Any transport business that manages a fleet of vehicles will also have to manage important records like driver logbooks, finances and job schedules on a daily basis. If these processes are still paper-based, then they’ll demand a lot more of your time than they need to.
You’ll have to sort through dozens of pages to find the data relevant to you, and even then, these files can get damaged or misplaced. Not to mention the cost of storing it all. By making the shift to a paperless workforce, you can complete these jobs much more efficiently while also making life easier for your drivers.
An example of this is the digitisation of driver logbooks, which has resulted in an impressive improvement in both safety and compliance among transport companies. Countries like the US have already made electronic driver logbooks (EDL) a requirement since 2017. With New Zealand’s winding roads and dispersed populations, and where safety and efficiency are a top concern, we like to encourage discussions around how technology can help manage transport businesses and driver fatigue.
Truck drivers are the moving force behind transport operations, and keeping them safe by helping them easily manage fatigue should be a top priority. This ensures they are able to meet legal obligations for work and rest, taking the stress out of their day. You shouldn’t be surprised that fatigue can be just as dangerous as driving after drinking, and if you drive after less than 6 hours sleep, your chances of crashing triples.
EDLs have been given the stamp of approval as a solution to this issue by Nick Leggett of Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand. This is because they offer fleet managers vital real-time and historical information on working hours, rest hours and locations to help prevent the consequences of driver fatigue before they happen. Instead of spending hours on complex administrative headaches, managers can rely on EDLs for fast validation of driver hours.
Will the effort of going digital be worth it in the long run for business productivity?
By digitising logbook processes and going paperless, trucking companies have seen a significant reduction in time and costs spent on admin. Some of the benefits of going digital when it comes to logbooks, is better journey and task planning, which increases the productivity of vehicles and drivers. And with the electronically recorded timestamps, geo-location data, and real-time driver overviews, you can accurately ensure the right driver is on the right job. The driver overview is an all-in-one dashboard that also allows for more efficient and effective delegation of tasks and new jobs.
So far, it’s a win-win.
For the drivers themselves, going paperless is also a positive change. Traditional paper logbooks run the risk of allowing errors, misunderstandings around work and rest time rules, a lack of visibility into driver hours for the operator, and in some cases falsified entries, something companies shouldn’t gamble with. With an electronic solution, work and rest hours can be recorded in just a few taps, helpful digital reminders can be set, and the time-wasting paper logbooks and clipboards can become a memory for the history books.
Ultimately with all the safety solutions and efficiency boosters they offer, this technology is game changing for the transport industry. Thanks to EDLs, you can ensure your company is operating at optimum safety in the most time-effective way. There’s no doubt a paperless workforce carries with it a promise of exciting opportunities and growth for the New Zealand transport industry.
*Megan Duncan is Australasia director of marketing at Teletrac Navman.
