AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Giles Margerison

Giles Margerison, Sales Director UK & Ireland at TomTom Telematics, looks at the cost and efficiency benefits of improving driving performance standards.

Improved driving performance standards has long been an under-appreciated method for unlocking cost savings, improving safety levels and boosting efficiency for field service companies.  There is an abiding perception that controlling such a wildly differing variable is a monumental task – one that requires vast resource and has no guarantee of success. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

One problem is that old habits really do die hard. Getting an employee to change the way they drive requires a significant adjustment in behaviour.  Furthermore, there is a wide range of behaviours associated with each identifiable driving characteristic, meaning many companies simply do not know where to start when it comes to analysing data, if there is any.

Each of these challenges has a solution – and the benefits are potentially huge.

1. Involve your drivers

   Change does not need to scare employees, even when it involves the monitoring of driving standards. When implementing a performance programme, it is important to involve drivers in discussions from the outset, including union representation if appropriate. This allows them to ask questions, raise concerns and start a two-way dialogue that helps to demystify the process.

   Change does not need to scare employees, even when it involves the monitoring of driving standards

   Creating advocates and champions also helps. Instilling a sense of pride and responsibility in selected members of staff puts them in a position where they can spread the word and highlight the benefits of driving more efficiently. These might range from improved safety to cost savings that can help to safeguard jobs in the long term.

    

   Creating a specific company ‘mission statement’ and building this into employee inductions can help to drive the message home, stressing the importance of aligning company values with driving for work purposes

   The policy could also outline what consequences might be faced as a result of breaches of expected standards, such as speeding or reckless driving. Any disciplinary process should be clearly outlined and communicated, while giving staff the right to reply. Equally, if there is a programme for incentivising and rewarding drivers, this should be ingrained in policy too.

2. Set clear objectives

   When it comes to driver behaviour, its significance differs depending on the business. This means setting clear objectives which are dependent on organisational goals and choosing which aspect your company wants to improve upon.

   Perhaps boosting customer service levels is the main aim. Data such as vehicle off road (VOR) time is incredibly helpful here, as is the amount of orders or jobs lost during these periods. Identify the most appropriate data sets and set a baseline for the minimum expected standards. Any deviation from that baseline could then be highlighted, allowing management to target specific issues through training and consultation.

   The amount of data available is greater than ever but collecting, analysing and reporting on it does not have to be an overly arduous task. Telematics systems are now more sophisticated than ever, creating individual profiles for drivers based on their performance in a number of key areas related to safe and efficient driving.

   Management can drill down into specific areas of performance to gain greater insight into specific problems. Data is available on a range of behaviours, including speeding, fuel consumption, harsh steering and braking, idling, gear changes and constant speed.

   Devices even provide predictive advice that unlocks even greater fuel savings.

   Drivers can get advice in real-time through their driver terminal to inform them where they are able to improve. Devices even provide predictive advice that unlocks even greater fuel savings. Drivers are told when to take their foot off the accelerator on the approach to roundabouts or junctions, allowing them to drive in a smoother, more fuel-efficient manner.

    

3. Culture of collaboration

   Real employee engagement is needed to experience long-term change in driver behaviour. Rather than a ‘them and us’ philosophy, putting drivers at the heart of the programme can help them feel empowered and more receptive to change.

   When it comes to getting your workforce on board, incentives such as extra holidays, cash or qualifications for personal development work to your benefit. However, simple recognition and acknowledgement of their efforts can be equally effective. League tables that compare the driving performance of individual drivers are also useful for sparking a sense of healthy competition and giving staff goals to work towards.

There is no one-size fits-all approach to improving driver behaviour and the wealth of data now available to field service companies provides a number of ways for them to tackle the issue, depending on their objectives.

However, by following a set of established guidelines – creating a culture of excellence, providing strong leadership, choosing data to suit objectives and working with employees to achieve improvements – best practice can be achieved.

 

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Business motivations for running a green fleet can be many. Environmental ethics are laudable but the business case is clear and financial triggers can be equally compelling. Giles Margerison, Tom Tom Telematics’ Director UK & Ireland, explains how service companies can introduce an environmental strategy and considers its effect on day-to-day operations.

Environmental issues are being taken increasingly seriously by today’s world of business.

In some cases, sustainability has found its way onto service company agendas as a result of industry quotas and legislative demands, some firms simply want to become more environmentally-friendly from an ethical standpoint, others see it going hand-in-hand with business reputation and cost-savings.

Moral motivations may have taken a backseat during the recent economic downturn when, for many, business survival became the key objective. But as a leading motoring journalist recently pointed out – motives are not really the point, it’s the end result that counts.

 

Indeed those still to be convinced by moral arguments can ill-afford to ignore the fact that an environmental policy will invariably prove to also be a financially beneficial one – and this truth is particularly applicable for companies operating vehicle fleets.

In short, a green fleet policy means greater efficiency. This translates to lower fuel consumption, which in turn equals reduced costs and green house gas emissions. The business case for its introduction is therefore unequivocal.

The automotive industry is taking considerable strides to produce cleaner and greener vehicles, but slashing CO₂ emissions need not be dependent upon upgrading to fleet vehicles with superior mpg efficiency. Instead, by focusing on how vehicles are used, immediate green results can be delivered no matter the size, nature and make-up of a fleet.

Implementation of smart job allocation and scheduling is a perfect place to start, helping reduce overall mileage and carbon footprint. Dispatching the most appropriate mobile workers to jobs requires accurate management information. This will range from assessing the urgency and priority of jobs to the location of employees and traffic flow en route.

Advanced telematics systems, which combine tracking, navigation and live traffic information, enable managers to make key decisions by monitoring vehicle locations, movements and driver performance. Jobs can then be allocated to the most appropriate field operative based on who will arrive quickest. The optimal route may not necessarily be the shortest but will be the one which minimises fuel usage, idling and time spent on the road.

 

Historic road-use data can also be analysed to avoid wasted mileage, while drivers are able to avoid congestion by using live traffic information provided by navigation devices. Coupled with smart routing, factoring in not only congestion but also traffic lights, roundabouts and other obstacles, this can mean journey time savings of up to 15 per cent – and a marked reduction in emissions.

Green efficiencies through improved driving performance

The driver is the biggest factor in fuel savings accounting for around 30 per cent of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a vehicle, and measurement of mpg underpins the potential savings in this area. Other crucial areas for measurement include vehicle idling, speeding and incidences of poor driving style, such as harsh steering or braking.

Telematics technology can draw upon all of this information, creating simple reports for organisations to profile individual drivers or entire fleets while empowering drivers themselves to improve by feeding performance data to them in real time, via in-vehicle terminals. And as research and development in this space continues apace, the performance areas that could be improved upon for greener, safer driving will develop, offering even greater opportunities for driver training and continual improvement.

 

Companies such as utilities giant Scotia Gas Networks (SGN) have demonstrated the fuel saving possibilities for this technology. SGN reduced incidences of negative driver behaviour (speeding, harsh steering, braking or acceleration) from 1,600 a day to less than 400 after implementing such technology across its 2,000+ vehicle fleet. The move resulted in an increase in average driver efficiency of 2.1 mpg.

For Zenith Hygiene Group, an incentivised scheme for the improvement of driver behaviour using TomTom Telematics’ technology saw its average vehicle mpg over the course of a year soar from 26 to 43. A study undertaken by global sustainability consultancy Environmental Resources Management (ERM), and commissioned by Vodafone, found that across its fleet this equated to almost 600 tonnes of CO2.

Such examples demonstrate how telematics data enables service companies to be fully accountable for their green policies, providing proof that requirements are being met. Moreover, managing mileage and driving behaviour not only protects the environment, it also protects drivers and companies’ all important bottom line.

 

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In the wake of a BBC Panorama documentary highlighting the dangers of cognitive distraction among motorists, TomTom Telematics Director UK & Ireland, Giles Margerison, considers what road risk means for fleet managers and how it can be best managed.

More people than ever before are now being convicted for causing death behind the wheel of their motor vehicle – and the consequences of this for businesses can be severe.

Back in 2007, there were a total of 233 convictions for causing death by dangerous driving. That same year the offence of causing death by careless driving was introduced – and according to the Ministry of Justice, by 2013 the number of convictions for death caused by both dangerous and careless driving had reached 310.

In light of these statistics, and the alarming fact that around a third of all road traffic accidents are believed to be work-related, businesses need to take the management of road risk extremely seriously.

The long arm of the law

Employers, after all, have the same duty of care obligations for their mobile workers as they do for all their office site staff. The Health and Safety at Work Act requires them to ensure, so far as is reasonably practical, the health and safety of all employees while at work.

What’s more, the legal implications of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act should provide all the motivation needed for service fleet managers to ensure adequate road risk management systems are in place.

 

Courts can impose unlimited fines for Corporate Manslaughter convictions and the damage to a company’s reputation could have even graver implications. In addition to corporate exposure individual criminal charges, including manslaughter, can be brought against directors or ‘thinking minds’ of an organisation.

 

As for field service employees, under sentencing guidelines a driver can face up to 14 years behind bars for death by dangerous driving.

The Health and Safety Executive’s advice is clear – companies should ensure work-related road safety is integrated into wider arrangements for managing health and safety at work. To ensure risks are effectively managed they must address their health and safety “policy, responsibility, organisation, systems and monitoring”.

Fostering a safety culture

Simply ensuring drivers hold valid licences and that their company vehicles have valid MOT certificates is not enough to ensure their safety. Beyond the introduction of a company-wide health and safety policy, organisations must strive to achieve a cultural shift among their employees to make sure policies are adhered to. This is where fleet management systems have a big role to play – helping enforce behavioural changes and significantly modifying driver attitudes.

On a basic level, telematics can be used to monitor the number of hours a driver spends behind the wheel and enforce a policy of regular breaks. This however is just the tip of the iceberg, with driver performance tools allowing managers to monitor the behaviour of their mobile workers – providing data on factors such as speed, fuel consumption and even harsh steering or braking.

A survey by road safety charity Brake discovered people driving for business purposes are more likely to take risks on the road than the general driving population. For example, more than half (54 per cent) admit speeding on 60mph limit roads, compared with 34 per cent of non-work drivers.

Helping the driver

What’s more, the importance of being able to monitor and act on such data was highlighted in a recent BBC Panorama documentary that examined the dangers of cognitive distraction.Professor Paul Atchley, Cognitive Psychologist at the University of Kansas, revealed that drivers using hands-free device mobile phones, for example, suffer from a mental workload and that reduces their ability to deal with hazards on the road, increasing the likelihood of crashes.

 

Telematics systems that automatically send job details and route drivers to customer locations via integrated in-vehicle navigation devices can reduce this mental workload. They also empower drivers them by feeding live performance information to their in-vehicle navigation devices, enabling them to change their behaviour in real time.

 

In the office, managers can use the performance data to build accurate profiles for every driver and identify where their strengths and weaknesses lie, allowing training to be tailored to suit individual requirements. The opportunity to measure driver performance in a sustainable manner following training sessions also becomes a reality, protecting the business investment in meeting duty of care obligations.

Scotia Gas Networks (SGN), for example, reduced incidences of negative driver behaviour (speeding, harsh steering, braking or acceleration) from 1,600 a day to less than 400 after implementing teleamtics technology.

Although there can occasionally be resistance from staff with such systems involving in-depth performance analysis, this can be overcome if they are positioned correctly and implemented with employee involvement.

Consultations should be held with staff throughout the process and open lines of communication maintained. Incentives offered for improvements in performance can also result in healthy competition among staff.

By understanding their obligations and committing to road safety, service companies can stay on the right side of the law, safe in the knowledge they have secure business future.

Giles Margerison, TomTom Telematics’ Director UK & Ireland, considers how field service firms can best organise their resources to cope with the holiday season.

The arrival of summer usually receives a warm welcome on these shores but that's not to say it's without its challenges.

Field service companies, in particular, face the often taxing issue of ensuring service levels don't drop below expected standards during a period of resource instability.

The need for smart planning to cope with staff holidays is made ever more pressing by the continued growth of the service sector, as economic recovery keeps gathering pace, and the shift from a transactional to a relationship economy.

Customers expect higher standards of customer service and expertise from field workers than perhaps ever before and those companies capable of meeting this demand will be best equipped to thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Data as the foundation for good planning

Of course, good service delivery relies upon effective planning. On a basic level this means coordinating holidays with expected workloads to ensure staffing and skills levels remain sufficient through the summer period.

But there is a need for organisations to become ever more sophisticated in order to cope with the changing face of the UK economy and this is where 'big data' can help.

Armed with the appropriate data, it is possible for field service companies to work out how many jobs their staff are able to attend in a day, accounting for factors such as time spent on the road journeying between jobs.

For example, using routing and scheduling software integrated with real-time data from telematics allows working schedules to be optimised, planning each mobile worker's day to ensure they spend as little time as possible out on the road.

Once work schedules are finalised, the details can be sent to each worker's in-cab navigation device, with navigation automatically loaded to send them along the quickest route, taking into account the effect of traffic flow, roundabouts, traffic lights and other obstacles.

Shifting scheduling from static to dynamic

Variables such as traffic or the emergence or unexpected, urgent call-outs can throw a spanner in the works, hence the need for  dynamic methods of planning.

Rather than setting workflow schedules in stone at the start of each day, field service organisations might be better served by planning on the fly with real-time information in order to make better use of resources and ensure the absence of staff isn't felt.

As such, telematics systems are able to make use of live traffic information to provide accurate times of arrival. If a worker gets held up severely by traffic or a delay in their previous job, the next most appropriate colleague can be dispatched in their place, or at the very least customer expectations can be managed.

Similarly, in the case of emergency call-outs, the system will automatically allocate the best-placed person to take the job, according to the time it will take them to arrive on site, rather than merely distance.

Dynamic schedules can also be tailored to complete both high-priority call-outs and low-priority, scheduled appointments in the most efficient manner. For example, if a worker is called to an urgent job on the same street where a regular visit is planned for later in the week, it often makes sense to complete both jobs at once, reducing the number of man hours wasted.

There's an app for that

Such dynamic scheduling takes into account staffing levels, availability and a host of other factors to ensure the available resources are most efficiently used but doesn't necessarily address any skills shortage that might occur when temporary staff are drafted in during the summer months to help service demand.

However, you’ll be pleased to know ‘there's an app for that'. The remarkable acceleration in the development of business technology means mobile workers can now benefit from a number of applications designed specifically to take advantage of logging workflow and process on one device, which makes their lives easier.

These apps, for example, allow the driver to conduct daily vehicle checks on their driver terminal or tablet device, ticking off each element on a pre-defined list before the details are sent automatically to the office for their records.

Once this is completed, the driver's workflow can be automatically loaded to their device, with navigation queued up for each job as necessary.

Upon arrival at a site, the worker will automatically be sent full details of the job along with any manuals that are required, ensuring they have the requisite knowledge at their fingertips.

There is such a range of technological solutions now available that companies can ensure whatever system is implemented will be tailored to the precise needs of the organisation, the industry and the customer.

End-to-end business systems, which build a seamless link between field and back office, remove the element of uncertainly that might have previously surrounded summer staffing and allow field service companies to deliver year-round, uninterrupted, first-class service.

 

Ahead of his speech to delegates at the 2014 Service Management Expo Giles Margerison, TomTom Telematics’ Director UK & Ireland, considers the impact of technology on the changing face of field service management.

The activities of field workers have traditionally been managed as separate, distinct, operations to those of the back office – but times they are a changin’.

The face and pace of service business is being revolutionised by innovations in mobile workforce management.

The field is increasingly being brought into the fold with technology forging end-to-end connections between vehicles, field hardware, mobile workers, the back office, management and other departments. The value of this cannot be underestimated with data generated by field service fleets proving invaluable to numerous areas of a company – from customer relations to HR, sales and accounts.

What’s more it is becoming easier than ever to connect business hardware and software with fleet management technology. Out-of-the-box integrations mean back office systems are seamlessly connecting with vehicles and mobile workers without the need for expensive IT consultancy.

Harnessing big data to boost business performance

By using connected technologies to make smarter decisions, informing advancements in operational processes, radical improvements can be made to business performance and the bottom line.

Business connectivity is already having a major impact in the back office, where the integration of CRM, ERP, workflow planning and other software platforms has allowed companies to achieve significant efficiency gains.

Fleet management systems that have open APIs are now extending integration capabilities to the field – helping businesses harness the potential of big data to cut costs and achieve unprecedented levels of customer service.

The telematics gateway for M2M efficiency

Using an in-vehicle telematics unit to transmit field data to the back office, signature capture devices, for example, can now make use of job and GPS positional data from a fleet management platform to prove a delivery was made to a specific location at a particular time by a designated driver.

Similarly, mobile printers, paired by Bluetooth to an in-vehicle telematics box, can now print receipts or invoices enriched with this same information.

Accessed via fleet management software, all field data can be shared with back office software, including routing and scheduling and workflow management systems. By doing so, managers can ensure jobs or deliveries are completed punctually and customers notified in advance of precise arrival times, with work schedules planned in the most efficient manner, taking into account factors such as traffic or proximity.

Tomorrow’s world ...today

Innovations such as TomTom Telematics’ PRO 8275 driver terminal extend field service capabilities even further, combining the capability of mobile hardware, satellite navigation and mobile business applications on a single device.

Bespoke apps for use on such terminals are now being developed, enabling it be tailored to meet specific business and service requirements – from conducting and submitting vehicle safety checks to recording proof of delivery.

Managers and drivers, as a result, are now being brought closer together than ever before with new M2M processes catapulting field service into a bold new era,

 

 

Technology has long been a key driver for innovation and change in business. Regardless of size or industry, the pace of technological change is a major factor in the ability of businesses to evolve, meet increasing customer demands and maintain a commercial advantage. Giles Margerison, Director with TomTom Telematics explains more...

Rarely has this relationship been more evident than in the recent development in the connected vehicle and the opportunities it offers to field service organisations.

Advancements in fleet management technology have resulted in a growing suite of applications designed to help managers boost operational efficiency and, increasingly, realise new levels of customer service delivery.

As a consequence of the recent economic slowdown, customers are seeking ever-greater value for money and demanding more from business than ever before. The effective application of connected vehicle technology could be crucial in helping field service operators to act quickly and introduce new services and innovations to further improve the customer experience.

What is the connected vehicle?

Although it is undergoing a period of rapid technological change, the connected vehicle is not a new concept. It has its roots in vehicle tracking, which has long allowed businesses to improve efficiency by gaining greater visibility of their mobile workforce.

But we are now experiencing greater degrees of connectivity than ever before - driven in part by the pace of technological innovation in the consumer sphere. Advancements are occurring at an ever-quickening pace, driving adoption and making technology such as smartphones and tablet PCs integral business tools.

These devices can work hand-in-hand with advanced telematics technology to create a seamless IT operation that encompasses all aspects of life – from business to your home, car and leisure time.

The same goes for business, where vehicle, smartphone, mobile hardware and office software can form a seamless loop that allows for greater flow of data through disparate parts of a business and its operations.

For example, a wireless Bluetooth connection might allow the tracking unit fitted into a vehicle to communicate with mobile printers, barcode scanners, signature-capture devices or even smartphones.

The result is an exchange of data which allows such hardware to incorporate precise information regarding time and location for the production of more accurate invoices or proof of delivery. This can then be communicated back to the office in real-time, allowing better management of workflow and fulfilment of customer orders.

Bringing mobile workers into the office fold

Such innovations allow management to exercise a greater degree of control over their mobile workforce, ensuring employees on the road are as connected and accessible as those in the office.

Combined data from in-vehicle technology and mobile hardware can be communicated back to the office and shared with the appropriate software applications - a vital relationship given society's increasing dependence on electronic relationships between companies and their customers, suppliers or partners.

When an order is received by a company, for example, the details can automatically be passed from the e-commerce platform or CRM to the fleet management dashboard.

This allows the mobile operations manager to view outstanding orders and dispatch the most appropriate employee to each job based on how long it will take them to arrive, with directions sent immediately to their satellite navigation device. Once the job is done, data will be sent from the vehicle back to the office, allowing the final details to be added to the CRM or invoicing software, completing the loop.

Such a situation is only made possible through the integration of fleet management hardware and software with existing office applications, which has become a growing concern given the rate of technological change.

IT integration must extend to all elements of a business, including both office and mobile operations, in order to form a flexible framework capable of providing a lasting competitive edge.

What does the future hold?

Even greater advances are close at hand. A number of insurance companies are already using fleet management technology to send driving performance data to a policy-holder's smartphone with a view to helping them drive more safely and reduce premiums.

For field service organisations, it is not hard to imagine a situation where the customer places an order and subsequently receives a message to their smartphone providing an accurate ETA for when the operative will arrive at their house - perhaps even tracking real-time progress on a map.

Not only that, but the smartphone then tells the customer exactly how long it will take for them to travel home in order to meet the operative and provides them with the best possible route, taking into account traffic congestion.

Extending the idea further, deliveries could be sent to a customer's exact location, pinpointed according to the GPS signal from their smartphone, whether that’s home, work or even the local coffee shop.

Roadside assistance companies could allow customers to make a distress call via a smartphone app before sending out the most appropriate responder based on engine diagnostics and location data sent immediately from the customer's vehicle.

No matter the application, the connected vehicle will only continue to offer new possibilities for the field service industry to future proof its service offering.