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How Fleet Management Services & Solutions Can Improve Driver Behaviour

Last updated : June 24, 2024
Improve safety

Maintaining a fleet while ensuring its efficiency can be a challenge for Fleet Managers. And, ensuring drivers behave appropriately is crucial to the success of transport and logistics companies because it can directly affect your costs associated with fuel consumption, insurance, and maintenance. This is due to the fact that poor driving practices like excessive idling can increase how much fuel each journey requires and lead to the degradation of your vehicles.

Fleet management services and solutions like MICHELIN Connected Fleet can help you to identify poor driver behaviour by tracking information such as your vehicles’ locations and how long they’ve been left to idle. This data can then be used to spot any trends and implement training programmes to counteract them.

A study of the impact fleet management solutions can have on the safety and fuel efficiency of trucks has shown that improvements in these areas were found to be the direct results of telematics devices and driver intervention. For example, unsafe events defined as sudden acceleration, hard braking, and sudden lane changes decreased by almost 50 percent and fuel economy improved by 5 and 9 percent, among other improvements. Fleet management solutions use telematics devices to collect vital data, which can then be analysed to create an action plan that will help you to manage and improve your drivers’ behaviour to cut your fleet’s costs and improve its safety.

How fleet management services and solutions can help you manage driver behaviour

Fleet management solutions provide you with telematics technology that will present you with crucial data on the behaviour of your drivers. You’ll then be able to access this information in your fleet management solutions dashboard, so you can use it to implement specific training to improve your fleet’s efficiency. It will also allow you to make instant strategy decisions if something unexpected happens, as real-time data will be available.

In-vehicle cameras can be used to track your workers’ driving styles and monitor incidents. This will allow you to identify any trends such as excessive speeding or idling. Plus, they will provide you with footage that can be used to devise valuable and effective training, or even prevent false insurance claims. It can often help to lower your insurance premiums, too.

Satellite vehicle tracking software connects Fleet Managers to their deployed vehicles through GPS. The government has conducted research into the speed limits on the UK’s roads and found that, during 2021, 50 percent of cars and vans exceeded the speed limit on motorways. This was compared to 56 percent on 30mph roads and 13 percent on national speed limit 60mph roads.

In 2020, 2 percent of the Articulated HGVs (heavy goods vehicles) exceeded the speed limit on motorways, while 46 percent exceeded the limits on 30mph roads and 35 percent did so on national speed limit single carriageway roads. In the case of rigid HGVs, they exceeded the national speed limit on single carriageway roads 41 percent of the time and, on 30mph roads, it was around 49 percent.

This data shows why the use of fleet tracking solutions is important, as they ensure drivers keep to the legal speed limit when working in the field. This will increase the safety of your drivers, vehicles, and cargo.

The satellite technology used for this works similarly to black box machinery, which tracks speed, acceleration, braking, and location in real-time. This means you can be alerted to impractical or unsafe driving behaviour immediately, minimising the damage and allowing more time to administer the necessary training.

CAN DATA devices can track mileage, speed, fuel consumption, and rpm. Excessive idling and other poor driving behaviours increase fuel consumption. Therefore, with access to this data, you can optimise your fleet by identifying unsatisfactory trends and addressing them with specialised training.

In-cab coaching devices will also ensure immediate improvements in your drivers’ behaviour. This technology alerts both fleet managers and drivers to incidents of poor behaviour. The instant feedback to the driver, either through auditory or visual alerts, ensures they self-correct while they are on the road, and deters them from engaging in further dangerous behaviour.

Plug-in GPS tracking devices can be installed if permanent devices are not compatible with your fleet. These will allow you to monitor the locations and journey histories of short-term hire and contractor vehicles, enabling comprehensive monitoring of your extended fleet.

Fleet management services and solutions can also monitor other important aspects of driver behaviour, such as seat belt and mobile phone usage. Some systems can even prevent vehicles from moving if a seat belt is not worn or a mobile phone is active.

How to implement a fleet management solution to improve driver behaviour

Planning

In order to get the most out of fleet management services and solutions, you need to plan what data types you wish to collect, alongside how you intend to manage the data.

To determine which types of data you should collect, you must first identify your goals. Driver behaviour improvement is a crucial goal that can be achieved using effective fleet management systems. To ensure you get the maximum value from the data you collect, you must plan what your KPIs will be, and how you intend to use the information you collect to tailor your future training programmes.

At the planning stage, it would be beneficial to consult your drivers and other employees about the implementation of fleet management services and solutions, as the change can be challenging for some. Drivers may need encouragement and assurances regarding the monitoring and tracking of their behaviour, as some may object to it. However, if you take the right approach and involve your employees in the early stages, you can ensure that the implementation of these solutions is smooth and amiable.

MICHELIN Connected Fleet will provide you with custom dashboards you can use to track all of your data, and our team of experts is always on hand to help you analyse the information you collect to devise an action plan that will improve your fleet’s efficiency. We will also support you through the whole process, from installing the necessary devices and setting your goals, to making the most of the data you’ll have access to. So, you can be sure that you’ll get the results you’re looking for.

Analysing data

Once you have defined the types of data you intend to collect, you can begin gathering and analysing it. During this stage you’ll be able to spot trends that relate to your chosen KPIs concerning driving behaviour, fuel consumption, and delivery times, providing you with key operational information.

If you choose MICHELIN Connected Fleet, you’ll also be provided with detailed reports at no extra cost, which will make it easy for you to identify areas of poor practice, so you can deliver specialised training that will improve your drivers’ behaviour and the efficiency of your fleet.

Our fleet management experts will also support you when it comes to understanding the data you’re presented with, and will advise you on making business decisions that will cut your costs and increase your fleet’s productivity.

Engagement and training

Once you’ve established which trends can be found in your drivers’ behaviour, you’ll be able to identify the areas that require improvement and devise training sessions with these in mind.

Training sessions should be constructive in order to encourage drivers to improve. Training should also be ongoing for both new hires and established employees, as this encourages continued improvement and ensures fleet optimisation.

In order to ensure driver engagement, you should ideally encourage the use of self-reporting technology. This allows drivers to report their vehicle checks, as well as the hours they have driven, encouraging them to take responsibility for looking after their vehicles. Drivers will also be able to view their behavioural scores and check their driving trends, so they can see first-hand where they may need to make improvements. Although, of course, this works the most effectively alongside a well-implemented training programme.

Implementation

Implementing a streamlined timeline can help you identify short- and long-term goals for your drivers’ behaviour. With organisational goals in mind, you can implement deadlines for training programmes and identify vital behavioural improvements that should be prioritised.

During this process, you should maintain good communication with your drivers to ensure any grievances are dealt with, promoting a healthy work environment with committed employees.

We hope you now have a better understanding of how the technology used in fleet management services and solutions can help businesses like yours to improve driver behaviour.
The MICHELIN Connected Fleet team

Written by The MICHELIN Connected Fleet team

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