Beating Driver Fatigue on Long Hauls
Managing a fleet requires balancing efficiency, safety and staying ahead of compliance regulations, especially when it comes to fatigue. Yet that’s made easy with an Electronic Work Diary as a written work diary is fraught with difficulties.
An EWD can help boost efficiency by reducing manual handling, increasing your workforce’s safety culture, helping drivers adhere to their rest schedules, and hitting your compliance goals by minimising the errors that come from using paper logbooks.
What really is an electronic work diary?
Anyone who has been in the industry long enough will remember when laws were put in place regarding how long a driver could spend on the road and when they needed to take mandated work hours and rest breaks. This was all done with a paper logbook filled in by the driver and processed later by someone back at base.
An EWD is a tool designed to ease the burden on the driver’s ability to manage fatigue and the business’s ability to manage compliance. It simplifies by replacing the paper logbook, reducing the need to manually process work diaries and the admin work required to verify hours. It also simplifies the driver’s day by providing real-time alerts of upcoming rest breaks and all the information they could need at their fingertips.
Let’s leave aside the obvious benefits to the driver for the moment and look at what EWDs mean for fleet management, routing and efficiency.
A bird’s eye view of where your driver is at
With paper-based diaries, it’s hard to calculate hours at the drop of a hat, and without the right information available, figuring availability for upcoming or ad hoc work becomes very complex. An EWD available through a fleet management system like TN360 allows you to schedule fatigue with safety in mind based on the driver’s current fatigue, past hours, and upcoming hours. The data is always available to the back office for fleet managers to provide a safe and productive working environment.
As data is always available, the business doesn’t need to contact the driver to find out where they are in their schedule. These real-time data insights make it a snap if an ad-hoc job comes in because schedulers will know drivers can meet the deadline and can be confident they’re compliant with the fatigue hours as set out by the appropriate ruleset.
Electronic work diaries reduce administration
Digitising workflows through telematics and fleet management solutions is one of the most significant upgrades any operator can make to their business. No one wants to deal with paper as it’s inefficient and ties up valuable people who could make a more meaningful contribution to the business.
Paper is also prone to errors – it’s easy for drivers to make a mistake when entering their hours, and it’s just as easy for the person processing the diaries to get something wrong. EWDs eliminate all these errors, and because current and historical data is always available through TN360, you have the evidence you’re compliant if an audit comes about.
Our client, Hi-Trans Express, based in Adelaide, upgraded its manual processes to Teletrac Navman’s EWD alongside TN360 fleet management software and has immediately reaped the benefits.
Before their digital journey, Hi-Trans Express had four people, one at each of its major bases solely worked on processing manual diaries. Once it introduced EWDs, the resources saved were redeployed into roles contributing to the business’s bottom line.
Not only was the administrative burden lifted, but Hi-Trans’ managers are confident their drivers are fully compliant with fatigue legislation, and drivers know they’ll be able to get home to their families at the end of the working week.
Drivers benefit too
With an EWD, a driver no longer needs to calculate their rest breaks, as the in-cab device automatically informs them of where they are in the fatigue schedule, allowing them to plan for the next stop and pull over somewhere quiet, where they can get some food and hunker down for a rest.
This takes the burden off drivers – who want to do the right thing – and removes the stress and uncertainty associated with a paper system. The same drivers can also be confident they’re compliant and know that the system is watching out for them, keeping them safe and rested.
As a fleet manager, staying on top of compliance is critical to your business’s safety culture. An EWD eliminate the guesswork of managing driver fatigue, save you money by reducing administration, and improve efficiency by giving you a top-down view of where your drivers are at in their rest schedules. This allows you to be more flexible when planning and allocating jobs, helping to boost the bottom line in a highly competitive industry.