Seven key ways telematics boosts your fleet management

Fleet management benefit 3: EROAD nurtures a solid safety culture

The safe operation of your vehicles is a direct reflection of a well-run, productive fleet. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is also a legal obligation under New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act (2015).

A solid safety culture, supported at all levels across the organisation, coupled with the right systems and processes are key to ensuring everybody in the supply chain is aware of, and performing to, their obligations.

Operating safely generates many benefits that have a direct impact on productivity and profitability. This includes:

• Reducing the risk and cost of accidents and injuries
• Reducing your fleet’s insurance premiums and excess and ACC levies
• Increasing driver productivity
• Enhancing driver morale and retention
• Compliance

Monitoring driver behaviour, managing fatigue risk and vehicle maintenance are some of the key areas where EROAD can actively help you create a safer fleet. It helps improve your safety management practices by monitoring your driver’s, vehicle’s and equipment’s performance at all times so you can address issues quickly and also nurture a strong safety culture.

What’s more, by installing EROAD in your vehicles, you may be able to reduce your insurance premiums and excess* if you can show you are in the top 25% of drivers on EROAD’s Leaderboard. In addition, employing telematics can also help you achieve ‘Gold’ status level in ACC’s Fleetsaver programme, which can reduce levies by up to 40%. 

Fleet management benefit 4: EROAD enhances driver performance

Your drivers hold a significant amount of responsibility for the safe and optimal operation of your vehicles. Accidents, traffic violations and other risky driver behaviours cost your business in a number of ways –  reputational, financially, operationally and even legally.

EROAD’s telematics solution provides visibility of your drivers and their on-road performance. It increases accountability, facilitates better driving choices at the same time as allowing you to reinforce and reward good driving habits. In effect, it helps nurture safer driving by encouraging positive behavioural change.

It achieves this by bridging the gap between after-the-event management reporting and in-cab, behind-the-wheel influence on driver behaviour.

EROAD’s Leaderboard provides you with an inside view of your fleet based on key driver metrics, enabling you to set up effective driver training and reward programmes. It also helps reward great driving by using gamification to encourage proactive driver improvement with a bit of healthy competition by being able to benchmark your drivers and compare them to the EROAD wider community of 100,000+ vehicles. 

EROAD has found that organisations that pay consistent attention to EROAD’s driver behaviour analytics have 38% fewer speeding events than organisations that don’t view them at all.
EROAD study, June 2016 

EROAD’s Ehubo2 supports drivers with data and live in-cab notifications on speeding, seatbelt use, harsh braking, cornering and sharp acceleration so they can make safer decisions while they’re on the road.  It also allows for two-way messaging so you can stay in touch with your drivers while they’re out on the road.

Driver accountability has a very real impact on speed and road safety. An EROAD study found that vehicles where the driver was logged in had 50% less speed events than vehicles with no identified driver.
EROAD study, June 2016

EROAD helps you keep track of your driver’s hours and also lowers the risk of accidental non-compliance with fatigue and rest time rules.

Ensuring your drivers are safe on the road can also provide other benefits to your business such as reduced fuel and maintenance costs, less vehicle downtime, reduced fines and penalties, happier drivers and customers!

Installing EROAD in your vehicles may also help reduce your insurance premiums and excess if you can show you are in the top 25% of drivers on EROAD’s Leaderboard.

With EROAD’s Share , you can also get the same visibility of your contractor and sub-contractor fleets as you have of your own to coordinate resources, simplify dispatch and job management and deliver a better service to your customers. 

Fleet management benefit 5: EROAD ensures proactive service and maintenance scheduling

With fleet-based businesses, maintenance costs can hit hard, especially when they are unexpected. Vehicle defects can also cause costly delays or vehicle down-time.

EROAD’s Service and Inspect features gives you the ability to track and stay on top of vehicle issues easily to pre-empt problems so they can be rectified quickly before they become expensive issues.

Better maintenance can also assist in reducing idle times as well as improve fuel efficiency. You save time and manage costs – including reduced overtime caused by unexpected breakdowns and repairs – while operating your entire fleet more efficiently.

EROAD also takes the guesswork out of when you need to re-torque wheels after a tyre change.  EROAD’s re-torque alerts uses distance travelled from our highly accurate in-cab unit the Ehubo2 to ensure your drivers know exactly when the wheel nuts should be re-checked for correct torque.

Fleet management benefit 6: EROAD enhances customer service and satisfaction levels

In today’s digitally-charged, data-driven world, customer expectations of a fast, efficient and transparent service (within the boundaries of the law) are now expected from all companies.

EROAD can give you the right tools to ensure your fleet can deliver consistently to your service levels, at the same time as not breaking the law.

EROAD’s GPS tracking provides visibility of your fleet, and that of your contractors, so you can schedule jobs effectively based on the location of each vehicle in your fleet. It monitors and gathers vital data on when they left, arrived at specific sites, how long they spent on site, how far they travelled and when auxiliary equipment was used.

You can also monitor what jobs were completed, which driver was in the vehicle and for how long and make route adjustments, if needed. This allows you to schedule jobs effectively based on the location of each vehicle in your fleet. At the same time, you can keep clients informed of estimated arrival times, building trust and customer satisfaction along the way. 

Fleet management benefit 7: Improve work efficiency with Geofences

EROAD can automatically monitor or geofence your off-road travel for your FTC rebates and also accurately monitor when your vehicles and equipment are at specific work sites.

In these cases, EROAD’s smart telematics software allows you to create a temporary ‘geofence’ or ‘buffer’ zone around that area in order that may not typically be deemed an ‘off-road’ area – such as a construction site immediately adjacent or on a public road - to deem it a temporary ‘off-road’ work area.

You can also geofence specific depots or customer sites so you can see when your vehicles arrived, how long they were there and who was in the vehicle at the time to maximise your efficiency and customer service levels.