pointed out that the Central London congestion charging alone has already seen the amount of data processed by some fleets increase by around 10 per cent.

He said, "Thanks to duty of care issues, traffic cameras and congestion charging, fleets are already having to process much larger amounts of data through their fleet software systems than just a few years ago.

"If you add in the factor of being charged every time a driver enters a major conurbation, then the amount of data can only increase hugely again. Whatever charging and payment model is used, simply processing invoices will be a major task.

"However, the real challenges will come where managers want to take some control over the road charges incurred, which the most proactive inevitably will. Monitoring the journeys that drivers make and the cost in road pricing will be an enormous task."

cfc has seen its estimates about the amount of data that fleets will process in the future continually outstripped by the changing backdrop against which fleet managers operate.

Just three years ago, it forecasted that the amount of data handled by fleets would rise by a factor of 30 in the next 10 years - an estimate that is now seen as much too low as the full implications of duty of care and road charging have become clearer.

Leech added, "The challenge is to do more than simply process the data - ways have to be found to automate many of the basic tasks that are required while highlighting areas that need management action.

“Fortunately, the technology to do this already exists and we are working with a wide range of fleets to arrive at solutions which will handle this mass of information."

A sign of the increase in fleet data is that the average number of interfaces for a new fleet large software installation by cfc has more than doubled in the last three years.

He said, "A decade ago, the only data imported into fleet software by most fleets was a floppy disc containing fuel card information.

“Today, data feeds both into and out of fleet management software interface with a multitude of sources including maintenance providers, insurance companies, tyre networks, human resources systems, accident management specialists, vehicle procurement sources and more.

"In 2003, our most advanced software installation had six to eight interfaces. Now we have some with nearer 20. Companies that are backing technology for the management of their fleets are doing so in a very emphatic fashion."