Milestone 100,000th Citroen LCV fitted with Teletrac

June 9, 2014: A Berlingo van has just become the 100,000th Citroën LCV to be fitted with the unique Teletrac telematics package. Specially developed by Teletrac (a Trafficmaster company) for Citroën’s award-winning LCV range, this innovative, efficiency-boosting telematics platform is fitted as standard to all Berlingo, Dispatch and New Relay panel vans.

Jeremy Smith, Citroën’s Head of Commercial Vehicles & Business Sector Operations, commented; “The milestone 100,000th fitting of the unique Citroën Teletrac telematics package highlights the popularity of this system. It provides our LCV customers with an unrivalled range of operational, financial, safety and security benefits. This system complements the advanced engineering in all Citroën LCVs, further reducing operating costs, improving productivity and reducing driver stress levels.”

The Citroën Teletrac package includes Smartnav satellite navigation and Trackstar stolen vehicle tracking. It also provides the telematics platform for Teletrac’s optional, low cost, Fleet Director real-time fleet management services. The latest Teletrac system fitted to Citroën LCVs includes a bigger, higher resolution 5-inch colour screen. This provides greater clarity for the Smartnav map display and the system’s many functions highlighted across the bottom of the screen.

Citroën’s unique Teletrac Smartnav package saves the equivalent of circa 20,000 working days per year due to congestion avoidance. During the course of a year, around 4,000,000 routes are downloaded by Citroën LCV drivers. Smartnav Personal Assistants also deal with some 40,000 routing and other queries, including emergency calls.

The Citroën Teletrac system provides significant CO2 reductions and running cost savings through more efficient routing and congestion avoidance. It also reduces driver stress levels by up to 33%, with an associated reduction in risk and improved safety. In addition, the Trackstar stolen vehicle recovery system results in a near-100% recovery rate for stolen Citroën LCVs – the majority of which are recovered within one hour.

Citroën is the only manufacturer in the UK to offer LCVs fitted with stolen vehicle tracking as standard. Any Trackstar enabled Citroën LCV can be located within moments of it being reported missing. Once a vehicles is confirmed as being stolen, the Trackstar control centre informs the police of the van’s whereabouts – even if it is still moving – allowing the police to have a more detailed and accurate location of the vehicle in order to recover it quickly.

Citroën’s advanced Teletrac Smartnav system not only provides detailed navigation, but also works out routes to avoid traffic congestion. It does this using live traffic information gathered from Trafficmaster’s network of roadside cameras to calculate the optimum route. If congestion is identified, Smartnav will instantaneously calculate all the viable alternative routes and will offer the fastest option, which the driver can then select with one touch of the screen.

Another feature included in Citroën’s unique package is Teletrac’s emergency call system. Drivers can use this function to call Teletrac’s control centre, allowing two-way voice communication. The Smartnav system instantly provides a precise vehicle location and, in the event of a serious accident, the system automatically makes an emergency call.

Citroën LCV owners also have the option of specifying Teletrac’s newly updated Fleet Director real-time fleet management package. The cost effective Fleet Director option provides fleet managers with a full range of services, including optimised routing on multi-drop runs, live vehicle reporting, two-way messaging and vehicle or driver management reports. Vans can also be ‘geofenced’ to ensure, and then prove, that they are being used within a specific area and are not used at weekends or out of hours. The system can also be used to record when vehicles arrive and leave specific locations.