Driver Management

Drivers are a fleet’s most important asset.

With the right system for driver management, a fleet can keep its drivers healthy, happy, and safe, which keeps the fleet operating at peak capacity. Here’s how.

What is Driver Management?

A fleet’s driver management process refers to the software and hardware tools used to monitor and communicate with drivers on the job. 

How does Driver Management work?

Driver management features are a core function of a fleet management system (FMS), which uses hardware units installed in each vehicle to record data. This data is then sent in real time to a manager’s computer, giving them visibility on their driver’s actions.

Each driver can communicate with their manager through a mobile app, which can be used to take photos of a delivery or a part failure, record e-signatures, and send messages from a smartphone or tablet.

As a category, driver management overlaps with many other areas of fleet management, including fuel tracking, accident management, safety habit tracking, routing & dispatch, and reporting.

Analyzing and Understanding Driver Behaviour

Driver management features can record data on drivers’ activity both in real time and in automated reports that can reveal trends that unfold over weeks, months, or years. This data can include:

1. Trip histories — including distance travelled, vehicle locations, and geofencing violations
2. Driver work hours — logging driver’s work and rest hours
3. Fuel consumption — including fuel costs, gallons used, and miles per gallon
4. Safety violations — including speeding, harsh cornering, and harsh braking
5. Accidents — if using dash cams, this data could also include distracted driving detection
6. Message log — tracks two-way messages between drivers and messengers

The biggest benefits kick in when a manager reviews this information, using it to inform data-driven decisions about the future of their fleet.

Top 3 Benefits of Driver Management

Using driver management data, managers can determine which drivers are high performers, and whether each vehicle is meeting or exceeding its expected lifecycle metrics.

These revelations can then guide managers towards smart hiring decisions while helping them improve their vehicle replacement process — two elements of fleet management that hugely impact the business’s bottom line.

1. Driver Health and Wellbeing

Tracking hours of service ensures a driver (and their manager) will comply with government regulations and won’t fatigue themselves.

The communication channel provided by the mobile app also gives both parties peace of mind that they’ll be able to contact each other during an emergency, and some systems offer a panic button that allows drivers to quickly contact their fleet with a single tap.

2. Safety

We’ll see a 20% increase in trucks on US roads in the next few years, so cutting down on the risk of a collision is a must for fleets across the country. With a system that flags poor driving habits or violations, fleets can proactively encourage safer driving. Some FMS services also include driver scorecards, ranking drivers by overall safety.

3. Driver Training

Driver training programs are one component of driver management that exists outside of a software solution. Managers should develop their own training program, and consider adding random audits to ensure drivers have retained the knowledge from it.

Some systems can be used to supplement training. FMSs offered by Samsara and Teletrac Navman have an in-cab coaching technology feature that gives drivers audio notifications immediately following a safety incident.

Supporting your Drivers

Done right, driver management won’t make your drivers feel like they’re constantly under a microscope. Instead, the two-way communication will help both drivers and managers work together to streamline their workflow, getting the job done faster while tracking valuable data that can help drivers in key areas.

Telematics and Driver Behavior

The main boon to installing hardware in every vehicle is the added data collection that is possible with telematics. When the engine is jostled in specific ways, the hardware can register the event as a series of different traffic incidents.

Here are the main ways driver behavior can be monitored through telematics:

• Excessive idling
• Harsh braking
• Speeding
• Accidents
• Harsh cornering
• Geofencing violations

The system’s response to these different events will depend on what answer the fleet manager chooses to assign to their FMS software. It may alert the driver moments after the event, or simply record it in order to auto-generate a report on that driver’s habits.

We’d recommend generating a report, and only discussing it with the driver if they show a history of poor driving habits. After all, it’s nearly impossible to fully avoid any of these events, and any driver will appreciate a loose hand over a micromanaging one.

Driver Management Checklist

Just having a communication channel and data isn’t enough to ensure healthy communication. Managers should establish a set of procedures to standardize the flow of communication — while at the same time giving drivers a light enough touch that they won’t feel smothered.

You’ll need to figure out that balance yourself, but in the meantime, we’ve compiled a checklist of the main areas of driver management for most fleets.

• Driver training — this initial course can establish core communication needs
• Fuel tracking — establish a process with clear guidelines on what drivers should record
• Safety habits — give the drivers clear minimums for harsh driving incidents and explain the chain of command
• Vehicle reports — managers should create reports looking at historical data on maintenance and fuel needs, for use in determining which vehicle models are performing best

Just remember to accommodate drivers’ different styles of communication, and be willing to revamp your processes as you learn more about how best to run your fleet.

Why is Driver Communication Important?

Clearly, communication is essential in any business. You don’t need us to tell you that. But within a fleet capacity, a management system that includes real-time data, documented messages and alerts is an absolute must in 2020.

Since location, speed, and engine data are recorded alongside communication in the form of messages and alerts, all decisions can be based on actionable stats, making day-to-day communication more effective and long-term trends more visible. A streamlined communication process impacts every aspect of a fleet’s business, from maintenance to fuel to safety.

Benefits of Driver Management

Faster conflict resolution is the biggest benefit of driver communication: When drivers can quickly message their fleet manager, they’ll be able to raise and address concerns immediately. Some changes can be delivered directly to drivers without messages, too, such as real-time route changes due to weather or traffic.

Better safety is a near-guarantee when drivers and managers communicate regularly, as they’ll be able to discuss driving habits and styles as they happen or with historical data-driven reports.

More fuel is another benefit of driver communication. Drivers can input their fuel prices easily, giving managers visibility of the transaction. Plus, alerts can keep fuel wasting habits like speeding and idling to a minimum, which promotes longer vehicle lifecycles as well.

Idling a truck for one hour burns about one gallon of fuel and adds around 80 miles’ worth of depreciation to the vehicle’s engine. Keeping idling in check can also help meet environmental safety regulations set at the federal, state or corporate level. 

Driver Management: A Case Study

Driver management was Beck Trucking’s biggest problem.

The Problem

When it came to managing drivers, they had used a manual phone call system, but as their company grew, the process became more cumbersome. They were losing work hours waiting for drivers to call back, and without knowing where every vehicle was, they couldn’t deliver ETAs to their clients.

The Solution

They upgrade to an FMS from Verizon Reveal Connect. A live GPS-powered map now lets managers track their fleet in real time.

The fleet also added an integration, project44, which allows customers to track the location of the vehicle delivering their specific shipment.

Extra benefits included:

• Report automation
• IFTA reporting
• A Safety Bonus Program – only made possible through the extra data collected by the FMS solution.

Thanks to the project44 integration, Beck Trucking was able to win a bid for a job generating $500,000 in annual income. Drivers are also getting fewer speeding tickets, due to the new safety program.