Bergerat Monnoyeur: Mounting A Smart Device That Functions As An Ecodriving Coach On 450 Vehicles

Contents

• Business Case
• Interview with Bertrand Milliat, CSR Director, Bergerat Monnoyeur
• de Bertrand Milliat, Directeur de la RSE chez Monnoyeur
• Find out more

Business Case

– Company business: sales and leasing of machinery (mini excavators, hydraulic excavators, etc.) via its dealer network

– Inventory: 2,300 vehicles at Monnoyeur in France, most of which (1,700) are at its Aprolis and Bergerat subsidiaries

– Number of vehicles equipped: all service personnel vehicles, including 450 commercial vehicles at Bergerat and 470 at Aprolis

– Project objectives: safety, lower fuel costs, lower CO2 emissions

– Project deployment:

• A pilot project in one region, to confirm support from the workforce and to validate the operating procedure
• Two launch webinars to tell people about the project and hear technicians’ questions
• Launch

Interview with Bertrand Milliat, CSR Director, Bergerat Monnoyeur

What’s your climate strategy at Bergerat Monnoyeur?

To make our business carbon-free, we’ve tried to identify some initiatives that we could use, division by division, to lower our CO2 emissions. For example, we’ve identified three steps we can take at our service shops: install solar panels, improve insulation and reduce our power consumption with energy-saving bulbs.

Why ecodriving? Why not just replace your vehicles?

The fact is, when it comes to our fleet, we don’t have a lot of flexibility. We regularly replace our vehicles with new ones that are more energy-efficient. But for alternative energy sources, it’s more complicated: given the available range with the electric vehicles currently on the market, we calculated that our drivers would have to stop and charge their vehicles two or three times a day. That’s primarily because of the distance they cover, but also because our service vehicles carry special and fairly heavy equipment. Obviously, charging your vehicles that often isn’t always easy from an operational standpoint, especially in rural areas.
So in our search for options that we had available to us, we hit on ecodriving. With a carefully managed ecodriving policy, we can reduce our fuel consumption by 5% to 10%, and that has a rebound effect on our CO₂ emissions.

Is there a cost benefit?

Our fuel budget amounts to four million euros, so it’s a real challenge. With rising fuel prices, the ability to cut our fuel consumption is a major financial benefit. And there’s also the issue of safety.
It’s definitely a virtuous campaign, particularly since the cost comes to about 5% of our fuel savings.

And is it working?

We did a regional pilot campaign last year with sales representatives and service personnel. Then we did a second pilot campaign in Greater Paris. And the results were encouraging, both financially and in terms of driver acceptance.
So this year we decided to expand the campaign to include all of our service personnel.

Have you encountered any resistance?

We were able to measure resistance with the pilot programme. And we were very pleasantly surprised by the reaction. That confirmed for us that a positive, guilt-free campaign could work wonders.

With the national rollout we were even more surprised:

• first, by the audience for the two launch webinars we held: nearly 300 technicians logged in to take part, out of 450!
• and second, by the quality of the questions we received. For example: “On average, how many grams of CO₂ does a Bergerat service call generate?” I wasn’t expecting questions like that at all! That shows that these are issues people are thinking about, that motivate them and that undoubtedly make a difference with our customers.

Why did you choose WeNow?

What we found appealing about the WeNow proposal was:

• The ease of installation: for some drivers it’s completely transparent and they don’t have to do anything, because WeNow logs directly into the device that the manufacturer installed during production. In other cases, the driver has to plug in a box. That just takes a few seconds.
• The individual mobile app, which drivers can use to track their driving score and get tips and advice.
• The positive attitude that doesn’t apply any guilt. There’s no emphasis on your driving mistakes; instead, they encourage everyone to do better in the friendliest way possible.
• The fact that it’s a lot of fun. WeNow offers a number of predefined contests, but they can also be adapted. So it’s simple to set up and you have control over the messages you communicate. There’s also monthly emails on a range of topics so that each month you can spotlight certain results as part of an ongoing learning process.
• Access to their staff, who take the time to talk with any of our service personnel who are interested. That personal approach and shared passion is essential. We didn’t want some telematics device, we wanted a programme that motivates our teams and puts them at the heart of our success. One way to ensure that success is to show confidence in our personnel by making them feel invested in this climate action.
• The environmental programmes with the UN and the National Forest Office, to bring things full circle.

Anything you’d like to add?

We support the project because we’re convinced it’s a success!

Find out more

Read the article published in Chantiers de France on Bergerat Monnoyeur’s commitment on behalf of its fleet. (in french)