With increased awareness of the potential for systems to add value to transport, many operators are exploring how to link systems together to get even greater results.

Being able to trace a job from the first phone call or email from your customer, through quoting, planning, allocation to truck and invoicing allows you to really get to grips with your business.

How much did that Truck earn last week? Hang on I’ll have a look.

How many jobs like this have we done for this customer this month? Here’s the report.

How long does it normally take us to load a truck for this job? I’ll pull up the averages for the last few times we were there.

A two tier market

Four years ago, GPS systems were all about functionality – about the bells and whistles that each system could offer. There has been some frantic activity since then, with the number of suppliers more than quadrupling and the number of features on offer increasing at a similar rate.

We are now seeing the GPS market slowly align itself into two tiers. The second tier is still focusing on the features of their system. The first tier suppliers are now concentrating on addressing the challenges faced by transport operators, and developing their systems accordingly.

Interestingly there are relative newcomers to the market who are helping to set the standards in the first tier. Unfortunately, however, some of the new players, simply do not have the requisite experience and are taking short cuts to get to the market.

Equally, in the second tier, there are some newer players who are starting small, and working their way through the lessons and who will emerge as strong players in the future. Oddly enough, there are also some long termers in this sector who appear to have learnt nothing from their experiences and are still banging on about how great their system looks, and not noticing that most operators are past being impressed by a system that does little more than put a truck icon on a map.

There will be some suppliers falling out of the industry in the next few years. The current trading issues in parts of the industry will tell on those suppliers who have been helping themselves, before they have been helping their customers.

Want to manage your jobs smarter? We’d love to help!

Job management and dispatch systems have been around a lot longer than GPS systems, however, they seem to be in no better shape.

Job management systems allow the dispatcher to;

• record customer jobs
• allocate rates to the jobs from the agreed rates list
• allocate the job to a truck
• record the pick up and delivery addresses,
• record number of pallets / sheep / boxes
• add special instructions for the driver
• print the jobs out for a driver or send to a screen in the cab for the driver
• allow each job to be confirmed, either by key entry form paperwork or by the driver from his in – cab screen
• export all jobs for invoicing through the accounting system

These systems aren’t dependent on the technology partnerships in the same way that GPS companies necessarily are. They are based on a series of databases with no communications networks relying on the telcos, no GPS locations which depend on the quality of the hardware, no vagaries of mapping – Google or otherwise. The dispatch system supplier can control how and what his system can or can’t do for you.

All we need here, is

1. some specific features,
2. a supplier who is willing to understand the needs of a transport operator
3. some technical support people to hold it all together
4. a positive customer service experience, (as judged by the transport operator not the supplier!)

Is there a supplier out there who is doing this job well? All of our experiences to date show transport operators who don’t use the system they have to its full extent because it doesn’t suit their work processes, or who need to do part of the process manually because the system doesn’t do that bit for them. Or who have given up asking for a bug to be fixed because after 10 months of phone calls, they are no further forward.

We’re looking for a Job Management System that you believe is a cut above the rest. The prize for the winning system, is greater market share. We have spoken to customers of all of the systems we know and haven’t found a strong contender who is able to consistently meet the four criteria above.

As technology and awareness is increasing, more and more transport operators want visibility of their operation from cradle to grave. Until we can find a good dispatch system, there is no point integrating it to a GPS system to get live visibility of where jobs are up to. If the basic information is not correct, the decisions made from that information will not be the right ones either.

Nominate your supplier!

If you have a supplier who does this job well, we’d love to hear from you at; cwatson@ccslogistics.co.nz As with all business, if you give your supplier a good reference, he will get more customers, will learn more lessons, and will use that knowledge to enhance his system to help you out too.

Don’t forget, at CCS Logistics we don’t receive commissions from any suppliers, we evaluate each system on its merits and customer feedback. We don’t just recommend a system and leave you to it. We make sure you get the right system and that the supplier understands what support you need to make it work for you, so you get the results you are looking for. Right now though, we would appreciate your feedback to find the suppliers who really are delivering. Go on, give them a leg up and tell us about them!

There are a number of things you can do to look good in these areas and the responsibility is split between you and your drivers.
Things you can do;
- Spec the configuration of your fleet to suit the work which it is doing; the right engine size and load capacity for the work
- Consider streamlining your vehicles with wind deflectors
- Plan the trip route so there is minimal doubling – back making up extra fuel and tyre burning KMs
- Keep up the maintenance on your trucks so the engines are burning as efficiently as possible and the running gear is not wasting energy as it is transferred to the road
- Work with your tyre supplier to get the right specification of tyres for the work you are doing to prolong tyre life (and reduce the tyres thrown on the scrap heap)

Things your drivers can do;
- practise fuel efficient driving – all the time and everywhere
- stop idling the trucks, turn them off when they are not in use
- reduce average running speeds
- monitor tyre pressures
- conduct vigilant walk around checks to look for early warning signs of required maintenance

You should start to notice the difference in your costs almost immediately, but it is often hard to motivate your drivers to become involved, and to monitor which drivers are most successful, or remain interested for longest in this initiative.

Have you got GPS in your fleet? Have you been heard to utter the well aired phrase; “this system costs me the price of a truck, how do I make it earn its keep?” Here is the answer. Use the data which your GPS system collects about the activities of your fleet on the road to give some feedback to your drivers to help them to help you to save money on fuel and tyres. Like dieting, it is easier to stay motivated when you have some good feedback.

The vast majority of the drivers I know are true professionals, proud of their skills out on the road. Until recently, the only feedback you have been able to give them is about the condition of their truck, or any customer comments. Now you can give them the actual results of their efforts on a regular basis, using the basic activity data collected from their truck whilst they are driving.

I have found there are two common hurdles which are preventing you from using your systems to make a difference;
- you don’t have enough confidence in your data to share it with your drivers and to use it as a performance measure
- you aren’t sure that it is the best use of your time, so you keep putting off looking into it

These are both valid reasons and you aren’t alone in these thoughts. There are a few simple checks you can make to confirm the accuracy of your data and most issues are easily resolved. For example when dodgy idling times are being reported, this is normally due to an oversight when briefing the installer and can be easily fixed. As for finding the time; saving between $1,000 and $10,000 per month in fuel use is a very real possibility; is that worth an hour of your time?

Of course your GPS system won’t reduce your fuel bill, but you can use it to help your drivers to improve the behaviours which increase fuel consumption and other factors which will help you to build an environmental policy for your customers. Why not start this week?

Research published by TERNZ and case studies such as Alexander Petroleum (who celebrated an 18% reduction in fuel consumption earlier this year) confirm that targeting driver behaviour and operational planning issues which GPS can highlight, can make a significant difference to the fuel bill. Imagine only paying 11, or even 10, of the 12 fuel bills that you currently receive per year?

One of the services which CCS Logistics provides is helping transport companies to get more out of their GPS systems, and a key opportunity is in fuel savings. As one of my customers said to me; “we’ve spent the same money on technology recently as we would on a new truck – its time to get the same returns from these systems as we expect from the trucks”

Fuel Saving – how?

As with all projects, you need a consistent approach. Know what you are expecting to see from your operation and compare that to what you are actually seeing. It is quite normal to look at your reports in detail for the first time and to have a nasty surprise about down time, speeding, or other events – you are not alone!

The difference between getting results and getting a reaction when you start to address these behaviours is in the approach that you take. It doesn’t have to take much time to make a difference but by being methodical and consistent it makes the time that you do spend on it worthwhile.

When we work with our clients we take one of two approaches, depending on the size of the fleet;

1. If you only speak to each driver once, here’s what to address to make the biggest difference”
2. If you only do 3 things this month, to improve fleet fuel performance, do this…”

A Focus on Fuel Efficiency leads to a Focus on Idle Time

One of the key elements which can easily be targeted is the time spent idling – when the engine is running but the truck is parked up. Whilst at the outset, the figures can be pretty startling, we normally see a significant improvement within three to four months. For each of the fleets on our fuel efficiency programme, we have found up to 5% of the fleet do not make the same scale of improvement as the other trucks.

This is due to one of three reasons;

• Driver attitude
• Profile of work
• Incorrect data

Don’t shoot the driver – you have a 66% chance of being in the wrong!

What kind of work does the truck do? A swinglift truck needs the engine running whilst he is loading and unloading containers so is bound to have a higher idle time than the rest of the fleet – the profile of his work means no matter how much you talk to him about idling, his truck will always show a lot more idle than straightforward delivery trucks.

It is quite possible that when your GPS was installed, a few leading questions were not asked; Does the truck have an idle timer, a turbo timer, on board scales or self levelling suspension? Is it likely that the driver will spend time with the electrics of the truck live for any reason when the engine is not running – listening to music radio, monitoring the RT or CB? The standard install for GPS takes the electrics being live as the trigger to report that the engine as running. If the truck has any of the characteristics listed above, this could be seriously misleading. We identified one linehaul vehicle which reported the equivalent of 4 days of solid idling – yes 96 hours – in one month. The manager was confused by this as the driver of that vehicle was really enthusiastic about the project and was receptive to all of the feedback he had been given. The truck was suffering from a wrong assumption made at installation time, and nothing the driver changed in his day could fix that up – it needed a technical fix.

Many operators have had GPS in their fleet for over 2 years before we help them analyse their stats and start spotting the anomalies so they can start delivering lasting benefits. Taking the time to work out what is important to you, and getting benchmarks in place will set you up. Giving the reports a reality check before you speak to the drivers will earn you their respect in stead of going in all guns blazing and making it the driver’s problem.

The same rules apply with the use of this system as anything else – GPS is an extra tool not the only tool. Check what you see against common sense before acting – ignorance is no defence when you are managing a fleet.

Rule 2: How much fuel should be used to get the job done? See Rule One

So there’s no room for the “pipe and slippers” style of driving in your fleet then? This is the way the UK ambassador for SAFED describes the Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving initiative which he has just launched to NZ in conjunction with MoT and NZ Transport Agency. In the UK, following the fuel strikes of the late 1990’s where there was a massive public backlash against rising fuel prices, the UK Department for Transport invested in the development of a programme to help heavy transport drivers to maintain their fuel spend at old levels, despite rising prices. It worked. And now the programme has come to New Zealand.

John Boocock, the UK ambassador has just finished training the Senior Drivers who are key to the delivery of this training programme across the industry and has also held a series of seminars around the country in conjunction with Peter Baas of TERNZ, MoT and NZTA.

John talks about the programme being not only a way of saving fuel, but also being a more relaxed style of driving. Reduce the top speed reached by your drivers, but get there sooner, by using OAP; Observation, Anticipation and Planning. SAFED case studies support my previous writings to you; reduce your costs and improve your customer service. Use less fuel, but also reduce crashes, incidents, road user complaints, R&M, and now that your drivers know what is expected of them and can plan their day accordingly, they are less stressed and better equipped with skills to get the load to the customer safely and on time.

So what is SAFED? It is a one day course for your drivers which teaches them how to make the best of the technology in their truck, including block changing up gears to stay in the green band for longer, how to stay rolling at intersections and other techniques which bring driving habits into line with the new breeds of trucks, rather than the models most learnt to drive in. The cynics amongst you will say “it’s just another training course” “it’s not relevant to our operation” but those who care to scratch the surface will find real savings which could make a real difference to your bottom line if you implement it diligently.

Why have I devoted my GPS column to this programme this month? Because I want you to earn more from your existing resources. I want you to use the drivers, trucks, fuel and GPS systems which you already have to generate more profit. Why should you have to buy an extra truck when you get a new contract? Why should your fuel bill go up just because you are travelling further?

Of course SAFED is a training course and we’ve all been on those. Get a day off work, get excited about something new, come back to work to find nothing has changed and settle back into the old ways…. But now that you have started using your GPS system to give feedback to your drivers, they know what you expect from them, they know if their average speed is in line with the rest of the fleet, if they spend too long idling or dally around the wash bay at the end of the day, or if they have a higher R&M bill than the other trucks…. So when they go on SAFED they have more tools at their disposal to become more efficient in everything they do and you can measure how much better they are by using your GPS based KPIs and Dollar based accounting; exactly the goal you have been chasing since you put GPS in your trucks because the salesman said you’d save money.

So where were we?

Rule 1: The priority is to get the freight loaded and delivered to the customer on time.

Rule 2: How much fuel should be used to get the job done? 10% less than we used last time.

On the other hand, servicing existing customers more efficiently – earning the same revenue at less cost – can only mean better profit.

You are not alone if you installed a GPS or fleet management system to improve your dispatch efficiencies. Just because that was the reason why you installed the system, doesn’t mean that that is all it is capable of.

Each of your major price groups can be addressed by making use of even the most basic data recorded by your GPS system;

• Fuel
• R & M
• Tyres
• Productivity

How much time do you spend looking after a mid sized customer?

• Checking orders
• Writing or key entering dispatch notes
• Instructing drivers
• Checking or resolving issues with the load

Question: How much is your fuel bill each month?

How do you feel about exchanging the time that you would spend looking after one customer for spending the same time improving the activity of your fleet? Perhaps you’re a little sceptical?

One earns revenue and costs you a bit of money too (time, tyres, R & M, wages…). The other cuts the amount you spend on these costs for all of your existing income. But for the same investment in time, you could save the equivalent of a month of fuel, is that worth more than the profit on one customer each year?

The driving behaviours that makeup your fuel bill also scrub your tyres away faster. By fixing these behaviours, you will also see a reduction in repair costs both in the drive train and bodywork.

GPS is about visibility: knowing what is happening with your trucks when they are outside of the yard. Because when you have the knowledge, you are inspired into action; using that knowledge to encourage your drivers to take the same pride in the cost and operational efficiency of their truck as you did when you were on the road every day.

Whichever GPS system you are using – its purpose is to help you understand what your fleet is up to without sitting in the cab of each truck. Yes – every system is different, some have better mapping screens, and some have better reports. Every system gives you visibility of operations that you wouldn’t otherwise have –it is an enabling tool. The value you get from your system depends largely on your motivation to make a difference.

Many of your reports from your GPS system will be easily understood and you just need to work out which ones are the most important for you to look at on a regular basis. A little attention ap[plied often will make a big difference. Sometimes the reports are not as easy to read as they might be but with a little assistance or a nudge in the right direction, they can be transformed into valuable management reports which inspire that improvement – in you, in your managers and in your drivers.

Stop chasing low paying work and start chasing better efficiencies. Use all of your resources (trucks, drivers, GPS, grey matter) to create profitability from the work you already have.

You can’t do much with the cost of your RUCs, overheads or driver wages. Neither can you do anything with the price of fuel or tyres, but you can reduce the amount you need to buy.

You can also keep pushing the Customer Service angle. I am a firm believer that business success is based on customer service. About listening to your customers, working in with like minded operators and adding value in the area that you specialise in. It is this amongst everything else that will keep your customers loyal for longer.

This is not just a ramble about business administration, but Customer Service and controlling costs are linked. Customer service is straightforward in principle; you have your standards and you make sure that you and your office based staff work to them. But what about your drivers?

They see your customers far more often than you do and can say and do things there which you can’t control. If they are stressed, this doesn’t bode well for customer service.

Not only does courtesy take a hit if your drivers are stressed, , but so does the gas pedal, the brake pedal, fuel efficiency and tyre life. So now your customers are complaining and your costs are rising….

There is a school of thought which says that linking your Engine Management System (EMS) to your GPS system so you can get real time information out of the engine bay will solve all these issues.

Never let it be said that throwing more data at a problem makes it go away.

Picture each of your drivers. Who is the best? The most reliable, most accurate paperwork, tidy appearance, diligent in loading and securing freight, looking after the vehicle, doesn’t speed (too often) and keeps his (her) logbook and vehicle compliant?

Who is the worst driver in the fleet? Of all of those in between, who could use a little improvement?

I once heard it said “I’d rather tell him he was useless in bed than tell him I didn’t like the way he drove his truck” With no clear evidence to support your opinion of each driver, this will ring true with many of you.

But do you really need EMS? A short survey of Canterbury driver trainers confirmed that the driver who is rough on his truck, is also the driver who is gruff with the customers and will find an excuse to stop at the depot or the coffee shop more frequently.

So, if you operate the right kind of truck (preferably North American), have signed up with the right GPS supplier and have time on your hands to interpret all of the engine management data, you can have EMS connected to report through your GPS system.

For everyone else, no matter what vehicles or machines you operate, you can have reports which are

• ?  Simple and easy to read
• ?  standard across all vehicles
• ?  comparable between vehicles
• ?  easier to understand
• ?  available to be printed and handed to drivers

The standard reporting suite from most GPS systems will summarise for you;

• ?  speeding
• ?  excessive idling time (engine on)
• ?  excessive stop time (engine off)
• ?  late starts (the driver was at work on time, but what time did the truck leave the depot?)
• ?  operational time which exceeds log book entries

A driver with a poor record on any or all of these is also likely to have poor driving standards and poor vehicle control. So whilst you can spend the extra money on EMS to get data on rev ranges, oil pressure, heavy braking, fuel consumption, water temperature etc etc, why would you?

We monitored a fleet of 30 vehicles which reported 2500 speeding events (over 5kmh) in ONE WEEK. How would your fleet compare?

We printed off the standard report from the GPS system and made each driver aware of his record. Over 3 weeks, this was reduced to 1900 events per week. Most drivers were disappointed that they looked so bad. A simple exercise and a real saving in fuel and potential speeding tickets.

But also, if the drivers know that we support them in driving at the right speed and arriving safely, it has knock on effects for load stability, driver stress, customer service and your outlay on fuel and tyres.

Systems DO NOT overrule gut feel or management intuition, but they can provide supporting information to help you put things right.

Don’t make it complicated. The right approach, simple principles and a desire to improve are enough to make a real difference.

These words escaped the mouth of a relief driver I spoke to recently.

My intention in this article was to describe the benefits of sharing business goals with your staff so they can make sure that they are pulling in the same direction as you.

The conversations above, and many I have had along a similar line, show how easy it is to have the message mis-interpreted.

WANT TO KEEP WHEELS TURNING?

GPS is not put in to spy on your drivers; it is put in to ensure that the expensive equipment, which is the foundation of your business, is at maximum utilisation.

Sometimes the driver can influence this directly by reducing idling or speeding. Sometimes he can help indirectly by encouraging a supplier to be better prepared to receive a delivery and hence speed up turnaround times.

If you don’t tell the driver the effect which he can have on company productivity by making these small contributions, he won’t know that they are important to you.

GPS is about facts, so you can better understand what is going on in your business and have something to show your staff so they can see it too.

One thing is for sure – without GPS you are reliant on word of mouth and intuition to work out how to make fleet activity more efficient.

GET THE DRIVERS INVOLVED

Over the last few months we have had some really good results, working alongside customers and their GPS suppliers to develop driver specific reports.

The first stage is to design reports that are “driver friendly”

• Easy to read
• Specific to the driver and his vehicle
• Cover only the stats you want your driver to prioritise
• Include relevant feedback for the driver

We have taken a combination of fuel, GPS reports and Drivecam reports to create customised reports for customers which help each manager to provide feedback to their drivers, specifically around that company’s own priorities, whether that is fuel efficiency, overall driving compliance or vehicle productivity.

TALKING THE TALK

Sticking the report on the peg for the drivers with no briefing, is about as effective as installing GPS without explaining why.

We have developed a communication tool which our customers receive as a basis for helping the drivers get the message – in the right way and to avoid the unintended consequences of a poorly worded message about company revenue/costs being related to driver job stability. Of course they are, but there are ways of saying it.

REAPING THE BENEFIT

Results are slippery things. How should you measure them?

Fuel efficiency at one customer, on face value, has remained constant when the goal was to reduce it. Digging deeper, the volumes (and weight carried) has noticeably increased over the same period. Would you be pleased to note that loadings had increased but your fuel bill didn’t budge an inch? This company were, but they kept going and as the project has progressed, the team has now delivered more than 10% improvement in fuel consumption across the fleet in spite of the increased vehicle loadings. A real result and they aren’t stopping there!

The number of jobs completed per hour is a key measure at another customer. An 11.5% improvement has been achieved. A glass ceiling appeared to have been reached at 11.5%, but only because the jobs could now be re-organised to achieve more, so fewer vehicles were required overall – a real result for the customer which wasn’t initially expected.

Productivity and efficiency projects cannot be a one person crusade – use the best tools for the job and surround yourself with a team who will support the project through thick and thin.

90% of money in transport is spent and earned on the road, that is to say that it is out of the direct visibility of you or your managers.

Bear with me whilst I use a “girl” example. If you were running a typing pool, you would have a supervisor who kept an eye on the typists to make sure that they were working steadily, had no mechanical breakdowns (do typing pools still exist in these electronic days?) and had a reasonable pile of work to go at. If there were any problems, the supervisor could spot it – whether it was a planning issue – too much or too little work, a quality issue – the work is getting rushed and too many errors made that need redoing, or a people problem – not understanding the work, not knowing how to approach a particular job or, just plain lazy.

How different is the job of a transport supervisor? To my mind, the responsibility is the same; does every truck have the right amount of work? Does any truck have to rush to get the job done? Is the driver taking good care of his truck so it will continue to run cost effectively? The biggest difference between a typing pool supervisor and a transport supervisor is that one knows what is happening every minute of every day and the other doesn’t.

I didn’t start a business in transport technology because I’m a geek. I started it because it is obvious to me that the increased visibility of your operation, allows you to make better business decisions based on what is actually going on rather than what you think might be going on, or your drivers tell you is going on.

There is a slow stirring of suspicion that the government is trying to get access to electronic records of your business and that that is BAD – what about all of those “inadvertent” speeding events, those days the drivers stretch their log book hours….  So you know they happen right? And the government doesn’t have access to these records now and won’t for the foreseeable future. But you do!!

Running bent is a short term game – whether it’s a little bent or a lot bent. It is rare to find anyone in transport who has dropped in for a couple of years to make some quick money. Most of us stumbled in, loved it and stayed. Your drivers want to make it home every night. You want them to make it home every night (who wants the paperwork, the insurance headache, the recruitment circus..?) So make like a typing pool supervisor and keep an eye on your fleet to look for inefficiencies and work to improve on them.

If you know you’re running bent, a little or a lot, I can almost guarantee your profits are suffering. You are pushing your drivers (or they are pushing themselves) too hard and that means they don’t respect you, your TSL holder status, the ongoing maintenance of your trucks and maybe even your customers. There is a lot of cashflow wrapped up in those few areas.

Like any business owner, I know that cashflow is vital and that staff are our most important resources. The work we have been doing helping transport fleets turn GPS reports into management tools has netted a number of fleets massive savings – in our customers’ fleets;

• employee respect is up,
• truck crashes are down (phew – they needed to be),
• idling time is down,
• the number of speed events is down (from over 2,000 per truck per month to less than 75).
• And fuel consumption is down – typically by between 10 and 15%

No matter what state your fleet is in now, if you want to improve, you can. It will take a bit of time, but your profit will go up, not down. Don’t wait for your operation to be fixed for you and don’t spend time worrying about what the authorities might find if at some unspecified time in the future, they get their hands on your data.

You have access to that data now. Why don’t you use it to improve your profitability, productivity, teamwork and compliance?