With your drivers constantly on the road, keeping tabs on their activities and whether they’re going where they’re supposed to is a challenge, especially when you have a medium to large-sized fleet. This makes driver management and driver monitoring integral to your fleet’s operational success, but is there an all-in-one driver management solution?
We’ve got the answers.
Companies that are successful at driver management don’t necessarily have a completely different approach from other companies, but there are specific choices they make that have a huge impact on getting it right. Here’s what they do:
Modern driver management includes strategic employee management, resource coordination, and policy adherence to ensure legal compliance, maximum safety, and enhanced operational efficiency. So, while the term only mentions the driver, effective driver management in a successful fleet business positively affects the bottom line in more ways than one.
Let’s take a look at a systematic breakdown of modern driver management:
The more fleet businesses, the demand for fleet-based businesses and their related technology has evolved, the more fleet companies become aware of the need for advanced driver monitoring tools. Fleet businesses are responsible for the health of their drivers as well as the safety of their passengers and cargo. To ensure you’re able to manage your drivers properly, make sure that the driver monitoring technology you’re using has the following three main functions:
Take a look at the following reasons why you need to consider an advanced driver management system—you may even discover some you’ve never thought about before.
All fleet drivers have destinations to reach, whether they’re transporting tonnes of cargo, doing same-day deliveries, or driving passengers to their next destination. A key part of driver management is ensuring they reach these destinations, whether this means providing navigation tools, staying updated on vehicle health issues, or preventing unauthorised driver usage.
Making sure your drivers don’t end up in the wrong place is one of the main goals of driver management, and by using multifaceted fleet management technology like route optimisation and route planning, you can proactively manage all these potential hazards in one go.
The more efficient your day-to-day operations are, the more likely you are to gain your customers’ trust, keep them happy, and build brand trust. A crucial component of customer satisfaction in fleet-based operations is using a smart driver management system that automates simple tasks, keeps you updated on important events, and provides contextualised data that supports informed decision-making and improved operations.
Key role players in improved operations that enhance customer satisfaction include smart route planning and optimisation tools, efficient task assignment, intelligent shift management, and live vehicle tracking ensures goods are dispatched, en route, and delivered on schedule.
Driven by increasing mandates for traffic management and improved road safety by connected technologies, the projected global fleet management systems market is estimated to reach a mind-blowing $565.1bn by 2025.
While this may be quite obvious to fleet managers and owners, driver management and monitoring are some of the key solutions to staying compliant, meeting the requirements of these increasing mandates, and avoiding penalties and fines that come with non-compliance. What may be more challenging is identifying which product will offer the best solution. Key factors to look out for are solutions that incorporate IoT, telematics, big data, GPS tracking, and vision technology that provides real-time visibility and contextualised metrics. Cartrack’s all-in-one solution meets all of these requirements and more.
It may sound ridiculous to think of a licenced driver driving in the opposite lane, but constantly driving can take its toll and unintentionally cause drivers to lose focus. Here are some common conditions that can be easily managed with advanced driver management and monitoring systems:
It happens to drivers every day, and it’s most likely happened to you, so being aware of highway hypnosis, also called white line fever, can be life-saving. Whether you’re driving home from work or driving long distances to deliver cargo, staying alert is crucial. Closely related to driver fatigue, the condition involves “zoning out” while driving, which leads to impaired focus and slower reaction times.
Statistics show that highway hypnosis is a significant contributing factor to about 20% of road accidents involving drowsy or fatigued driving. From this perspective, monitoring your drivers and knowing when they’re feeling drowsy can save their lives and your business, and with the right driver management technology, this is possible. Here are the top warning signs that you may be experiencing white line fever and that you need to pull over and take a break:
As they say, stay alert, stay alive. Help your drivers achieve this with advanced driver management technology.
Feeling stressed while driving automatically takes a driver’s focus away from the road, increasing the risk of accidents that may lead to injury and cargo damage. The most common causes of driving stress include traffic congestion and navigation issues. Think about it—being lost or dealing with a dysfunctional navigation system while you have delivery targets or deadlines to meet can cause incredible stress, and if the driver experiencing this situation has no way of communicating with their manager in real-time, the anticipation of getting into trouble with their manager only adds fuel to the fire.
Making a call is not always reliable. Using a mode of communication or notification system, the manager is focused on can help ensure drivers have reduced stress levels, knowing that they can instantly communicate issues and receive support when needed.
While it probably doesn’t happen often, especially with strict local road rule enforcement, wrong-way driving can still happen. Intentional cases are incredibly rare, so let’s look at the main reasons why drivers unintentionally end up on the wrong side of the road:
GPS tracking and route deviation alerts can help you keep your drivers in check when they may end up on the wrong side of the road.
The best fleet management solutions naturally develop hand-in-hand with driver management needs, and staying on top of your fleet operations requires knowing about the latest and greatest driver management and monitoring technology. Here are our top picks for solutions that will take driver management, fleet productivity, and, ultimately, business optimisation.
The technological mainstay of any fleet management solution is a foolproof GPS tracking system that gives constant visibility and supports fleet managers in making informed and proactive decisions based on their fleet’s movements.
Cartrack’s telematics-powered tracking units are installed in every fleet vehicle and offer real-time location tracking accessible from the online FleetWeb platform or the Cartrack App. With added Geofencing, fleet managers can create custom, predefined digital fences to closely monitor drivers’ movements by receiving instant alerts when fleet vehicles enter or exit these virtual zones, ensuring productivity and streamlining their operations.
Increasing the visibility of fleet vehicle locations and in-cabin driver activity and road conditions gives you the tools you need to practice proactive and smart risk management for increased driver safety, proper investigations, and reduced incidents that lead to vehicle downtime.
With a variety of smart camera options, Cartrack’s Vision range ticks every box on a fleet manager’s driver monitor’s solution list. Here’s a taste of what you can expect from Cartrack Vision:
Driver management also includes making sure your drivers show up at work every day knowing what to do, where to go, and, if there’s a change in plans, what they need to do next. The best way to remotely manage a fleet’s workflow is with custom technology that allows you to assign tasks while communicating with your drivers in real time.
Cartrack’s Field Service feature allows you to create schedules in advance while getting real-time visibility on job progress and location to improve customer service and productivity. Some of the top features include:
Setting workplace standards for drivers is important to ensure compliance and reduce incidents. One of the most useful features for modern driver management is an all-in-one driver coaching system that allows fleet managers to identify behavioural issues and keep track of how many times these issues have occurred as well as how many times the driver has been coached or trained.
Cartrack’s coaching tool allows fleet managers to view breakdowns and graphs about daily or monthly events and which of these events have been addressed or coached. This allows fleet managers to apply targeted training for improved driver behaviour and to have the framework they need for driver education and accountability.
Being able to assign specific drivers to allocated vehicles, especially if these vehicles require special licencing is crucial for proper driver management. Having technology that allows only assigned drivers to start these allocated vehicles increases your workplace safety while making sure your drivers are not under the influence of alcohol, which helps with compliance.
Cartrack’s Driver ID Tags and Breathalyser technology allow you to control which driver can start which vehicle, and the breathalyser allows fleet managers to proactively prevent drivers with a breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) above the legal limit by preventing the vehicle from starting, helping reduce accidents and liability claims. The tag uses a specialised sensor to identify the assigned driver, and in conjunction with the breathalyser, will ensure that your assigned driver will only be able to start their vehicle if sober and fit for their shift.
Don’t wait for the public to tell you how your drivers are performing. Contact us today for a free demo and get sophisticated driver monitoring and management solutions designed to optimise your business.
Contact Cartrack today for a free demo and discover the magic of advanced driver management technology.
Discover how advanced driver management technology can help you boost your fleet’s productivity, profits, and overall business growth.
