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Lightfoot

Started by johnboy245, 17-03-20, 11:29PM

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johnboy245

Hey Guys

I noticed someone put a note in the dot.com department saying that the vans are going to be fitted with a new device called a Lightfoot. Big brother is watching?! We haven't any meetings about this or what it does. Looking at the Lightfoot website... It looks like it a live GPS that tracks your van.

Any thoughts?

Hammer10

My brother in law works for wrens he is an hgv driver they have cameras in their cabs which watch them doing what they do in the cab if they take one hand off the steering wheel they get fined.

Pimpernel19

Said light foot device will be utterly destroyed by my heavy foot! Muhahahaha!

helpme


Villager No.6

Being fitted into our vans this week but according to MM not going live “For a while”, they’re guessing until the whole fleet is equipped.
Very strong rumours that a driver facing camera is not far behind and some stores will be trailing it in the next few months.

Nomad

Rest break, toilet break, traffic congestion, RTA, other drivers (bad or stupid), careless pedestrians (young and old).

  ???  :question:
Nomad ( Forum Admin )
It's better to be up in arms than down on your knees.

Jamma213

These got fitted to our vans before coronavirus started and some went live on Sunday while management said they were supposed to go live yesterday.

gomezz

#7
Went live yesterday at our store.  First impression is that it is totally focused on acceleration and anything other than a Marge Simpson gives it an attack of the vapours.  Could not induce any reaction from harder than normal braking (*) or taking a corner at more than usual speed.  My view is that as long as the needle is within the green band on the rev counter then who is Lightfoot to argue with the automatic gearbox that is already locked in gentle ECO mode?

(*) The old tracking system always flagged me up as a "harsh" braker.
"The progress of the kart is more important than its direction"

cddriver

Lightfoot does track harsh incidents (braking, speeding, etc) but we don’t have access to that and the lights are just for acceleration. Harsh incidents won’t affect our Lightfoot score either, it’s just acceleration.

It don’t think it goes off of the rev counter either, you can sometimes have the revs low but still be in amber/red and other times be in the green with higher revs. I’m guessing it’s throttle percentage.

1921

Lightfoot expects you to switch off the engine every time that you make a delivery, presumably to save diesel.  If you don't switch off, you get penalty points.  However, if you do switch off, particularly in the warm or hot weather, the temperature within the freezer and chiller units drops like a stone.  The end result should be quite apparent.

gomezz

The onboard refrigeration compressor when parked up with the engine running on idle and no moving air pass through is not very effective at keeping / dropping the temps.  What I do in hot weather is keep on the move even if there is a gap before the next delivery.  There is usually a stretch of main road between two roundabouts to troll up and down between.
"The progress of the kart is more important than its direction"

Villager No.6

1921
You must be delivering to some remote areas, if I left the van running when doing a delivery it’d be gone before I’d had a chance to open the shutter  :D

baldy69

Quite a few new reviews been added. Can guess who the posters work for 🤣

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lightfoot.co.uk

gomezz

I think they should rebrand it as Featherfoot.
"The progress of the kart is more important than its direction"

gaz123

Lightfoot is a terrible idea. Aside from being a distraction, with its judgemental green/amber/red lights drawing your attention from the road, it penalises safe driving. What I mean by that is, when you're joining fast-flowing traffic from a slip road onto a dual carriageway or motorway (which we have to do quite often at my store) you need to be able to match the speed of the traffic flow in order to join safely. Unless the slip road is ridiculously long, the only way to do this is to use a lot of accelerator, which then gets you a nag (at best) or a penalty (at worst) from Lightfoot. But if it's a choice between a penalty, or pulling onto the main carriageway in front of a vehicle doing 10-15mph more than you could ever hope to reach by staying in the green on Lightfoot, then I know which one I'm going to do!

I've spent the last couple of weeks seeing how high I can get my score - but having realised now that in order to get any sort of decent percentage you have to drive like Mother Theresa, I think that from now on I won't be bothering and I'll just be driving in a way which my 30 years of experience behind the wheel suggests is appropriate. If that gets me Lightfoot penalties, and a rebuke from management, then I'll be asking them to put in writing that I'm being specifically instructed to drive in a manner which is unsafe.

piaggio1

Just had this thing fitted last week...first observation...looking at the green  lights more than the road..downloaded the app.98%..though it was.nt my van.??.found the van I was on..gives you a list of all your delivery s...and the time you were er parked..don.t like it..very hard to not put foot down when joining a motorway/ junction..

piaggio1

Correct gaz...sometimes you need the foot down to keep up with traffic..ie joining  a motorway in front of a attic.. at the speed which  lightfoot seems safe?? No chance...in the red 

helpme

Well I'm driving strictly to Lightfoot no matter if it holds up other traffic. And when the complaints start coming in I will just state I'm driving how the company wishes me to drive keeping it in the green. If enough drivers do it they might get the hint.

chunkymufc

The days of Caravans and Tractors holding up traffic on roads are now over.

I have now found myself doing extra miles, to avoid dual carriageways / motorways, all to avoid going into the red and getting a bad mark.

It's easy for management to tell you to ignore certain things about lightfoot, but when they have previously been quick enough to speak to you like a naughty schoolboy after excessive cornering and acceleration issues with the old system, trust is an issue.

I've also tried to explain to management that some vans differ. One van I drive on a regular basis, you only have to think about putting your foot on the accelerator for the green bars to shoot up, but some other vans the green bars hardly move when you accelerate slowly. 

Will get use to it at some point, just like all other changes we have to face in life.

 

gomezz

Started using an old sports wristband to cover the display while driving.  The lights are a distraction.  Having them flashing up and down while driving normally goes against all recognised norms for effective warning systems.  Having the the main light go from green to amber to red without any clue why (acceleration, cornering, braking, what?) is useless as feedback to change driving style.
"The progress of the kart is more important than its direction"

gaz123

Quote from: chunkymufc on 21-07-20, 08:14AMI have now found myself doing extra miles, to avoid dual carriageways / motorways, all to avoid going into the red and getting a bad mark.
Same here. I find myself taking routes which are longer than the ones the satnav suggests because I know they'll be "kinder" as far as Lightfoot is concerned.

QuoteI've also tried to explain to management that some vans differ. One van I drive on a regular basis, you only have to think about putting your foot on the accelerator for the green bars to shoot up, but some other vans the green bars hardly move when you accelerate slowly.
Absolutely. I've noticed a not-insignificant difference between vans - some of them are more forgiving, others far less so. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some sort of calibration process which should've been done when the units were installed, but which was skipped.

helpme

gaz123 you are right, there should be calibration but that is charged as extra. Also, considering it's plugged into the van system since we have used it my van has never shown I have been driving economically while the lights have stayed in the green.

dfl

Lightfoot is a total distraction and inherently dangerous
DFL

choppers dad

Quote from: helpme on 16-07-20, 11:15PM
Well I'm driving strictly to Lightfoot no matter if it holds up other traffic. And when the complaints start coming in I will just state I'm driving how the company wishes me to drive keeping it in the green. If enough drivers do it they might get the hint.
there are 500 drivers in our cfc,  I am always about 450, never spoken to me about it and I have been there 8 and half years. Take no notice, I have flashed up speeding a few times, I don't really care though.

baldy69

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lightfoot.co.uk

Can I ask if any of you have 5 minutes to spare to add a review on the above please. Quite a few I work with have already done so. Lightfoot have started to reply to bad reviews and have also by pure coincidence started to receive ‘good’ reviews to mark there score up!
Let’s voice our opinions like many already have 👍🏻

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