Why video telematics the next step in tackling driver distraction
As the New Zealand trucking industry grows, fleets grow too, becoming more complex and challenging to manage. Add in the human element, your full-time drivers, contractors and subcontractors, and you’ve got a lot of moving parts to juggle safely.
Telematics and fleet tracking software can help simplify the management of a large and growing fleet. With the ability to reliably track vehicles, fuel consumption and driver metrics – including vehicle speed, harsh manoeuvres, and hours – this information can aid in better understanding your operation as it grows.
Telematics, compliance and safety
Hiring contractors across your business can be a smart tactic and you’ll often find that as a fleet manager, you have a regular pool of sub-contractors you typically work with. They provide quick access to additional skills and experience when your business needs it, and it helps that they know you and your business. It makes sense to get them using the same technology as the rest of your team.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, independent contractors are treated the same as workers, meaning they have the same obligations and rights when it comes to workplace safety as other employees. Compliance, both within your own fleet and across contracted partners, is essential in maintaining safety and ultimately reputation for your organisation. With technology in both your fleet and your sub-contractor vehicles, you can monitor and reinforce driver compliance and by extension safety, whether they’re full-time drivers or a one-off for a single project.
Fatigue is one of the most highly regulated aspects of the transport industry and is a major concern. With telematics like Teletrac Navman’s Electronic Driver Logbooks proactively measure driver work and rest hours against legislation. EDLs break down fatigue rules based on real-time data from the driver, so you can see compliance throughout a shift, not at the end of it. What does this mean? With an EDL implemented across your contractor base, it means you can successfully ensure jobs are able to be completed on time and allocated to drivers with hours available.
Telematics can also measure vehicle fitness of duty. With a digital Pre-trip Checklist is a flexible tool that drivers can use to complete vehicle pre-trip inspections and driver fit for duty assessments. With pre-trip checklists if any vehicle fails inspection the maintenance team are instantly alerted and can stop the vehicle from leaving the site, ensuring compliance and safety are a top priority. You are always alerted to failing checklists to help keep your staff and the community safe around the clock.
By utilising telematics to record data and manage safety, subcontractors are held to the same standard as full-time employees. They are supported by the same safety and compliance measures to help them function effectively and seamlessly as part of your wider organisation.
Site management
When working on job sites within the construction and trades industries, especially as a project manager and prime contractor, you inevitably work with a lot of third parties and contractors. Simplifying the management of your third parties is essential to maintain cohesion and safety requirements across your full-time and part-time employees.
From spoils management and compliance of materials moved, right through to deliveries and equipment operators, ensuring you have the right technologies in the right place helps you to keep track of your assets, always have the necessary equipment on site, and traffic management. Keeping track of your assets with GPS tracking technology lets you know when your assets are working, sitting idle or not in use when they should be enabling you to maximise productivity and optimise utilisation. Tracking assets also monitor whether the correct equipment is on site, for smooth and prompt project completion as well as traffic management reducing congestion, ensuring they get to the correct site on time.
Getting connected
By automatically collecting data on events and incidents that occur, time spent off the road and how your operators drive telematics can demonstrate the safety of your fleet and drivers to potential customers. All telematics data is stored centrally, so large caches of data describing your fleet can be analysed and referenced when talking to potential clients quickly and securely.
Data on driver behaviour and vehicle use enables you to correct any faults, protect your organisation, and show employees and clients that you care. The added visibility also helps companies identify potential safety weaknesses and educate drivers about safe practices, as well as assist in incident reduction and liability risk. This all ensures that your business and its contractors completing the works involved are always providing the best service possible for the happiest of customers and helping to ensure the future of the business.
Go the extra mile to retain a positive reputation
Managing your fleet safely and efficiently is paramount. Whether your team are full-time employees or one-off contractors, it is essential to monitor safety, efficiency and compliance across the board to maintain top quality work and foster a culture of safety. With telematics you can ensure the health and safety of everyone who works with you.
If you take care of your employees, they’ll take good care of your customers. Treating your contractors like they’re your own employees will support productivity, compliance, and safety across your workforce. Telematics can become your management tool, helping you become proactive in managing staff and easily spot trends and patterns across the company’s departments by recording data on full-time employees, contractors and subcontractors alike.
By supporting both full-time employees and contractors with telematics, daily operations can run smoothly reducing risk, unexpected occurrences, and dangerous behaviours. Everyone can get home safely, and the reputation of your organisation – an asset that takes years to build – will be safe and enduring too.