We need to align this on road awareness with the expectations of today’s industry. We do want the drivers to be courteous, we want them to know what is going on around them, but we also want them to drive safely and steadily, with the confidence to do the right thing at the right speed.
We need to do this in two ways.

1. Tell the drivers what is expected of them. We don’t expect you to speed to get your job done. If you are late and you feel the need to speed, it’s probably us that haven’t done our jobs right as we have delayed your leaving the depot on time. You won’t make up enough time to make a difference by driving faster. It doesn’t look good, it risks our truck, our customer’s products, your licence and our fuel bill starts climbing.
2. Educate the public so that they have a better understanding of how a truck functions on the road. This is still a big issue. Loading the motorbikes onto the interislander ferry this morning, the loader waved us forward to start tying the bikes down, despite the fact that a semi trailer was trying to use the same space to turn into. This is a loader. A man that brings vehicles onto a ferry every day and he couldn’t see the conflict between a large truck revving behind him and a few small bikes. No wonder the average granny in a Toyota doesn’t understand the driving requirements of a truck, never mind the importance of the cargo that it is carrying.

Yes, the ORS is coming and whilst that it is a carrot (or a stick depending on how much you care about it) let’s not forget the reason it has been put together. We want to run an industry that is safe and professional. Drivers need to be seen as more than “the squishy bit between the freight and the steering wheel.” They need to be respected, supported and trained.

At CCS Logistics, we are now providing reporting direct to drivers, pulling together all of the GPS data and mixing it up with some coaching notes and presenting individual feedback on how each driver is performing against operational and legal requirements. The drivers at our customers are soaking it up. The shoulders are squaring, the chests are puffing out; these guys are really proud of the job they do and are loving being told what they are doing well, and being told where they could get better.

Take heart from this, speak to your drivers, respect what they do and make them respect what you do.

Really it’s the people that make the difference and the people that have the most effect on the size of your fuel bill is the people you see least frequently; your drivers. The RTF Grant Thornton index shows that fuel represents 16% of the average transport company’s costs. Are you beating the average?

Enough companies have proven that driver training alone is not enough to secure long term improvements in fuel efficiency. Here at CCS Logistics we may not be the world’s best truck drivers, but we know a thing or two about using your GPS data to tell you which of your drivers is helping to bring down your fuel bill… and who isn’t. We want to help you to get the right feedback to the right drivers to encourage each of them to want to become safer, more professional… and more fuel efficient. Those smoko room bragging sessions take on a whole new meaning when there are hard facts at hand to decide the best of the best. Go to the EECA website to find out more about their Energising Business programme, or call us and we’ll give you the plain English version.

Now whilst I am talking about making numbers easy to read. I have seen the annual truck crash statistics being circulated for all truck crashes to June 2011. What a dull bunch of numbers we’re given to play with. So as ever, my creative side has kicked in to give you a taste of what we do to boring tables of data round here:

Here is a summary of the reasons why the truck crashed, and how the driver or truck contributed:

The second ratings are being processed at the moment and the word is that that number is starting to slide. The reason is not that you have let standards slip, more that your trucks have been on the road for longer and therefore had more chance to accumulate an “event” that will affect your ORS. The last rating was based on 6 months’ worth of exposure; each truck may have only had one CoF and may have slipped under the radar having no roadside inspections and no driving offences.

With the second rating two things have happened;

1. you’ve now had 12 months’ worth of exposure for each truck – so at least 2 CoF’s each and twice as much time (12 months not 6) to be stopped at the side of the road, or for a driver to have crept over 95km/h or mixed up his log book.

2. The CVIU have refocused and are now trying to ensure that every operator gets a roadside inspection

So not only have you had time to interact with the transport agencies more, they are out there looking for you; “sharing the love” as it was so eloquently put at the RTA seminar in Twizel last weekend. Be prepared – this rating might have slipped a bit from the last one. You might still be a 5 star operator, but you might be a step or two closer to being a 4 star operator.

12 months down, 12 to go….

So here you are 12 months into the 2 year qualifying period for the first ORS public ratings and your stats are starting to slide. If you act now, you could reverse that trend, before the public ratings go live.

Where to start?

Start with the big numbers. Up to 63% of your rating is affected by driving offences – things your driver does whilst on the road. According to the NZTA, the most frequent ORS related driving offence is speeding. Yes really; your driver’s speeding tickets are your problem now. The limit is 90km/h. On a good day, the tolerance is 95 km/h. That’s to allow for a bit of oversight. It doesn’t mean the drivers should be driving at 95km/h and getting up to 110km/h to get past that Granny in the Corolla.

The next most frequent offence is log book related. Don’t schedule your drivers to work for too long, and encourage them to take their breaks. Train them so they know what the rules are.

Inspect what you expect

If you tell your drivers what you expect from them, check up to see if that is what is happening. If not why not? Use your GPS for this bit. Almost all of the GPS systems will give you a speeding report in some form, and a summary of their driving hours. Some are easier than others to read, but the information is there. If you are not sure how to find it, ring you GPS supplier, or ring us here at CCS Logistics, we work with all of the major GPS suppliers (and some of the minor ones too) and we will help you to find where to look. We still offer a free 15 minutes support for ad hoc queries – just pick up the phone.

Because even if your customers aren’t too worried about your ORS rating, the flip side to the CVIU focus is that they know your rating. If two trucks pass a check point and one is a 5 star, the other is a 2 star, the 2 star truck will get pulled every time. Even if they don’t find any faults, it is time out of your schedule which you could do without.

Of course NZTA have the data too, and if they find themselves with time on their hands to do a random operator audit, guess which fleet they will select first?

If you don’t know how to read your GPS reports, of you really don’t have the time, we can now offer up to a 33% reduction in our rates to create a one – off summary of your current performance from your GPS data. The report is easy to read and tells you in words and pictures where you stand. It is completely confidential to you and it could protect you, your drivers and your ORS rating before it is too late.

You can contact CCS Logistics on 03 348 2048 or info@ccslogistics.co.nz we work nationwide.

I went back to my roots this month and spent 22 hours in a truck – non stop, except for the obligatory pie (sorry log book) stops. Thanks to the Chilean ash cloud I was stranded in Auckland and, wanting to get home sooner rather than later, I called a customer and begged a ride home on an interisland truck. I’ve always found the difference between a transport manager’s outlook and that of his drivers, fascinating. During this trip I got a top up of the driver’s views.

The first, was talking to a passing truck driver as I waited at the truck wash next to Auckland airport for my lift to the depot. We got to talking about the GPS in his vehicle and he proudly told me that he could drive a truck and trailer or a semi trailer all the way around the Coromandel without setting off any accelerometer alerts associated with the GPS system. He realised long ago (and he had several years experience by the look of his rapidly whitening hair) that he could save far more time by spending a couple of extra minutes  being courteous and helpful with the staff at each of his deliveries, than he ever could on the road. He can now arrive to make his deliveries, the staff are ready, the store is organised and the delivery happens smoothly and straight away. A saving of 10 – 30 mins like this is almost impossible to make up on the road – especially on the Coromandel.

A cash saving

You may have been following the global push to improve the fuel efficiency of new trucks. Scania have just completed a fuel duel in Australia. Matching two “identical’ vehicles loaded to 59 tonnes and driving them from Sydney to Melbourne and back. On the outbound leg one truck was speed limited to 90km/h, the other to 100km/h. On the return leg, the speed limiters were reversed. There are a few stats to support their conclusion that if a truck was running this trip 5 times per week, by reducing the max speed to 90km/h (from 100km/h) a saving of $10,000 in fuel was possible over a year.

I have to say after my experiences in a truck last week, I have discovered that a speed limiter means nothing if a driver knows how to get around it, so the message still stands; all improvements start with your drivers. Help them to understand the lesson at the top of this article – steady on the road, efficient in the stops: your costs will fall and your customer service will improve.

A threat

The NZ Herald this morning carries an interesting story. A young man had his car stolen. He was a student of computing systems. He had built his own GPS system and installed it in his car. He called the police and was able to give them a running commentary on the location of his car as his system updated every 40 seconds. I’ve heard similar stories before. What is interesting is that the police feedback is that similar cases involving commercial vehicles have not been successful, despite having GPS tracking, as the delay of up to 5 minutes between GPS updates was not good enough to get to the truck whilst it was on the move.

There are a number of factors to consider between a one off student invention and a commercial system, but as ever, the new comers will always challenge the status quo and those slow to respond will fall victim to the old duelling truism: there’s the quick and the dead.

And finally…

A big thank you to all who helped to get me home last week – it really was much appreciated. A friendly reminder to the GPS company whose system was in the truck; we are still waiting for the login to get access to the data so I can provide some feedback to the fleet owner about his trucks. He will get an even better service than ever as not only will I have the data but I was also sitting in the truck at the time. He can then get even more value from your system by understanding how it can be used to get the fuel savings talked about above. A signed authorisation from the truck owner is sitting on your desk as usual… how hard can it be to help out your customers?

She is intending to use data to plan where and when to deploy the energy and resources of CVIU; the biggest risks will attract the most resources in terms of time and / or manpower. The source of that data? Amongst others, crash statistics and the low achievers in the ORS ratings, when the public versions are published.

In addition to that, there is an assumption that the observation of one unsafe act may be a symptom of a low attitude towards safety. This may be a simple act such as failing to stop at a stop sign, but is that same driver distracted by talking on a cell phone, is he wearing a seatbelt? If a truck crashes on the Kaikoura coast, is this a one off incident, or the symptom of an issue with either that driver, or that company?

An Attitude of Safety

The concept of an attitude of safety is not new. Pre-employment ARM (Accident Risk Management) profiling aims to flush out those whose safety attitudes may not be a cost effective addition to your fleet.

The Operator Rating System (or Operator Safety Rating) similarly has its make up biased towards infringements and exceptions – those behaviours that will focus the attention of a patrolling officer. Your problem is now that with the advent of ORS, a quick driver is not just risking his own license (and your freight and reputation), he is also earning you a black mark against your TSL for your next ORS rating.

Now more than ever is the time to address those lingering concerns you have that your fleet could be performing a little better; a little safer and more professionally.

The peak for truck crashes is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtimes. If the CVIU do indeed get their requested access to highway patrol cars, this would be the time to expect to see them flagging down your drivers before they overcook the next corner.

What would be your priority, if your GPS data was translated into an easy to read picture of your travelling risks? Consider following the example of the CVIU; they have data at their disposal which is allowing them to make decisions about their priorities. So do you.

The RUC bill is out and many have a view on that, but it is also the e-RUC component of that which is attracting a lot of attention. Note that we are still talking about the draft legislation and that this hasn’t been passed yet. There is a clause which allows the RUC collector to request from the eRUC supplier “any specified traffic or transport information” and that information should “be supplied only in aggregate form and in a way that will not identify any specific transport operator or electronic system provider.”

To my mind, this does not leave the way open for the relevant authorities to go to your e-RUC provider and ask for data relating to a specific transport company including data that will show your levels of compliance with the various legal requirements such as RUC, driving hours or speeding. I will, however, leave it to those or are more inclined to wordsmithing to ensure that that is indeed the case.

A few weeks ago I participated in a session in Wellington which fell somewhere between a workshop and a seminar hosted by the NZTA and the CVIU. The subject of that meeting was electronic logbooks. The tone of the meeting was very much about following the wider trend to reduce time and space consuming paperwork, but most operators I have spoken to since are sceptical and are looking for the “real” reason – believing it is another way to make it easier for an operator to be “caught out.”

The truth about e-stuff

The truth is this; technology is constantly evolving and becoming more and more user friendly. It is the way business is now conducted and will permeate increasing parts of the way we work and live in the future. The challenge is not to stop it happening, but to ensure that it is used appropriately.

Are your drivers, vehicles and reputation worth less than your fear of The System?

The next truth is this; fatigue and speed are killers – both separately and in combination. Is your energy not better spent reducing the operational risks within your own business, rather than chasing an administrative risk?

By managing internal risks, you are investing in your own profitability, business longevity and reputation. If you look at the data from your systems in the same way that some are worried that the Authorities may look at it, you can increase your profitability and your ORS rating in one fell swoop. Didn’t you install your GPS system in the first place because you wanted to know what was going on in the fleet all day?

Your drivers want to get home safely at the end of their shift. By taking your responsibility in this regard seriously, you empower your drivers to look after themselves. If you would rather think about the financial benefit of this, try this list;

1. Reduced fuel bill
2. Reduced damage repairs
3. Reduced management time spent redirecting speed fine notices to the appropriate driver
4. Reduced driver Lost time injuries
5. Reduced spend with relief driving agency, and the additional R&M that can mean
6. Reduced vehicle hire time to replace a vehicle off the road for repairs
7. Reduced tyre wear
8. Reduced insurance premiums

You can also sleep easy at night because you know you are safe and efficient. Happily, you are also compliant and less attractive to those who seek to audit your operation.

We cover about 5,500kms in a week on our tour of the country and in riding up the West Coast of the South Island, I relearned a lesson about haste and speed. I’ve been riding ‘bikes for over 18 years and much of my riding is long distance; I’m not really into a trip to the local café, more likely to head out for a 1600km weekend trip. For this to be enjoyable I’ve honed my riding style to be least stressful so that the trip is relaxing, I see some of the scenery and I’ve still got some energy at the end of the day to be sociable. This means that I need to ride at a constant speed with enough anticipation of what lies ahead that I don’t need to panic brake for corners, tourists or wildlife.

On this trip, we had set off from Bluff heading North when we caught up with a friend around Lake Hawea. This chap was clearly struggling with navigating the set of corners and had slowed right down to judge each corner and to find his way around each of them. We gave him a wave and carried on through. At the end Makarora straights, I saw my friend’s headlight just appearing in my mirror but as I started the next corners he catapulted past me and wobbled into the first bend. I kept up my momentum and overtook him, and a few kms later pulled in for fuel at the Haast service station. Freshly refuelled and with a packet of crisps inside me, I carried on to Fox Glacier to refuel for the last leg through to Hokitika. At Fox, my friend had arrived just ahead of me and was just pulling his helmet off to refuel. As we queued to pay, I started a bit of friendly banter with him then noticed that he was drenched in sweat and was clutching a fist full of chocolate bars and a big power drink. With his longer fuel range, he hadn’t needed to stop at Haast and had kept up his stop-start riding right through to Fox, powering up the straights and tentatively navigating the corners. Where I was fresh and jovial, he was shattered and subdued. We had both ridden the same road and it had taken us about the same amount of time.

Who would you prefer driving your truck? On paper, we have both been riding for about the same number of years, doing similar sorts of riding so without any form of assessment of our actual riding, you could be forgiven for flipping a coin to determine which of us gets the job.

We would both get the truck there on time, but what state is the freight in? What treatment does your customer get when we climb out of the cab at the end of the run? What if you could see a report on the way we ride, our maximum speed, our number of accelerometer / GForce events?

There are a number of reasons why your trucks are speeding. Some of them are driver related. Some are the ones it is often easier to ignore; poor planning, loading or paperwork delays, management attitude (“just get it there”). Having the right driver behind the wheel, makes your job as a manager a lot easier. When you start tacking the other issues, you are fixing real issues, and allowing everyone to play their part in de-stressing the operation.

How much value do you put on the opinions of other road users, of your fleet? What about the safety of your drivers? The chances of your truck actually making the full distance of their run? What is the cost of your fuel bill and how much does it vary between drivers doing the same work?

Accepting that your drivers can drive slower and do a better job, may be a new way of thinking but will make a huge difference to your operation. Choose the right drivers, give them the right support and be proud of your business.

Your customers outsource their transport needs to you because you understand the finer details of managing trucks, freight and drivers., Your service goes beyond that though; you are delivering your customers’ promises to their clients; your rates affect their profits and, if your vehicles are sign written, their brand is in your hands.

A brand takes forever to build but a moment to lose. It represents your service, quality and ethics and this is the reason why customers are delving deeper into their supply chain than ever before. What are the chances of a truck bearing their brand being involved in a crash? Is the driver of that vehicle courteous to other road users? Amazing as it may seem to those of us in the industry, many people do not differentiate between the supplier and the transport company – to many people, a branded truck represents the product it depicts and so your customer wants a say in how it is being driven. Last week, I watched a vehicle leave its depot with the back doors still pinned back. Not a sight any one wants to see, least of all your customer watching his refrigerated product travel down the road open to the 26^oC day that Canterbury had laid on.

The value of the products which you carry is normally far more than the $1500 per consignment standard conditions of carriage. If the goods are damaged through poor driving, poor loading or poor restraints, it is the customer who bears the additional costs, financially and in the delay in getting replacement goods to the market.

Your efficiencies mean gains for your customers. Smart management of vehicle capacity, the right truck for the job, increased fuel efficiencies and managing down time all save you money. Passing some of those savings onto your customers keeps your rates competitive, maintains the all important trust in your relationship and demonstrates that you are constantly striving to improve your service.

All of this is possible when you make active use of the data which your systems collect about your business operations every day. We are all creatures of habit, if something appears to work, we continue repeating it. The only way to break that cycle is to prove that it can be done better. Whether “better” means faster, cheaper, fewer damages (to freight or to vehicles) doesn’t matter so long as it means at least maintaining the quality of service (delivered in full, on time, in spec) at a lower overall cost. Look at your operations data in a new light; if you can find the opportunity to improve, you can use it to help your staff engage in the process of making your service better; small changes make a big difference. Disappointed as I was to see a refrigerated truck leave the depot with his doors open, it suggested that worse was to come. It meant that the driver had not done his walk around check, a great time for him to transition from home life to his driving shift, to get his mind on the job. So what was he thinking of instead of how to avoid the granny wobbling out of a side road in front of him, when to change gear for maximum fuel efficiency, what speed to approach the next corner at?

Running a company can seem like a huge task sometimes – having to think about everything all of the time. As the supply chains get increasingly stressed in the ‘quake clear up ahead of us, every little is going to help, and the best time to shine is when you are going about your work, not when the contract comes up for renewal and someone else has stolen your limelight.

Storms, floods, Earthquake aftershocks. Then two serious truck crashes on the Kaikoura coast, and the passing of Peter Goodwin, our RTA Region 4 anchor man. Our best wishes to everyone involved in the follow ups of each.

Yet 2011 is shaping up to be a very positive year. Every one we have spoken to is busy, forecasts for the coming months are positive, or at least steady, and the mood is generally “bring it on.”

I’d like to start with the story of a German couple who followed their in car navigation GPS instructions so literally that they turned and drove through the wall of a Church. I can follow this up with the story of an American lady using her in car navigation GPS to find her way through the Valley of Death – a large, hot, dry expanse of desert like area in the USA, who buried her 4WD up to its axles in sand many miles from anywhere useful and had laid down beside it waiting to die when the park ranger found her.

What is it that has lead us to this age of relying on technology over common sense? In its most literal sense, pausing for thought and looking out of the window, seems like a long lost skill for many.

I’m pleased to report that the transport industry has not fallen into the same trap. In fact GPS is one of the most underused tools deployed in many fleets, only to be used as a last resort when all manual systems have failed or become too cumbersome.

The ranger in the Valley of Death Story above, says he has been working with the in car navigation systems to update their mapping to take off the roads that don’t exist and mark up the roads that are not suitable for normal vehicles so that they don’t show up in the “shortest route to…” option on GPS navigation. He talks about the varying levels of response he has had from the GPS suppliers, from having to leave messages on website forms that are not returned, to a personal visit from one company’s developer who wanted to fully understand the changes required so he got it exactly right.

So some things don’t change. In Fleet management GPS in NZ:

The quality of the customer service varies across an equally large range; those who sell to you and disappear in a cloud of dust through to those who go the extra mile to make sure your every request is carefully understood and followed up.

The mapping accuracy leaves a lot to be desired in many areas, not least what is, and isn’t off road, and the actual location of speed limit boundaries.

The lessons remain;

• Know what you want to use the system for and make sure that is what you are buying.

• Choose a supplier who will spend the time understanding your needs and will set up the system for your exact requirements. You don’t need the system rewriting, you just want the right trucks to show up to the right dispatcher, and access to the reports that will be most useful to you.

• Take advice from people who have used the same system, or a similar system successfully and find out what worked for them – learn from the mistakes of others; it is far quicker than making them yourself

• Remain in touch with reality – don’t get carried along; stop and look out of the window sometimes to get your bearings – are you where you want to be, or at least heading in the right direction?

There is much discussion about whether the official looking folk will be able to police your activities from their desktop, firing off retrospective speeding tickets and log book offences at the click of their mouse.

Sure, you can divert the fines for these to your drivers, but the other new bits of legislation means that that is no longer the end of it. The Operator Rating System takes into account that it was your TSL being displayed when that driver was speeding, and the Chain of Responsibility considers whether in fact you actively encouraged, or passively accepted that the driver would need to commit this offence in order to get the job done.

So whilst we all agree that speeding is bad, and log books offences are not an acceptable part of the modern transport operation, open access to your vehicle telemetry data might prove just a little too easy for the relevant agencies to issue tickets first and ask questions later. I hope that common sense will prevail on this one and I suggest that you take an active interest in the progress of this debate.

In the mean time I suggest that you make hay whilst the sun shines… use the GPS data you have to ensure your trucks are being operated within the law, and if not, start working on it now.

WHY ARE YOUR TRUCKS STILL SPEEDING?

It’s not safe, it’s not cheap (fuel, tyres, tickets, crashes) it’s not clever and it certainly isn’t in the best interests of your customer. If you fall into that category of people who turn a blind eye to speeding, because sometimes operational delays at the depot leave you hoping like hell that the driver can make some time up on the road…. don’t think too hard about the potential for him to crash, after all that is a bit bloody, expensive and actually inconvenient (what if your customer sees the picture of the truck in a ditch?) Think instead about the Woodend Speeding Blitz last month. Could it have been your driver caught doing 94km/h in a 50 zone, on another night, in a different town? If so, how inconvenient is it for you to get another driver out of bed in the middle of the night, shuttle him up to the stranded truck and hustle the freight to its destination, all the while calling ahead to make arrangements for the freight, which is late after all?

A number of drivers believe that they are doing the right thing, driving a little quicker than the speed limit to make sure the freight gets there on time. These are conscientious drivers who genuinely want to do their best for your company. It is your responsibility to give them the clear message that the best way they can achieve this is to drive safely, stay alert and call ahead if the receiving depot needs to prepare for late arrival of the freight.

You can do this by

Displaying the company ‘zero tolerance to speeding’ message on the smoko room notice board.

Speak to each driver individually when you receive a speeding notice from the police to reinforce the message. The police ask you to pass the name and contact details of the driver to them, but you can also speak to the driver yourself to remind them that the ticket is not just an occupational hazard.

Review your GPS records and see what the evidence says about the speeds your trucks are doing out there. If most of the trucks are speeding,  it shows that this is a problem across the fleet and perhaps caused by pressure from you managers, or delays in your loading processes. Shouting at your drivers won’t fix this cause.

As an industry speeding is becoming less tolerated overall but the Woodend Blitz shows that there is still a case to be answered. The Highway Patrol set up the “sting” to disprove complaints from a resident – they really didn’t expect to have to stop any trucks. They planned to only remind those driving a little over the speed limit via a ticket in the mail. What they found was many trucks (and cars) travelling “dangerously fast through a residential area” leading them to warm up the flashing lights and deal with it directly.

It’d be much better for everyone if we as an industry policed our own operations, instead of waiting for it to be done to us, by the police, the media or your customers