Richard Bird
Commercial Director and co-founder, SHIELD
Richard has spent more than 20 years in and around transport, including 12 years at a leading transport management system (TMS) provider, helping operators bring in technology and take out manual work.
Richard joined SHIELD to use technology and data on problems operators otherwise manage across several systems by hand. He runs SHIELD's demos and writes its answers to the questions fleet managers ask most.
"We want to include the driver in the solution, not just call them the problem. If we don't get the driver on board, nothing changes."
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Written by Richard
- How do you bring tracking and camera data from different suppliers together?How a fleet can bring tracking and camera data from different suppliers into one picture of every driver, without moving everything over to a single supplier.
- What's the difference between telematics, fleet management software and fleet risk software?The difference between telematics, fleet management software and fleet risk software, what each one does for a van fleet and how to tell which ones you need.
- What is a driver risk score and why do scores from different systems disagree?What a driver risk score is, what usually goes into one and why the same driver can score well in one fleet system and badly in another, with how to use one.
- How do you prove who was driving a pool van when a speeding notice or claim comes in?How to show who was driving a shared or pool van when a speeding notice or claim arrives, what the law expects of a company and the records that settle it.
- Do driver scores improve driving if nobody talks to the driver?Whether telematics driver scores improve driving without anyone talking to the driver, what the research shows and why the conversation with the driver matters.
- How do you talk to drivers about their driving data without it feeling like Big Brother?How to talk to drivers about their driving data so it feels like backing, not watching: tell them first, start with welfare and say well done when it's earned.
- How do you get van drivers to use a driver app?How to get van drivers and engineers to use a fleet driver app: let it replace forms and emails, keep it quick at the roadside and give drivers something back.
- What should the office do when a driver crashes a company van?What the office should do when a driver crashes a company van, in the first hour, the same day and the week after, so the driver and the claim are looked after.
- How long do you have to report a company van accident to your insurer?How long you have to report a company van accident to your insurer and the police, what fleet policies say and why the first day decides so much of the cost.
- How much does reporting an accident late add to a fleet claim?What reporting an accident late adds to a fleet claim in Aviva's four claim scenarios and why most of the extra cost is hire and losing the other driver.
- What is FNOL and what does a good fleet FNOL process look like?What first notification of loss (FNOL) means for a fleet, what a complete first report includes and the measures that show whether the process is working.
- Why does it matter if your insurer reaches the other driver first?What third-party capture means for a fleet claim, why your insurer reaching the other driver early cuts the cost and what the other driver can expect from it.
- What do insurers look for at a fleet insurance renewal?What insurers look for at a fleet insurance renewal: the vehicles, your claims record and the evidence that you're managing risk, not just insuring it.
- Will telematics or dashcams lower your fleet insurance?Whether fitting telematics or dashcams lowers fleet insurance, what insurers look for instead and how fitted kit helps build the case for a better premium.
- SHIELD relaunches with Driver Influence liveSHIELD's new site goes live on 27 October with Driver Influence checking in with drivers whose driving is starting to change, welfare first, to head off incidents before they turn into claims.
- 6% of hauliers in the RHA's technology benchmark have a single source of truth for their dataThe benchmark, which the RHA published with a transport software provider in July 2026, found 80 per cent rely on data that's slow to compile or potentially out of date.