For businesses large and small across Europe, commercial vehicles are the lifeblood of their operation.

In Europe, 99 per cent of businesses – 23 million in total – are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with commercial vehicles contributing around €1 trillion to GDP across Europe – a trend that is growing year-on-year, and is now being driven by much more than just vehicle activity.

But in the modern world, with groundbreaking technology at our fingertips, vans can be so much more productive as they move people and products from A to B, saving businesses time and money.

Through the power of connected data, vans can deliver more than ever. Like a fitness tracker for your fleet, connected vehicle data helps optimise vehicle and driver performance by providing both real-time updates and cumulative data for deeper analysis and richer insight.

And it’s no wonder. Ford Pro data indicates that businesses can reduce van downtime by up to 60 per cent through smarter vehicle maintenance and monitoring.

Today, accurate, real-time information direct from your fleet is invaluable for solving challenges and driving improvements to the bottom line. Think less idling, less downtime for maintenance, better route efficiency, fuel or charging savings, driver behaviour monitoring and training, and much more. Plus, the data can deliver insights about driving behaviours that reduce risk to staff and the business. Think seatbelt use, speeding, harsh braking.

However, while van users and fleet managers are increasingly recognising the transformational value of this data, Ford Pro’s latest piece of research reveals that a significant proportion of the commercial vehicle community is currently missing out on many of its key benefits due to concerns over data usage, understanding and trust.

In Ford Pro’s latest piece of research, Closing the Commercial Vehicle Data Gap, We spoke to 2,000 van drivers and 150 fleet managers across Europe and the US, and what became clear is that a knowledge gap is emerging – a gap that separates the best in our business, who have seized the opportunity presented by connected data, from those still relying on traditional management tools and not unlocking the potential of data to save time and money.

As an example, globally less than a third (32 per cent) of drivers and just 57 per cent of fleet managers claim to know how to use telematics to save time and money. While the driver figure in the US is 48 per cent, in Europe it is just 29 per cent, with France the lowest with 1 in 4 drivers not knowing anything at all, followed by Germany at 21 per cent. In the US, the equivalent figure is as low as 1 per cent.

Drivers within smaller fleets are lagging behind with just one in ten saying they do not know how to use telematics, and more worryingly over 1 in 3 (38 per cent) small business drivers know nothing at all, compared to 18 per cent of mid-sized fleet drivers and 7 per cent of large fleet drivers.

“A knowledge gap is emerging – a gap that separates the best in our business from those still relying on traditional management tools .”

Hans Schep, general manager, Ford Pro, Europe

Again, the gap is clear to see and, again, small business fleets are in danger of falling into it.

As an industry, we need to close this gap – and fast.

Ford Pro exists to maximise the productivity of its customers by helping to optimise the way they use their vehicles, the heartbeat of their business. A vehicle off the road is lost time and lost money for a business, which can be hugely detrimental for companies of all sizes.

To combat this, we're empowering vehicle operators with the tools they need to harness the power of data for their businesses.

Our mission is to make running your commercial vehicles as easy and hassle-free as possible by putting everything you need in one place. For a business to thrive, it needs to maximise the productivity and uptime of its vehicles, and to achieve that we need to work with our customers to ensure they are in the best position to benefit from data now and in the future.

Hans Schep is general manager, Ford Pro, Europe.