Benefits at Every Level of the Business

EnviroWaste manages waste and recycling collection services for commercial and residential customers through a national network of branches and waste-handling partners. Jerry Hetaraka (Fleet Support Coordinator) is one of four support staff who ensures that their 600-plus heavy fleet is well maintained and meets NZTA standards. He also manages all (TSL) transport service licensing as well as EROAD – his pet project – overseeing everything from installs to user training. 

A 20-year veteran of the industry, Jerry says his background until now has been mostly operational. With his current role he says “EROAD exposes you to more of the trucking side of things than you’d normally see, with full visibility of the national fleet and its current state of play including the health and safety aspect, because we have full fleet visibility we can start asking questions with some context behind them.” 

EROAD has been EnviroWaste’s telematics provider for almost five years, predating Jerry, who joined the business over three years ago. While automated RUC administration was the biggest driver behind their move to EROAD, as the product evolved, so did their use of it: “We’re using pretty much everything there is to use, from basic vehicle location to Driver Logbook .” 

Coordinating repairs and maintenance across three locations was one of EnviroWaste’s biggest challenges. “The Fleet Team have an umbrella view of what’s going on, but the fleet is still managed through the individual branches,” Jerry explains. Now, EROAD provides increased visibility over all branches – including instances where trucks haven’t been serviced. “We’ve been able to help out at a branch level and assist with solving their challenges.” 

Being able to utilise EROAD data has also helped the business plan for the future with respect to replacement of vehicles and allocating them based on each branch’s use and forecasted need. Because of the nature of waste collection – stopping, starting, and lifting bins – EnviroWaste’s trucks and associated equipment experience a lot of wear and tear, particularly after they have been in service for a number of years. This is when you start to see the trend of increased spend, however having the ability to access crucial reports at the touch of a button it allows you to identify those specific vehicles

EROAD helps minimise vehicle downtime through Inspect by allowing the team to promptly book in any needed repairs before the workshop gets backlogged or it’s too late in the day. “We can pick up on it at six in the morning, whereas if we were paper-based, we wouldn’t see that until the driver gets back.”

As for his own role, Jerry says, “EROAD is helping us manage our fleet better”. We can capture fuel usage, so we can see if a truck is suddenly using more fuel than normal. We can run utilisation reports so we can see when a vehicle’s actually starting to cost us more in terms of repairs and maintenance compared to kilometres travelled, operational hours and fuel usage.  Utilisation reports also provide quality data to indicate if the truck is required in that region or could be moved to another branch that can utilise it better.”

Speaking of which, Jerry also looks after the fuel cards, which in the past required drivers to manually enter their odometer readings – a process prone to human error. “Now I know that I can go into EROAD and get accurate K data for my fuel report. For me, that’s a big problem solved. I can extract all that information from EROAD fairly quickly.”

Performing pre- and post-trip vehicle checks using the EROAD Inspect app is part of their drivers daily process. The EROAD Day Logbook for electronic fatigue management compliance is another development that’s changed the way they do things, but the biggest benefit for drivers has been around speed. With the GEN2 units being installed the drivers now have the ability to better manage their driving in regard to speed with the easy to read colour coded speed being visible to them all the time. This combined with training and understanding led to Envirowaste receiving the “Highly Commended” Award At the 2020 Australasian Fleet Champion Awards. 

All EnviroWaste trucks have the Ehubo2 (GEN2) telematics device installed to monitor speed, location, and driver and vehicle performance. Driver Login gives the business visibility of each operator’s daily and overall behaviour while greatly improving the timeliness of feedback. 

“We always want our guys to get home safe at the end of the day.” Jerry says. 

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