Driving efficency
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Modern technology can help almost any vehicle operator get the best out of its most valuable resource – the drivers – and raise fleet efficiency
Words: Robin Meczes Hard-pressed vehicle operators are being hit on all sides, with high costs such as fuel squeezing margins on one hand and customers unwilling or unable to raise transport rates on the other – all amid a perfect economic storm that has dented demand and left confidence in tatters. Little wonder that operators everywhere are looking for new ways to cut costs.
There are many ways to do this, of course, but one that has come very much to the fore in recent years is the use of new technology, and telematics systems in particular.
Such systems are most often used to monitor trucks in real-time, providing constant feedback on location and speed as well as base-to-driver communications. But they can also be used, as many are, to report remotely on fuel consumption, engine revs, gear changes and braking effort, among other vehicle parameters, opening the door to detailed analysis of driving styles and the option to change those styles for the better.
Leaving all the sales spiels in the brochure, however, do such systems really deliver when it comes to lowering costs? From what end users of such technology have to say, they certainly seem to...
Pinpointing underperformance
Container transport specialist Containerships (UK), for example, which has sites at Sheerness Docks and Teesport, says it has seen an overall 5%-plus improvement in fuel consumption figures in the last six months thanks to its use of Volvo’s Dynafleet system across 31 of its 54 tractive units.
“With the price of fuel as it is, it’s a brilliant tool,” says fleet manager Gordon Aitchison. “You can pinpoint exactly why a driver is underperforming and what the problems are, like hanging onto gears for too long.” The system also highlights things like excessive idling and failure to use the exhaust brake properly, he says, showing exactly what areas of driving style need addressing.
Linked in to digital tachographs, it’s also useful in tracking available drivers’ hours, says Aitchison. “You can tap straight into it wherever drivers are and see who’s got enough hours left to do a particular job,” he explains.
The firm’s drivers are relaxed about the use of the system, he continues. Regular league tables are watched closely by the drivers, who take pride in their performance, and the system can also exonerate them from blame where fuel figures disappoint. “If you’re getting poor consumption, you can go into the details of what’s been done and if a driver has been doing everything right, you can start looking at other things,” he says. The system has even supported a successful claim against a parking penalty, by proving how long a particular driver and vehicle were at a service station on one occasion, says Aitchison.
It’s a similar story over at logistics provider Wincanton, where technical services director Dave Rowlands says the Daimler FleetBoard system used on around 100 of its vehicles is an excellent tool for managing driver performance. “It’s your supervisor in the cab,” he says.
FleetBoard doesn’t just rate drivers by fuel consumption but takes account of things like harsh braking, idling time, vehicle weight and terrain in analysing their driving style, which all helps to even out factors that might otherwise skew a simple fuel-derived driver score.
“If you have one operation in Norfolk and one in South Wales, fuel consumption in these two operations will be like chalk and cheese – but FleetBoard levels the playing field,” he says. “You might otherwise end up demeriting a driver with poor fuel consumption, when he’s actually a very good driver in a difficult terrain with a truck that’s at 44 tonnes day-in and day-out.” A good example can be found in one Wincanton operation to move hydrogen, which while very light itself needs to be moved in heavy steel tanks that leave unladen gross vehicle weight barely different to laden GVW, he says.
While overall fuel savings are difficult to quantify across Wincanton’s varied and frequently evolving operations, Rowlands says his ‘gut feeling’ is that there has to be a minimum 5% benefit overall from using telematics data with subsequent driver retraining. With individual drivers, he points out, “a 12% saving is not uncommon”.
Telematics also brings many safety benefits, stresses Rowlands, not least in flagging up situations where the anti-rollover systems on its ADR vehicles have been armed in response to drivers cornering a bit too fast.
“The manager can see that and then ask the driver why – and behaviour can be modified,” he says. “We’ve virtually eradicated rollovers on our petroleum fleet, because we have the rollover protection fitted and because we can manage drivers that are getting close to its limits.” Telematics data is also handy in confirming driver statements after an accident or incident, he says, and for demonstrating a vehicle has been treated with respect in any warranty dispute. “It’s not just about fuel consumption – there are lots of side benefits of having that data there,” says Rowlands.
instant feedback
Talking to drivers after the event on the way they have driven a vehicle isn’t the only way telematics systems help manage minds and heavy right feet, however: in addition to reporting on driver activity to managers back at base, some systems also incorporate in-cab devices to make drivers aware of any over-revving, harsh braking or excessive idling as it happens.
That’s a feature North Lincolnshire-based bulk products specialist Clugston Distribution finds very useful in its CMS SupaTrak telematics system, as its drivers are frequently away for a week at a time. Its in-cab Safer Driving Assistant (SDA) constantly monitors what drivers are doing and provides both audible and visual alerts to anything negative.
“It gives them feedback on their driving style from the moment they go out on a Monday,” confirms general manager David Heath. “If there’s any over-revving or harsh braking, it’ll beep at them in the cab and tell them on the display unit what the negative behaviour was.” Over a two-month trial across 20 vehicles using the SDA alongside CMS’ EcoTrak management information system and some driver retraining, Clugston achieved a 5.5% improvement in fuel economy, says Heath.
“We get savings of about £1,000 a week over those 20 vehicles and we’re now going to put it on another 40,” he says. With savings of that order, system payback should be achieved in just 10 weeks, reveals Heath.
Lloyd Fraser Milk Division is also using telematics to keep a tight rein on fuel costs. Operations and development manager Lee Westgate says it has been using Isotrak’s Active Transport Management System in earnest since February this year on a 26-vehicle fleet of bulk rigids and artics for one particular contract and has generated a fuel saving of 3% so far, which he expects to rise to 5%-7% in time.
As well as overall fuel consumption, idling times and harsh braking/acceleration, Westgate uses the system to keep an eye on the use of cruise control.
“In this industry we have a lot of drivers with a great length of service, many from vehicles that didn’t have cruise control fitted. It has highlighted times where drivers were not using cruise control, allowed us to get to the reasons why and tailor a bit of training to those individuals, and then see the benefits come through,” he says.
Previously, the firm could only make crude manual measurements of fuel usage on this contract with no way of monitoring individual drivers’ behaviour in specific areas, he continues. “Now, with the benefit of telematics, we can actually see individual drivers’ performance and target the areas we need to focus on,” he explains. Like others, Westgate anticipates knock-on benefits in terms of things like accident rates and servicing costs, too.
“We’ll need at least six months to measure that, but I know it will make a difference because of the change in the way the drivers are driving the vehicles,” he says.
“They are thinking more about what they are doing, looking at the road more, taking traffic flow into consideration and trying to position their vehicles to get the best out of them.
“Nobody in haulage or transport can afford not to embrace this kind of technology,” he concludes. n l Successful driver management can contribute to significant business gains. Find out more at the ‘Managing your best assets’ seminar at Commercial Motor Live.
vehicle makers take on thirD party challenge
While vehicle makers are heavily outnumbered on the telematics market by third party suppliers, they have made great strides in recent years in responding to the challenge, continuously developing their systems to become just as capable and flexible as Scania’s well-established Onboard system is a good example, providing a wide range of tailorable reports on vehicles, routes and driver performance, as well as the option of remote digital tachograph downloading.
It’s available in three service packages: Monitor, which provides a weekly email summary of vehicle performance including
fuel consumption and CO2 emissions,
performance trends and exception reporting; Analysis, which offers both vehicle and driver performance analysis against predetermined criteria via a dedicated web portal, with traffic light reports on areas like driving style, fuel usage and emissions; and Control, which adds current and historical vehicle location information with geo-fencing to the Analysis functions.
Among the latest vehicle makers to enter the telematics fray, announce the UK launch of the Mimamori telematics system, a
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package already used by over 40,000 commercial vehicles in Japan. The system, which will be serviced in the UK by a new department within Isuzu Truck called I-Vision, provides real-time web-based vehicle tracking, two-way messaging, fuel monitoring, and driver and vehicle performance monitoring – the latter area includes vehicle speed, cruising gear choice, harsh acceleration or deceleration and engine speed.
TelemaTics: noT The only way
Telematics tends to dominate operators’ thinking when it comes to collecting information about vehicles and achieving efficiency gains, but it is by no means the only option. Much of the same driving style information can be gathered – albeit not remotely or in real-time – by manually connecting to a truck’s onboard Canbus network in some way.
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A good example is Renault Trucks’ Optifuel Infomax system, which can be used to monitor performance parameters like how much time is spent in the
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green band, the percentage of time spent idling or in cruise control, and the
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number of times the brake pedal is depressed. Instead of downloading remotely, users access the information via a wired link with a laptop, where data analysis and reports are generated.
Among the firms using the Optifuel Infomax system is West Midlands-based steel haulier A Hingley Transport, whose finance manager Dave Smith says the quality of information provided is just as good as that from a telematics system, though the need to physically connect to each truck means they tend to reserve it for times when some performance anomaly needs clearing up, he admits.
Raising fleet efficiency and saving fuel are not always a question of interrogating the vehicle, either: just as effective can be what you tell it to do in the first place and on this score, routeing and scheduling software can also make a big difference.
Tipper, tanker and curtainsider operator W&H Marriage & Sons, for example, says that the routeing efficiencies and vehicle utilisation gains of the Route Monkey vehicle scheduling system have helped it to make better use of drivers’ time and save fuel, as well as reducing the number of additional vehicles it needs to hire in at any given time. Transport co-ordinator Nigel Quilter says the software usually fills vehicles up to within 10% of their maximum, where many would have gone out half-empty under the previous manual planning system, and that the system utilises the fleet a better way as a whole, too.
“It’s difficult to quantify the exact gains, but it makes life a little easier for everyone concerned,” he says.
“At the press of a button, it’ll tell you the optimum way to do things.”