Snapshot

company: Tesco PLC
sector: Grocery retail with primary distribution fleet (own HGVs + sub-contracted haulage)
hq: Welwyn Garden City, England
fleet size: approx 2,500 LGVs / HGVs and 4,000 trailers across 19 UK and Ireland depots (one of the largest LGV fleets in the UK); ~232 Maxus eDeliver 9 electric vans in home-delivery operation with plans for ~750 by 2026; 42 bio-LNG trucks at Livingston DC (Sep 2025)
owns vehicles: yes for primary distribution (Tesco-liveried HGVs) and home delivery; mixed with sub-contracted haulage at peaks
branded fleet: yes - Tesco-liveried primary fleet across UK
current provider: Microlise (telematics + Journey Management) across 19 UK & Ireland depots and 2,500+ vehicles - long-standing, deep integration including SmartPOD; no publicly disclosed AI dash-cam / video-safety provider for the HGV fleet (body-worn cameras only on home-delivery drivers, separate procurement)
contract end: unknown - Microlise telematics integration is mature and not publicly tendered; no AI video safety contract publicly disclosed
product fit: Geotab: DROP - fleet ~2,500 is far above the 10-100 ceiling. Lytx: CONDITIONAL on a dash-cam contract / refresh window - fleet 30+ comfortably cleared (2,500), no public dash-cam provider so technically a whitespace, but Tesco enterprise procurement and likely existing Brigade/Microlise integration make this a multi-quarter committee sale. Netradyne: STRONGEST THEORETICAL FIT - logistics sector, owns vehicles, branded fleet (high reputational risk), well above 50 fleet size; ICP-favoured profile; whitespace on AI dash cams is the angle but enterprise cycle applies. CameraMatics: CONDITIONAL - cleared on 30+ and decision-maker access (UK Distribution Director); needs a 12-month contract-end window. Descartes Fleet: PARTIAL - Tesco operates its own primary distribution fleet (qualifies on own-fleet, well above 50) but routing/scheduling at Tesco scale is run on bespoke / SAP-class systems, not Descartes' typical mid-market fit. Realistic route: Netradyne lead, Lytx fallback.
contact: Matthew Rhind, UK Distribution Director (effective Feb 2026, succeeding Andrew Woolfenden); 20+ years Tesco - previously Network Director, Supply Chain Development & Change Director, and Transport Director (Mar 2019 - Mar 2023). Known operator with deep transport-stack history.

All recent triggers

Tesco confirmed multi-million-pound investment in 1.2m sq ft automated distribution centre at DP World London Gateway (Europe's largest, opens 2029) - reshapes primary distribution network and the fleet flowing through it — 2025-07-10 source
42 bio-LNG trucks deployed at Livingston DC as part of progress to 100% zero-emission HGV fleet by 2030 — 2025-09 source
750 Maxus eDeliver 9 electric vans being added to home-delivery fleet starting Feb 2026 (on top of 232 already in service) — 2026-02 source

Pain hypotheses

New-into-role Distribution Director under pressure to deliver against a £1bn automated DC build and a 100% zero-emission HGV pledge by 2030 - any visible safety/cost win in the first 6-12 months is high-leverage
Mixed primary fleet (own HGVs + sub-contractors at peaks) means uneven driver-safety visibility - body-worn cameras on home-delivery and Microlise telematics on HGVs but no single AI video safety layer for the branded HGV fleet
Branded primary fleet on UK motorways carries outsized reputational risk per incident vs unbranded haulage; preventative AI camera coverage is the gap Tesco peers (Sainsbury's, Asda, Ocado) are increasingly closing

Personalisation hooks

Rhind was Tesco's Transport Director 2019-2023 and Distribution Director Europe before that - he's the rare new distribution chief who already owns the camera/telematics conversation rather than needing to be educated
Tesco's home-delivery body-worn camera trial shows the org is already comfortable with on-vehicle camera procurement - the gap is enterprise AI video on the primary HGV fleet, not a cultural objection to cameras
Microlise is entrenched on telematics, so any approach has to be additive (AI video / coaching layer) not a rip-and-replace; that constrains who fits

Tech stack

Telematics + Journey Management + SmartPOD: Microlise (deployed across 19 UK & Ireland depots and 2,500+ vehicles; also Central European trailer fleet)
Body-worn cameras: on-trial for home-delivery drivers (separate from primary distribution HGV stack)
AI video safety / dash cams: no publicly disclosed enterprise provider

ICP-fit score

62/100
Scored 62 (just clears the 60 gate, deliberately not higher). ICP fit on raw fundamentals is very high: branded, owns vehicles, ~2,500 HGVs, UK logistics, decision-maker access mapped. But Tesco is a strategic-account-tier target with multi-quarter committee buying, an entrenched Microlise telematics stack (no displacement window), and no publicly disclosed AI dash-cam contract-end window - so this is a long, top-down play, not a transactional one. Signal_strength 55 reflects two genuinely fresh hooks (Feb 2026 new Distribution Director who already knows the transport stack + ongoing £1bn DC programme) offset by the original board-supplied signal (Jul 2025 London Gateway investment) being stale at ~335 days. Geotab is dropped (fleet far exceeds 10-100 band). Best routed fit is Netradyne (ICP-favoured profile - logistics, owns, branded, 50+, no incumbent AI camera) with Lytx as the fallback if Netradyne loses the slot. Realistic verdict: queue for human strategic-account review, not a same-day send.

Recommended play

niche down buyer aware · category locked
Tesco knows it has a fleet-safety/efficiency problem and the AI-camera category is dominated by Lytx and Samsara in the enterprise tier; for Netradyne or CameraMatics the win is to go in vertical-specific (UK retail-distribution AI video) rather than fight Lytx head-on. Lead with the new-DD signal, the £1bn DC programme and a Tesco-peer angle, not a category pitch.

Sources

thegrocer.co.uk · linkedin.com · fruitnet.com · microlise.com · microlise.com · greenretail.world · whatvan.co.uk · tesco.com · internationalsupermarketnews.com