Optimisation is the holy grail of profitability and success. Every business wants to remain competitive in their market, but what does this look like for NZ transport companies?
New technologies continue to help fleet managers optimise processes, but simply installing technology isn’t enough. Many people don’t like change, which is why you must implement any new technology carefully. We have put together a free ebook, Changing Gears, to help guide you on your journey of managing new technology implementation.
This month we’ve focused on two key areas in your company that can be optimised by strategically implementing new technologies.
Safety first
Keeping your drivers safe on the road is a constant challenge. NZ’s road toll is not getting any lower. This makes our roads a hazard for drivers who spend so much of their time on it, and a concern for businesses that operate fleets. Luckily, with the right technology and implementation strategies, you can optimise road safety.
Driver fatigue plays a dangerous role in creating unsafe roads. Research in 2020 showed that 21 fatal crashes and 113 serious injury crashes were caused by fatigue. It is clearly an issue worth tackling. Digitised fatigue management solutions like eLogbook’s are an effective option, as it ensures your drivers are not working over Waka Kotahi’s legal worktime hours. With a few simple taps from the driver to enter their work and rest times, it presents a complete fatigue breakdown, which means you (and your driver) have insight into work and rest hours completed. This makes sure drivers’ mental and physical health is not put at risk due to excessive or illegal hours.
Smart dashcams are also useful when it comes to drivers safety and coaching. Using a combination of telematics data, advanced on-board sensors, and AI, they can effectively monitor unsafe driving behaviours. Is your driver going 70kmh in a 50km zone? Are they distracted on the phone while driving? Are they displaying signs of fatigue? All these unsafe driving behaviours are captured by the smart dashcam, alerting the driver in real-time, and report back so fleet managers can proactively nip them in the bud to prevent any consequences.
Introducing new technologies like elogbooks and smart dashcams add new processes to your drivers’ daily routines. That means it is important to introduce them in a supportive way. This eBook recommends implementing tech in stages as an effective introduction, to give your drivers time to adapt before the complete solution is available. By providing extensive training, initiating open discussions about change, your drivers and staff will be more motivated to learn and adapt to the new technology when they understand why it’s needed.
In our post-covid world, technology is no longer a luxury or a nice to have, and has fast become a requirement to remain competitive in this faster past world we’ve found ourselves in.
Push your profits
The second key area to optimise is, of course, profitability. As well as monitoring unsafe driving habits, smart dashcams integrated within a fleet management system can together pick up on driving factors that use unnecessary amounts of fuel, like excessive idling or over revving. By pinpointing these habits early and monitoring trends, you can reduce hefty fuel bills, and channel the money into different areas.
The eBook highlights how important it is to have motivated and receptive employees when dealing with change management for profitability. A creative way to do this is to introduce some friendly competition, and ‘gamify’ good driving habits. By using a driver scorecard system, you and your drivers can view their rankings against a range of driving metrics, including speeding, braking and revving. You have the option to positively reinforce high rankings with rewards; who wouldn’t want a paid day off, or a free lunch? A team of drivers motivated to drive efficiently will save you both time and money on unnecessary fuel and maintenance bills.
Another way to boost profitability is to use insights from GPS-enabled telematics. Tools like GPS tracking offer location insights for your entire fleet, which helps you optimise routes for each vehicle. By allocating jobs based on location, you can save on fuel and time spent on the road for your drivers.
You can also use GPS insights to track registrations, WOFs, RUC licenses and general servicing based on actual kilometres travelled. Significant and unnecessary maintenance bills are avoided, as your hardest working vehicles are serviced and maintained on time.
When implementing any kind of telematics technology, it is important to involve your drivers in the process from the start. By listening to their concerns and remaining open to any suggestions or they have, you’ll get your drivers on the same page. For more tips on successful change management, have a look at our change management eBook.
*Michael Barnard is a transport solutions specialist at Teletrac Navman. This column appeared in the May edition of TransportTalk.
