How Going Paperless Will Transform Your Operations

For businesses in transport, construction and local government, the hours spent wading through stacks of paper is an all-too familiar burden. From contracts, reports and receipts to customer forms, driver work diaries and audit requirements, there’s a lot of information to record and keep track of. It’s not unusual to have to sift through dozens of pages just to find the one piece of information you need.

How going paperless with digital technologies can improve your compliance management processes.

Over the past year, particularly as many businesses adopted new business practices in the wake of COVID-19, operations have increasingly shifted online. Yet while 87 per cent of senior business leaders say digitalisation is a company priority, only 40 per cent have brought digital initiatives to scale.

Taking the leap into the digital world to go paperless across your entire operations will benefit your business, staff and customers in several ways. Here’s how.

Data At Your Fingertips

Operators across Australia’s transport, construction, service and local government sector will all face increased demand in the coming years. With all these businesses generating documentation for every task, every incident and every driver, having to stay on top of these physical files will be a daunting task.

With increased demand also comes increased pressure on staff to get the job done, so it’s essential that businesses are carefully managing driver fatigue and employee wellbeing to ensure staff are safe on the road. A move to Electronic Work Diaries (EWDs), now available as a voluntary alternative to written work diaries, will automate a lot of previously manual fatigue and compliance processes.

Gone are the days of drivers manually entering physical work diaries and admin staff inputting data days later just to ensure driver work and rest hours are compliant. Drivers record their hours by tapping an in-cabin device that automatically calculates their fatigue hours. This data, captured alongside time, location and other relevant info, is available to admin workers in real-time.

Not only does going paperless maintain safety standards and slash admin time, having all this data readily available whenever you need it allows you to make more effective decisions quickly. If a new job comes in, you can view all drivers’ current workloads to see who can handle the task. You’ll keep your entire staff safe and ensure they’re staying compliant.

Sharing Knowledge

No matter your industry, part of the secret to maintaining a successful business is making sure everyone in your company is on the same page. Everyone needs to be aware of challenges, workloads and delivery requirements for clients - from staff on the ground who need to make quick decisions to your C-suite team who need to understand overall business trends and barriers to success. But when all this info is only available on paper diaries and physical documents, sharing it with everyone is difficult.

Eliminating paperwork and storing your documentation digitally via an all-in-one platform ensures all knowledge is shared. Anyone from the business can access this data any time they like. By constantly circulating information, you’re helping to improve teamwork and improving decision-making.

Streamline Business Practices

Processes involving paper permits and contracts are time-consuming which not only costs you hours and chews up resources, it can lead to vital information being missed. Digitising your documentation lets workers instantly pull up the information they need, ensuring they stay legally compliant while allowing them to complete jobs faster. You can have peace of mind that documentation is always up-to-date, and everyone is working with the same information.

Digitising work diaries allows managers and operators to view the current fatigue hours of their fleet at a glance. Instead of waiting days, or even weeks, for driver data to be manually entered, all this info is instantly available, helping you to tackle compliance issues proactively and guarantee the safety of your fleet.

With all data coming in in real-time, businesses across transport, construction and local government can also boost their response time by going paperless. The nearest delivery driver can be assigned to a new job. Any updated site requirements are immediately available to all workers across a construction site. If a road incident occurs, you can task the closest worker to redirect and control the flow of traffic.

 

Going paperless isn’t just great for the environment. Digitising your documentation ensures everyone across your business has the same access to important data, while improving customer service, reducing admin costs and streamlining tasks.