Helpful Articles
How automatic tacho downloads help hauliers keep costs down
In 2017, the EU introduced a directive with legal limits on the number of hours which road transport drivers are allowed to be on duty and/or driving. Long hours on the road lead to fatigue, tired driving, decreased alertness, and accidents. The objectives of the directive were to enhance road safety and help drivers look after their health. It also had the aim of promoting fair competition among haulage businesses.
Now, five years on, how are these requirements affecting hauliers and drivers? Let’s take a look.
The rules still apply in the UK, even after Brexit
The drivers’ hours rules apply to UK drivers who drive a vehicle or vehicle combination with a weight of more than 3.5 tonnes within the UK. They also apply to these drivers when driving to, from, or through an EU country.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) enforces the rules and can fine or even prosecute drivers and operators, depending on the nature and seriousness of the infringement. On-the-spot fines aren’t limited to the day of non-compliance; they can also be issued for offences in the preceding 28 days.
The law requires haulage operators to keep records and be able to show compliance with the drivers’ hour rules. To this end, if a goods vehicle weighs more than 3.5 tonnes, and is used for road transport business in the EU and/or UK, it must have EU-approved tachograph equipment fitted. This is to enable the operator to record drivers’ driving and working hours, periods of rest, as well as distances and speed travelled.
Compliance is critical
Where DVSA inspectors find a driver or vehicle to be in serious breach of the rules, they may prevent the driver from driving any further, impacting the operator’s ability to generate income.
In an industry and economic climate where hauliers’ ability to run their businesses profitably is already severely challenged, keeping drivers and vehicles compliant and on the road is a matter of business survival.
Analogue or digital?
Vehicles first registered before 1 May 2006 may have analogue equipment, but those registered after this date must have a digital tachograph. Operators with digital tachographs need a tachograph company card to download data from the digital equipment in their vehicles.
Digital tachographs store driver and vehicle data in the equipment’s own memory, as well as separately on the driver’s tachograph card. The law requires transport operators to download this information from the digital tachograph every 90 days, and every 28 days from the drivers’ cards. After downloading the data, the operator must then send it to a provider for analysis so they can prove compliance.
The load on haulage businesses – why a better way is needed
For many hauliers, this legal requirement means they need an employee to go out to every single one of their vehicles at the required intervals to download the data manually from the tachograph and drivers’ cards. This is an ongoing, arduous exercise.
It also means taking drivers and vehicles off the road, costing the haulier productive driving and delivery time and, as a result, loss of revenue. Manually downloading tacho data is costly and time-consuming, and increases the risk of lost or incomplete data.
There is a better way – through automation
In recent years, leading transport management system (TMS) providers have developed software that automates the entire process.
TMS provider Mandata’s innovative Tacho Now subscription service removes the burden on the operator. It does this by automatically downloading all the required data from vehicle tachographs and driver cards – even when vehicles and drivers are out on the road carrying on with business.
Tacho Now downloads the data from each of the subscribed operator’s digital tachographs and drivers’ cards, according to a configurable download schedule. Then, it uploads the data to Mandata’s cloud servers for safe storage, without any human intervention required.
Operators can view the status and history of tacho data uploads for vehicles and drivers and make ad hoc (unscheduled) requests for extra data downloads at any time.
Once the data is downloaded, Tacho Now can also send it to a third-party tachograph analysis provider such as TruTac for data analysis and compliance reporting. This makes it a completely automated service that saves the operator time, effort, and money. Importantly, it takes a major compliance responsibility off the operator’s hands.
Operators see instant benefits
Elddis Transport is a well-established, family-owned haulage and logistics business in Consett in the North-East of England. Having efficiency as one of the pillars of their company’s ethos, they understand the importance of an efficient supply chain to businesses. Subscribing to Tacho Now has strengthened Elddis’s ability to ensure efficiency and timeliness. Wayne White, Business Operations Manager of the Durham-based operator says, “Tacho Now provides efficiency in not needing to route vehicles back to the workshop to download data and also provides the information quicker to allow for more timely tacho analysis.”
Bulk powder transporter Damac Transporters have been rolling out Tacho Now to their entire fleet over the past 18 months. Workshop Manager Simon Letorey says, “The units are downloaded weekly and the drivers’ cards are downloaded daily. This information is uploaded straight to Tachomaster for analysis.”
The benefits to Damac’s day-to-day operations? Letorey reports, “It has made tracking our drivers’ and trucks’ working information much easier. Not only have we done away with the need to manually download truck data, which can be a hassle when they are back late on a Friday, but we also have the information to hand much sooner. This is a great help when we need to deal with drivers’ infringements and any other issues.”
Destination: Success
The reality is that the haulage industry has been slow to adopt digitisation, let alone automation. However, according to a PwC report on the future of the logistics industry, now more than ever before, “‘Digital fitness’ is a prerequisite for success: the winners will be those who understand how to exploit a whole range of new technologies, from data analytics to automation and platform solutions.”
Hauliers need to work around ever-increasing challenges in a tough economic climate with high fuel prices, tight laws, rules, and guidelines while still finding ways to remain profitable.
The challenges aren’t going away, but with the right partner, the right software, and the right digitisation and automation solutions on their side, operators can make a success of every haul.
Would you like to know more about Mandata’s Tacho Now automated tacho data collection service?