Tag: preventative maintenance

image representing telematics

The benefits of telematics during the labour shortage

Posted on | by Alexis | Leave a Comment on The benefits of telematics during the labour shortage

When it comes to transportation of goods and services, truck drivers are the adhesive that holds the supply chain together. Given their importance, finding, hiring, and retaining truck drivers has proven to be more difficult than ever.

Once thought of solely as a system for improving operational efficiency, there is now opportunity to leverage telematics for driver retention.

By the end of this article, you will gain insight into the present trucking industry, and how the use of telematics can make a big difference with the current labour shortage.

What is ‘telematics’?

In broad terms, telematics is a field that combines telecommunications and informatics. Informatics involves the working of computer systems – the science involved in the processing of information, its storage, and retrieval.

When you apply this combination to vehicles, telematics becomes a highly sophisticated computing system that can track all aspects of the vehicle, from electrical, mechanical engineering to software engineering.

The use of telematics in the context of vehicle use often involves the following:

  • Using telecommunications to send, receive and store information to help control remote objects.
  • The combined use of telecommunications, and informatics to control and monitor vehicles that are on the move.
  • The use of GPS to help with the navigation and live tracking of vehicles.

Telematics acts as a single monitor for all the different sensory and electrical features of your vehicle, all the while providing instant information on a single vehicle, or an entire fleet, on demand and in real-time.

The trucking industry’s labour shortage

According to a recent report from the American Trucking Association (ATA), the shortage in truck drivers hit an all-time high of over 80,000 drivers in 2021.

The most prevalent causes were:

  • Demographics – The average age of current drivers is above 50, leading to more retirees and fewer hires year over year.
  • Fewer female drivers – According to the same ATA report, women only make up 7% of the overall existing drivers.
  • Lack of new drivers – The availability of potential drivers on par with a truck carrier’s hiring standard is extremely low.
  • Lifestyle –The lifestyle of the average truck driver is another important factor that deters people from choosing truck driving as a profession. Long hours, irregular meals and sleeping patterns all contribute to the decline.
  • The pandemic – Among the many people that were temporarily laid off due to COVID, most did not come back.

This labour shortage will be acutely felt for a long time and may persist until the trucking industry increases its bandwidth to allow younger drivers into the fold and/or improves its hiring and training practices.

Mitigating the labour shortage

There are two parts to managing the labour shortage. The first and most self-evident is to make the driving profession more lucrative and attractive to potential drivers, including:

  • Offering fair wages with extra benefits, including solid health insurance and pension plans.
  • An increase in freight rates.
  • A refresh in the truck industry’s branding, making it an appealing and viable career path.
  • Better work schedules and route assignment for improved work/life balance.

The second solution would be the adoption of technology. Telematics has massive potential to help your workforce mitigate the labour shortage while providing attractive solutions that make everyone’s job easier in the short and long-term.

How telematics can help

Telematics has the power to improve the working conditions of your existing and future drivers in a very significant way.

The benefits of telematics from a business perspective

  • Improves productivity and efficiency: The data collected by integrated GPS found in most telematics systems can be used to optimize routes, which reduces the overall time spent on the road, reduces delivery times, and improves fuel usage.
  • Reduces operation costs: All the improvements listed in the previous statement help reduce operational costs. Moreover, since telematics tracks and keeps records of virtually everything that has to do with the vehicle, there are opportunities to identify potential issues within your vehicles before they happen, thus improving operational costs and maximizing fleet efficiency.
  • Automates payroll management: With the time and distance data provided by telematics, it becomes easier to manage payroll without having to worry about clerical errors.
  • Streamlines telecommunications: Telematics systems help you seamlessly streamline all forms of end-to-end communication within your business operations, from customers to drivers.
  • Offers proactive maintenance and repair alerts: The diagnostics data provided by telematics can help you maintain your fleet and keep everything in working order. Issues can be flagged to your driver while also alerting your repair centre, preventing break downs before they happen.
  • Attracts and retains drivers: This is the most important benefit given the subject of this article. Vehicles fitted with telematics technology will always prove to be more attractive, and the many features that the tech offers, especially in them being engaged, and not disconnected over miles of long lonely road, will certainly help in their retention.

The benefits of telematics from a driver’s perspective

  • Improves safety and compliance: The built-in driver monitoring software encourages drivers to comply with all regulatory driving standards. This goes a long way in avoiding, and preventing accidents, ensuring the overall health, and safety of the drivers.
  • Opportunities for real-time coaching: Virtually everyone develops bad driving habits over time. Whether it’s harsh braking, frequent acceleration or failing to use a turn signal, telematics can identify these occurrences and alert both you and your driver to these behaviours as soon as they happen, giving you an opportunity to correct and coach in real-time.
  • Increases job safety: Contrary to popular belief, telematics isn’t the digital, overbearing “Big Brother” that everyone thinks. There are lots of ways to introduce telematics to your drivers that frame it as a benefit; less in-cab surveillance and more of an insurance policy that helps prevent accidents, exonerate your drivers and keep them safe.

Conclusion

While there is no singular solution to fix the entire trucking industry, an organized business that leverages telematics data not only lures prospective employees, but it can also help your organization use your existing drivers and vehicles more efficiently while keeping them safe on the road.

For more information, contact your GoFleet consultant and ask us how we can keep you and your staff in the driver’s seat.

preventative maintenance, repair, vehicle, upkeep, gofleet

Addressing Vehicle Lifespan: A Preventive Maintenance Guide For Fleets

Posted on | by Victoria Gole | Leave a Comment on Addressing Vehicle Lifespan: A Preventive Maintenance Guide For Fleets

Addressing Vehicle Lifespan – A Preventive Maintenance Guide

With rising populations, technologies and more, fleets are taking their game to the next level to meet never-ending demands. Fleets are taking this opportunity and starting to look at improving their fleet in every way that will result in short term or instant benefits. However, this rush of improving businesses makes it easy to look over the solutions and practices that help fleets in the long run, specifically preventive maintenance.

Missing out on preventive maintenance will result in major problems in the long run. All the small checks and fixes that take place in a preventive maintenance check keep the vehicle in tip top condition and actually improves the overall lifespan of the vehicle. Avoiding preventive maintenance will negatively affect the vehicle’s lifespan, and here are some of the common maintenance practices that would cause issues if neglected.

    • Neglecting Regular Cleaning

One would think that a car’s appearance does not affect its operation and life. Dirt, dust and grime can bring about wear and tear on your vehicle fast. Keeping your vehicles clean allows you to make the right assessment on the condition of your vehicle. This way, you can quickly spot damages to the interior or exterior of the vehicle and repair them promptly.

Prolonged intervals of cleaning can harden dirt and require more abrasive cleaning, which can damage the paint. In many cases, it can even cause rust formation.

    • Avoiding Inspection

Just like humans routinely visit the doctor to remain healthy, vehicles also need to be inspected regularly. At least once in 4 to 6 months, a qualified car mechanic should thoroughly inspect the vehicle. The inspection covers various aspects, including the condition of the car parts and is typically done at a service center. Furthermore, the vehicle’s oil, fluid levels and tire pressure should be personally checked by the fleet every few weeks. 

    • Ignoring Symptoms

It is not usual to hear rattles or squeaks when driving. Although they may sound like minor issues, they could also indicate something serious, and it would be best to get it checked out at an auto repair shop. The earlier a problem is detected, the easier and cheaper is its solution. Ignoring warning lights on the vehicle’s dashboard or the engine lights can prove to be lethal. Car maintenance involves many steps and light indicators will help to point problems out.  

    • Neglecting Wear And Tear

Automakers build cars to last many years. Time and normal usage, however, will take their toll on a vehicle. A worn part can affect several other components, so a fleet has to be keen on which parts need immediate attention. For instance, worn-out threads on your tires can strain the suspension system of your vehicle and other elements involved in braking. Promptly addressing this issue can prevent major problems from occurring. 

Common preventive maintenance tasks for trucks and fleets must be customized to fit the individual vehicle and its usage pattern. Preventative maintenance checklists allow fleet managers to schedule maintenance tasks in advance. Strong preventative maintenance programs ensure teams complete work orders without spending extra time, labor and money.

Preventative maintenance is essential for any fleet company to succeed. 

 

Example Story

It’s 9:45 am on Wednesday and one of the drivers calls saying his vehicle has been making a loud, squealing noise recently and now he’s on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. He calls again 90 minutes later with news that the technician at the go-to maintenance shop is fully booked but will try to squeeze his vehicle in, but as time passes, it’s not looked at until 3 pm.

By 4 pm, the problems found include a damaged alternator because of a busted driver belt. The costs totaled $700 for the tow truck and repair, along with an entire day of deliveries postponed while the driver sat at the shop. 

In this scenario, many parts of this situation could have been avoided. To begin with, the driver could have alerted the fleet about the squealing noise. As a result, the damaged drive belt could have been fixed for $75 when the oil was changed with other scheduled preventive maintenance and the alternator would not have needed to be replaced.

 

The Average Vehicle Lifespan

Back in the day, the average age for class 4-8 vehicles was 12.5 years in 2007 and now it stands near 14.7 years. The subset of class 6 vehicles is averaging 20.9 years, which takes the highest position amongst vehicles. Whereas the average class 5 is just 11.9 years, which takes the youngest position amongst vehicles. This information is important to keep in mind for fleets who have several vehicles because they need to be ready to expect when a vehicle will break down. However, it would be much easier for a fleet to continue their operations if they have a maintenance system to rely on. 

 

ZenduMA – Keeping Preventive Maintenance In Check

Diagnostics and maintenance management has the power to make and break jobs because fleet managers are measured on their fleet’s productivity. Downtime increases business costs and if left unchecked, can cost a fleet manager their job. This is why solutions like ZenduMA can be beneficial for fleet management. It generates work orders automatically when a vehicle fault or regularly scheduled maintenance is detected. This saves money and reduces downtime. 

With day-to-day data entry to long term trend analysis, ZenduMA delivers powerful functionality without compromising on a simple UI. Companies around the globe use ZenduMA to control maintenance costs, proactively avoid vehicle breakdowns, vastly extend asset life span, increase vehicles availability and most importantly improve the safety of their fleets.

Preventive truck maintenance can be the difference between replacing a $10 part in your shop and paying hundreds more to tow a broken-down tractor to another shop to pay someone else to replace the same part. Preventive maintenance can save fleets money thanks to technology advances that let you know of potential problems before they become costly problems. Capitalizing on volumes of data, predictive maintenance algorithms keep tractors and trailers rolling smoothly between regularly scheduled shop visits and avoid pending part and system failures.

With so much on the line, it’s important for fleets to always keep preventative maintenance top of mind. Choosing to ignore the continuous upkeep of your vehicles could cost you more financially in the long run not only in terms of repairs, but productivity if breakdowns halt work. Contact our team today to learn how you can easily implement a maintenance strategy and why ZenduMaintenance can help.

Off-Road Fleet Tracking: Why Your Construction Business Needs It

Posted on | by Anna | Leave a Comment on Off-Road Fleet Tracking: Why Your Construction Business Needs It

Construction managers have many responsibilities that include not only caring for the well being of their team, but the productivity of their projects. Often this includes meeting worksite compliance, verifying that equipment is efficiently used and ensuring that costs are kept low. With so much to keep in mind, managers can’t overlook how IoT and telematics tools can help them stay successful. Specifically how off-road fleet tracking solutions could help them stay on track. 

Boosting Security 

Off-road fleet tracking allows site managers to better manage their equipment by ensuring that the location of equipment is always known. This helps to reduce the costs that arise if equipment is stolen or is misplaced on job sites. As some pieces cost thousands of dollars to rent, or hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase, managers must always know where these investments are. Recently, it was brought to light how serious the issue of stolen construction equipment is during a press conference on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, when the OPP recovered a substantial amount of construction equipment worth over $600,000. While insurance is typically used to help reduce the financial burden of missing equipment, the stress and wasted time of relocating equipment is something that many site managers can agree that they can do without. 

 

Increasing Visibility 

Off-road fleet tracking does exactly what it sounds like it does, completes tracking off-road. While knowing the continual GPS location of equipment or tools has its own benefits, it also allows site managers to review their efforts. This is because the trackers and sensors used in off-road fleet tracking solutions can monitor whether there is excessive downtime or other inefficiencies that are costing businesses. 

Often, when a large project is being completed, some equipment will only be used for a small period of time, but will still remain on-site unnecessarily for days or even weeks. This is worrisome if the equipment is taking up critical space, is a rental, or could be used more efficiently at another site. When expensive equipment usage is tracked, managers can make better financial decisions about the equipment and their projects. This also goes one step further as off-road fleet tracking can ensure that the most work is being completed with the fewest resources. Meaning idling equipment is kept at a minimum and the proper equipment is being used so the job is completed effectively. 

 

More Informed Decisions 

Tracking off-road fleets also allows for processes to be streamlined. This speaks to the mass quantities of data that can be gathered from the IoT tools. Anything from location, to hourly use, or fuel-efficiency can be analyzed. This can then be translated into tangible benefits for businesses as better record keeping is possible, alert systems can be programmed, and more intuitive decision making can occur. Ultimately allowing for better preventative maintenance and improved monitoring of engine alerts. 

 

Using Off-Road Fleet Tracking in Your Business 

While discussing the benefits of off-road fleet tracking, it’s important to highlight that just having a telematics device will not guarantee success. Rather it’s important to know that you need to not only use the right solution but utilize it to its maximum potential. Using a reliable and durable solution like the GO RUGGED device is one way to do this. As it’s built to last in harsh conditions and is trusted to track your assets accurately, it’s something that construction teams can’t overlook. If you’re interested in learning more about how GO RUGGED could benefit your construction operations, contact us today!