How United Utilities Boosted Fuel Economy 35% with Predictive Fleet Maintenance and Geotab

For United Utilities, a single breakdown at the wrong moment can trigger regulatory penalties measured by the second. By switching to predictive fleet maintenance and data-driven driver coaching with Geotab, the water utility raised fuel economy by 35%, cut emissions per vehicle by 26% and improved driver safety scores by 25% across a fleet of more than 2,300 vehicles.

About United Utilities

United Utilities is a regulated water and wastewater utility serving millions of customers across North West England. Its fleet of cars, vans, trucks and 4x4s has to be ready around the clock for planned maintenance and emergencies such as burst water mains.

The stakes are high. If a critical alternative supply vehicle (ASV), which pumps water into the network during pipe work and bursts, can't operate, the company faces penalties of £15,600 per second above its "Customer Minutes Lost" target.

The challenge: four goals at once

• Vehicle availability: no tolerance for unplanned downtime, especially for its 12-year-old ASVs, which have no electric replacement yet.

• Aging vehicles: instead of replacing older gas and diesel vehicles, United Utilities chose to extend their service life until suitable EVs arrive, which made early fault detection essential.

• EV transition: a low-carbon fleet target for 2028 required data on which vehicles to electrify, in what order and with what charging infrastructure.

• Driver safety: a goal of zero driver injuries involving company vehicles by 2030, built on real behavior data rather than generic training.

The solution: Geotab across the whole fleet

United Utilities rolled out Vodafone Business Fleet Analytics powered by Geotab across all 2,300+ vehicles. The setup includes Geotab GO devices, the My Vodafone Fleet App, the Geotab open platform, the Geotab Sustainability Overview and Geotab's Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA).

How predictive fleet maintenance works

Diagnostic data from each GO device goes straight to United Utilities' maintenance garages, where it powers three changes:

• Triaged engine alerts: engine management light alerts are flagged automatically and sorted by severity, so technicians tackle the most urgent faults first.

• Service by engine hours: trucks are serviced based on engine hours, not just mileage or the calendar. That matters for pump trucks whose engines run five to ten hours a day while parked.

• Parts staged in advance: automatic notifications mean replacement parts are ready before a vehicle comes in, cutting downtime.

The engine-hours change came from hard experience. Before Geotab, one low-mileage truck that was serviced on schedule suffered a complete engine failure because nobody could see the hours its engine spent running the pumps. It was off the road for 23 days, and repairs cost £60,000.

Driver safety scorecards

Managers get weekly reports on idling, harsh braking, harsh cornering and speeding, and use them to target coaching at the riskiest behaviors. Geotab Driver Safety Scorecards sort drivers into low, mild, medium and high risk, and are sent to drivers every week so they can see and own their performance. Seatbelt violations are tracked by vehicle, so managers can address repeat problems directly instead of running fleet-wide campaigns.

Planning the EV transition

The Sustainability Overview and EVSA combined historical usage data with expert guidance to show which vehicles could go electric, in what order, what infrastructure each site would need and the expected CO2 savings. The work identified site locations suited to charging, the number and type of chargers needed at each, and found that 30% of the commercial vehicle workforce could charge at home. Charging data is also integrated to validate charging events and flag potential fraud.

The results

Result	Outcome
Fuel economy	Up 35%
Emissions per vehicle	Down 26%
Driver safety scores	Up 25%
Idling time	Down 14%
Direct maintenance savings	£10,813 (January 2022 to July 2023)
Workforce eligible for home EV charging	30%

The £10,813 covers only parts and repairs caught early, across faults such as ABS, cooling systems, EGR valves, glow plugs, misfires and water in fuel. The bigger savings come from avoided downtime:

• Each vehicle off-road day prevented saves an average of £2,000 in hire costs, penalties, driver downtime and overtime.

• Keeping ASVs running avoids exposure to the £15,600-per-second regulatory penalty.

• Engine temperature alerts trigger immediate inspections, avoiding engine replacements of about £7,000 for a van and up to £30,000 for a heavy goods vehicle.

What's next

United Utilities is digging deeper into component-level fault prediction, starting with diesel particulate filters. A high number of DPF regeneration events can signal that a vehicle isn't being driven far or fast enough to clean the filter, so managers can step in before it clogs and fails. The long-term goal is a fully proactive maintenance model, with EVSA guiding electrification one vehicle at a time.

Could predictive fleet maintenance cut your downtime?

If your fleet runs specialist equipment, older vehicles or anything that can't afford to break down, mileage-based servicing may be hiding real engine wear. Can-Am Telematics and Wireless can help you set up Geotab for predictive fleet maintenance, driver safety scorecards and EV planning. Contact our team to talk through your fleet.

Read the original success story and download the PDF on Geotab's site: United Utilities achieved 35% fuel economy gain and 25% safer drivers with Geotab fleet telematics.