Monitoring the driving behaviour of your fleet can have tangible positives for KPIs but negative affects culturally. Mark Glover spoke to Alistair Dobson from Whirpool about his approach to integrating a positive safety culture.

When engineers carry out on-site maintenance there is always an element of risk. I've written many times on the dangers of lone workers, which field service engineers essentially are. However, there is another high-risk environment that engineers often operate in, and that's even before they've got to the job itself.

Driving is a Central part of the Field Service Industry

Driving is an important metric of a technician's day-to-day. Time wasted while travelling either from heavy traffic or an poor route-planning can have a detrimental affect on that day's output. Fortunately, route-planning software and telematics solutions can assist in the latter, but the fact remains the roads will always be a risky environment.

In the UK, more people are killed or injured in at-work road accidents than in all other workplace accidents put together. It is estimated that around 200 road deaths and serious injuries involve someone driving whilst at work and around a third of all crashes are estimated to involve someone who was at work at the time. This means that up to 1,000 lives are lost in the UK each year through driving for work-based practices.

In the US, the figures are obviously higher. Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are consistently the leading cause of work-related fatalities in the U.S. A total of 8,173 workers died in work-related MVCs on public highways from 2003 to 2008, representing 24% of all work-related fatalities for the period.

We're tracking them so we had to very quickly move away from the fact that we're not tracking you. This is a health and safety initiative, this is about keeping you safe.

"Driving is 30 per cent, give or take, on average of an engineer's day of what we do," said Alistair Dobson, speaking at a recent Field Service News Think Tank session. Whirlpool's Service Operations Director explained that his fleet typically travel very short distances between customers in a designated local area, a routine common for the majority of service engineers where time is spent more on residential streets rather than high-speed motorways or roadways.

Alistair and his team took the decision to integrate telematics into their fleet strategy six years ago. It was a decision met with some resistance. "We invested in telematics which was a huge step and one viewed negatively viewed by the engineers," he recalls. "We're tracking them so we had to very quickly move away from the fact that we're not tracking you. This is a health and safety initiative, this is about keeping you safe."

Outlining the Benefits to Your Field Service Engineers

The moral and ethical questions around tracking technology are part of its implementation however, framing the technology as a safety initiative, one that is in place to protect drivers rather than a spy on them. This approach can help sell the technology to cynical engineers.

"It goes back to trust," Alistair continues, explaining how fragile the relationship between engineer and manager can be. "I'm not putting these cameras on your vans to watch and monitor you. I'm doing it to help keep you safe.

"Because if you're talking about culture and trust and you do things that destroy that trust, like, 'I'm going to be watching you every single day and I'm going to have someone in an office watching you on a screen,' then you quickly erode that trust."

One element of manifesting trust, Alistair explains, was being transparent with his own driving habits. He had the technology fitted to his own car and shared his own scores in a weekly email to the workforce.

"If I'm asking my engineers to do something why should I not be prepared to do it myself? What have I got to hide?"

Engineers were encouraged to 'Challenge Alistair', to try and beat his own table-leading metrics from driving safely. A combination of friendly competition and setting a tangible example helped cement the trust further. "I was driving very slowly because I've got an example to set. Leading by example becomes a key thing. If I'm going to ask the engineers to have it fitted then I should also have it fitted. If I'm asking my engineers to do something why should I not be prepared to do it myself? What have I got to hide?

"We're running a very consistent programme and we haven't changed it after six years. The methodology hasn't changed, we still need to go out and repair things in an economical way."

As we look into the next 12 months, one that is inevitably going to be affected by Covid-19 then communication between management and team will become more important.

Fleet management and the deployment of drivers as the lockdown lifts stringent will require a new approach in bringing the system back up to speed and engineers will be expecting clear, concise and controlled instruction.

It may require another shift in culture, another period of operating slightly differently to what's gone before yet what's important is consistency.

"And it's that consistency that creates that culture," Alistair explains. "So, when you talk about culture change, if you can gain that respect it means I can do something from my level down which drives the culture and behaviour."

We're operating in a Covid-19 affected world right not and it's a challenging time for everyone that offers little certainty. When I write next year's article for the Handy Little Book, I look forward to speaking to Alistair again to see how he drove that culture change in fleet management in such difficult times and ultimately thrived.

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Further Reading: 

• Read the full Field Service News Think Tank Executive Briefing on Health and Safety on the link below

• Read More articles from the Field Service News Think Tanks @ thinktanks.fieldservicenews.com
• Read more about Driver Behaviour @ www.fieldservicenews.com/DriverBehaviour
• Read More about Fleet Technology @ www.fieldservicenews.com/fleet-technology
• Read More articles from Mark Glover @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/mark-glover
• Read more about Whirlpool on their blog @ www.whirlpoolcorp.com/latest-news/
• Connect with Alistair Dobson on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/alistair-dobson-25128826/

Research released last week by Verizon Connect has revealed that the average small to medium-sized fleet operated business in the UK faces a £6,000 repair bill each year due to traffic accidents. Compounding this expense, they also lose an average of five working days each year as a result of vehicle downtime caused by traffic accidents.

Recent figures from the Department of Transport found that lorry traffic increased by 1.1% annually, with drivers travelling over 17.1 billion vehicle miles. The impact of this has hit small fleets as more than half (54 per cent), experienced an accident in the last year.

The strain on UK fleet managers is telling, with a third (31 per cent) of those surveyed by Verizon Connect reporting that maintenance and other associated costs are the top issues keeping them awake at night. The research also shows that fleet managers’ top concern regarding driver safety is using their phones while out on the roads (22 per cent), with speeding coming in at a close second (19 per cent).

Mobile Resource Management (MRM) software, like Verizon Connect, can help fleet managers improve driver safety standards across the fleet by sending real-time alerts to monitor speeding, breaking and other key driver behaviours. When it comes to the main cause of accidents, 29 per cent of fleet managers report that other road users are to blame, rather than their own drivers.

Previous research by Verizon Connect found that a quarter of UK drivers were found to be breaching driver guidelines around rest and fatigue. To combat this, and to uphold driver safety and compliance, just under half of fleet managers (46 per cent) use a tachograph to automatically record vehicle speed and distance and to keep track of their drivers’ rest periods.

“For small businesses, the cost of accidents, and driver downtime is a major concern – particularly as margins are tighter and competition is increasing.  But it’s not just the repair bill that matters, a vehicle out of service for five days could mean losing a valued customer to a rival,” comments Derek Bryan, Vice President, EMEA, Verizon Connect.

“With increasing numbers of vehicles out on the road, upholding driver safety is of utmost concern to fleet managers and drivers. While drivers can’t always avoid an accident, particularly if another driver is at fault, there are clear processes and technology that fleet managers can put in place to better protect their drivers. Making sure drivers take adequate rest breaks while tracking driver behaviour and encouraging safe driving practices can save lives, reduce accidents and uphold the lifetime and efficiency of the vehicles within the fleet.”

 

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Zip Water UK has revealed how driving performance data has helped the company manage fleet risk and cut annual insurance costs by more than £30,000.

The drinking water appliance specialist made the savings across its 120-strong mixed fleet following the introduction of WEBFLEET, the Software-as-a-Service fleet management system from TomTom Telematics.

With WEBFLEET – and the integral OptiDrive 360 solution which scores drivers based on key performance indicators and provides them with real-time feedback and advice – Zip Water has witnessed a significant reduction in road traffic collisions.

[quote float="left"]Having the tools in place to promote a safer driving style among our van and car drivers has led to a much-improved fleet risk profile[/quote]“Having the tools in place to promote a safer driving style among our van and car drivers has led to a much-improved fleet risk profile, a 15 per cent reduction in insurance premiums thanks to reduced claims, and a welcome fillip to our employee duty of care,” said Graham Short, Fleet Manager, Zip Water UK.

“Furthermore, we have seen a demonstrable improvement in fleet mpg, along with a sizeable reduction in our vehicle maintenance bills, including tyres and brake wear.”

Zip Water drivers are now also using the WEBFLEET Logbook app on their smartphones to keep accurate journey logs, rather than having to complete manual mileage sheets at the end of each day. The drivers simply validate their journey information and select whether the trips they have made are for business or private purposes.

Short added: “The value and efficiency gains that the telematics system has delivered to our business have been considerable. These have been recognised across our entire workforce – from the field to the back office.”

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Our series of excerpts from the exceptional industry guide 'Mobile Resource Management for Dummies', which has been commissioned by Verizon Connect has so far explored Understanding Digital Transformation in a Connected, Mobile World  also Thinking Outside the Silo and Harnessing the Power of Telematics, and Realising the Value of Mobile Resource Managemen

Now in this latest excerpt, we turn our attention to how field service organisations can avoid Mobile Resource Management pitfalls whilst they drive greater employee engagement.

Is Mobile Resource Management a key Topic for you?! Dive straight into the full eBook by hitting the button below!   

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If you need to catch up with the previous articles in this series you can find part one here, part two here and part three here.

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As with any new project or initiative, there are some common pitfalls to avoid when deploying a Mobile Resource Management (MRM) solution. In this excerpt, we shall look at some of these pitfalls and how to address them, as well as how to engage employees in every department throughout your organisation using the concept of gamification to coach and improve worker performance and drive a more satisfied, efficient and safe organisation.

You Can’t ‘Set It and Forget It’

MRM is a business strategy supported by processes and technology and used by teams throughout the organisation.

Although technology is a vital component, many organisations mistakenly focus purely on the technology and neglect to consider how supporting processes will map to the MRM solution, and fail to define or implement a strategy to gain user adoption.

 

"The goodwill created through co-consultation will quickly evaporate if people don’t understand how to use the software and how it benefits the company, their team members, and themselves..."

 

Although various teams throughout your organisation may have been consulted during the MRM planning process, don’t expect them to automatically embrace the new system or instinctively know how to use it effectively. The goodwill created through co-consultation will quickly evaporate if people don’t understand how to use the software and how it benefits the company, their team members, and themselves.

The level of personalisation will depend on the workflows and the capabilities of the solution being implemented. User training always needs to be built into any MRM project plan.

As well as covering tuition on software functionality and its benefits, group training is a perfect forum to formulate processes and ensure buy-in collectively from all teams. Tailored training programmes involving the system users or those with a vested interest in delivery – your MRM ‘advocates’ or ‘champions’ – need to be developed.

In this way, the system will be seen as a universal corporate tool and not just one department ‘selling’ it.

A common pitfall (discussed in our article in this series on 'Thinking Outside the Silo') is trying to cobble together your own MRM system by integrating siloed best-of-breed solutions in-house. The ever-changing applications make constant connectivity a difficult, moving target that’s costly to set up and that requires a long-term and expensive commitment, relying on a small team/person with highly specialised knowledge – this can be a very high-risk proposition.

 

Don’t Just Throw in the Kitchen Sink

As the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.

Spend time cleaning up your data – especially any data that includes addresses. Have you maintained a consistent style or format for data entry? Doing some data validation to determine whether your data is in the proper format goes a long way towards helping to make your data more usable.

One of the fundamental deployment errors in any new system is simply ‘forklifting’ your data from the old system to the new one. Before you begin the process, separate, segment and streamline your data. Work out which segments are relatively clean and which will need additional cleansing. Think clearly about what you want to put in and what will actually be relevant day to day. What data is going to get users to actually want to use the system? Remove out-of-date activities, as well as organisations and contacts that haven’t been touched recently. Relevancy is a guaranteed way to overcome user resistance.

Don’t just focus on addresses – think about time windows, skill sets, delivery days/dates and other common data.

These will all impact the effectiveness of your MRM solution if they’re not accurate and up-to-date. Have a clear, consolidated, centralised database of all your fleet/asset information to avoid delays and frustration, especially at remote locations.

Taking the necessary steps to fix any issues or errors in advance will significantly improve the MRM data conversion and implementation process.

 

Establish Your Mission

While your drivers, technicians or crews may be a subset of a larger business, there’s no reason why that subset shouldn’t have its own mission that aligns and supports the overall corporate mission.

 

"While your drivers, technicians or crews may be a subset of a larger business, there’s no reason why that subset shouldn’t have its own mission that aligns and supports the overall corporate mission..."

 

Once the mission is established, it’s time to break it down to individual objectives that support the mission. For example, the mission may be to operate the safest fleet in your region, so the objectives may include reducing speeding incidents, Hours of Service (HOS) violations or vehicle idle time.

Create measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) from the established objectives and keep them as specific as possible. No matter what your objectives are – increasing productivity, decreasing fuel costs, improving the safety of your crews or increasing asset utilisation – the secret to achieving them is keeping them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART). You then need to connect your entire organisation to the established goals.

 

Align Your Objectives

Review your objectives to ensure that they align with business operations. For example, if your company puts working as fast as possible first and safety second, then setting an objective to reduce speeding won’t align. Get your company influencers (normally managers or supervisors) involved to review and align to the objectives.

Your managers need to be on board with the new objectives because they play an important role in influencing others, and ultimately help to achieve a successful outcome. After reviewing and refining your objectives, and aligning them with your organisation, you’re ready for deployment.

 

Plan Your Rollout Across the Organisation

If you’re rolling out at multiple locations, draw up a coordinated plan.

Ensure that all parties are on the same page and engaged across the entire organisation – not just in the main office, but at all remote sites. Everyone needs to be aware of the deployment plan and the local champion/team must have everything prepared for deployment at their site on the agreed day/time.

Clear and concise internal communications are critical to ensure a smooth rollout.

Scope the deployment properly first: don’t move the goal posts during implementation. This is very difficult to do, as local variance and conditions means that tweaks are needed but they can cause delay.

 

What Is Gamification

Gamification is the use of game mechanics in a typically non-game-oriented context.

Gamification is used by software companies to build business applications that increase engagement and participation while accelerating learning. It leverages the human instinct to compete with ourselves or others, with the objective of encouraging teams to achieve company-wide goals.

For example, you can deliver greater safety and compliance by giving near real-time data to drivers so that they can track – and eventually improve – their own performance, or improve productivity by empowering field workers to track near real-time performance metrics when completing work orders.

 

For gamification to be most effective it needs to be ‘refereed’. This means monitoring results, providing incentives and celebrating wins...

 

For gamification to be most effective it needs to be ‘refereed’. This means monitoring results, providing incentives and celebrating wins. It can’t just be a new fad or flavour of the month initiative. Instead, it must become part of the fabric and culture of the business otherwise results will slip and workers will return to their old habits.

To monitor the results, you need a scoreboard to help reinforce the KPIs so that your employees know what they’re playing for.

The system takes the predetermined metrics and generates a score, then lets the employee see how they perform against their peers. It’s an opportunity to improve behaviours and perform with pride because they see metrics that show a direct correlation to how they’re helping to make their operation successful.

Managers can compare employee scorecards and the types and frequencies of training content being accessed to different metrics such as the rate of accidents, lost-time injuries and productivity, and draw direct correlations between what moves the needle and what doesn’t.

Done right, gamification can be more than just a passing fad.

The data derived can be a powerful force for change in your organisation – you’ll see more than better business results: you’ll have employees who feel more engaged and appreciated, recognised for good performance on the job and motivated to do their best.

 

Want to know more? The full eBook is available as premium content to fieldservicenews.com subscribers. Access it now on the button below... 

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Driver behaviour has become a key focus for many field service organisations but what are the key reasons for companies paying more attention to how their engineers are performing when on the road?

In fact the benefits of focussing on this particular aspect of field service operations are numerous, although often health and safety compliance is the primary driver with other benefits only being realised later as a byproduct of implementing a driver improvement strategy.

As Paul Foster, Director of Solutions Engineering for Telogis explains;

“There are two main aspects to driver improvement projects. One is compliance and showing that your able to keep your workplace safe.“

“At the end of the day your providing them with a tool to do the job and what you need to do as an employer is prove that your not doing that irresponsibly.”

“Safety is paramount but that can then have all sorts of knock on effects not least around costs,” he adds.

“The big thing is design for safety, but that will have its impact on costs.”

“If your engineers are driving safely then they will be driving within limits and that means that fuel consumption and vehicle maintenance on items such as tyres, brakes and general wear and tear will be reduced. In turn that means vehicles are easier to maintain and over a large fleet that is going to be very beneficial.”

 

“It also means that in operational terms you stand a better chance of having your assets available for work more of the time so it’s a win, win really.”

This is a sentiment echoed by Jeremy Gould, VP Sales Europe, TomTom Telematics.

“The management of driving behaviour for field service companies can not only enable the improvement of the business bottom line by helping to cut fuel usage, it can also help protect driver safety, the environment and a business’ brand image,” Gould comments.

“From a financial perspective, fuel costs account for a significant proportion of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of field service vehicles and, aside from vehicle choice, one of the single biggest factors affecting fuel consumption is driving style,” he explains.

Stuart Kerr, Senior Vice President, Global Enterprise Business, Fleetmatics also highlights economic benefits as a major factor for embarking on a driver improvement program.

“The economics of improving driver behaviour are staggering,” he states.

“With ROI’s of 400% to 700% the financial returns are immediate and significant. Firms assume their drivers are following the plan and order of the days activities. The reality is that every day your drivers head off into the fog and you are left with a sea of assumptions. These turn out to be false but without telematics you do not know what you are missing,” he continues.

Of course the advancement of driver improvement programmes is heavily linked to the rapid evolution of telematics technology.

 

As Kerr comments “Cutting edge telematics solutions, offer an exceptional view of field tech behaviour.

You can spend serious capital ensuring you have the optimised plan for your technician’s day but if it is not followed well or if the driving is erratic and unoptimised, a great amount of those savings will fall by the wayside.”

“Over and over we see our clients using the simple fact that ‘the truck is the truth’ to ensure that they have good data on how long jobs really take and how better to optimise the schedule going forward.”

“That often results in managers seeing a 15% jump on technician productivity and drops directly to the bottom line,” Kerr adds.

“The advance of technology is allowing us to step away from the direct management of driver behaviour,” Foster adds.

“We can now introduce systems that allow us to create self management, so if you can give a driver feedback about his behaviour without having to call him into the office every-time something has gone wrong and allow a driver to correct himself based on results that are relative to his peer group, then you’re saving cost in terms of both time and money - but it’s also a more effective way of doing things because your no longer relying on somebody’s judgement on driver behaviour and safety, your using a system that is going to plan the landscape and judge everybody by the same measure.”

“Whether you agree or not with what those measures there is no argument because everybody is held against the same standards.”

This is a view shared by Jonathan Dolby, Head of Marketing, Microlise “Technology is fundamental in improving driver standards. Telematics in particular allows organisations to measure the standards of their drivers, but subsequently empower those drivers to improve their own performance by helping them to identify any areas of weakness, for example the recording of too many harsh braking incidents which could relate to a lack of anticipation,” he comments.

 

“Not only does telematics help measure initial performance, but it allows organisations to measure improvements in standards over time, understanding return on investment from any training perhaps.”

“Furthermore, telematics helps maintain improvements over the long-term - any drivers slipping back into bad habits can be identified and mentored.”

“Advancements in technology that monitors driver behaviour and provides feedback to both drivers and managers have continued apace over recent years,” agrees Gould.

“New technology is providing businesses with the tools to make a real impact in this area by helping them to work with their drivers to improve standards.”

“Telematics technology can draw upon a wide range of actionable data, taking live information directly from vehicles to profile individual drivers or entire fleets.”

“Driver behaviour tools are of course an offshoot of telematics technology really, and we’ve seen the basic hardware become a lot cheaper, the services that go around that have become a lot cheaper and therefore more affordable to small and medium sized businesses. That means that adoption rates can go up,” Foster explains.

“There is more and more standardisation around the way data is being recorded so that we can standardise how the technology works - which again makes it cheaper to install and maintain and also the advent of connected cars on the production means aftermarket installations are going to become a thing of the past and that means we can just bolt services onto connected car movement.”

 

“With the improvements we are seeing in the technology we are not just looking at things like idle behaviour or speed but better and better hardware is giving us better insight into what harsh braking is or harsh acceleration or harsh cornering and so on. We can begin to look through more of the different aspects of driver behaviour as the hardware improves.”

Indeed the solutions today are becoming ever more advanced. “The technology available now is able to provide businesses with a complete approach to driver improvement. Pre-trip, it provides motorists with best practice advice on how to drive safely and fuel-efficiently. Direct feedback and driving advice can be offered during the trip to actively coach the driver, through technology such as our OptiDrive 360,” adds Gould.

“This technology has helped slashed fuel consumption by 10% for ventilation product manufacturer EnviroVent and by 11% for gas distribution giant SGN.

Developments in driver behaviour improvement technologies have helped revolutionise the performance and safety of mobile workforces in recent years and this trend shows few signs of abating,” he expands.

“Five year’s ago it was tough to view info on a map in real time,” explains Kerr.

 

“Now we can not only know the drivers behaviour, but we can view it in the context of the overall business. How many stops did he make today that were actual work orders? What portion of his day was spent on work orders versus other activity?”

“Firms can use modern telematics to also determine who is driving safely and who is heading towards an expensive accident. Being able to truly identify dangerous drivers and improve overall safety is a monumental shift forward.”

“Lastly, the world has gone mobile. Truly advanced telematics vendors have fully fledged, rich and robust mobile apps that run on both IOS and Android.

These provide info at the fingertips for managers and can be even be very useful to give to the drivers themselves so they can see first hand the results of the choices they make while driving.”

 

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Road transport specialist Pentalver is saving more than £50,000 a year by improving driver behaviour across its 107-strong Cannock truck fleet.

Following the introduction of a performance improvement programme underpinned by WEBFLEET, a Software-as-a-Service solution for businesses to increase fleet efficiency, the company has seen fuel efficiency soar from an average of 8.5 mpg to 9.6 mpg per vehicle.

OptiDrive 360, a key component of WEBFLEET, scores drivers on a range of performance indicators from fuel consumption, speeding and idling to driving events, gear shifting and constant speed.

Pentalver has incentivised improvement with drivers receiving a quarterly bonus if they hit agreed performance targets.

“WEBFLEET has given us the tools to introduce the bonus scheme and has empowered our drivers to optimise their mpg by giving them real-time feedback and advice,” said Nick Matthews, Pentalver, General Manager.

 

 “Idling time, in particular, has been cut dramatically since we introduced the initiative and we have been able to offer driving training support for those employees that have most needed it.”

Pentalver has also integrated WEBFLEET with container transport management system TOPS, enabling more accurate job planning, scheduling and customer service with full fleet and journey time visibility.

Pentalver’s investment in WEBFLEET was supported by TomTom Telematics partner, Auto Electrical Services (AES).

 

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Have reduced road accidents by 14% following its initial deployment of CTrack vehicle tracking to 750 vans, Anglian Water is now rolling it out to a further 500 vehicles.

Since 750 vans were fitted with Ctrack vehicle tracking solution a year ago, UK water company Anglian Water has seen the number of road accidents across its commercial fleet operation fall by 14 per cent, fuel efficiency improve by 10 per cent and carbon emissions drop by 4 per cent.

The latest agreement, takes the total number of Anglian Water vehicles tracked by the CTrack Online system to 1,750. Ctrack was originally appointed in 2014 to implement a web-based tracking solution across Anglian Water’s treatments, waterworks and waste water operations. This included the adoption of the Driver Behaviour Indicator (DBI), an in-vehicle device that alerts drivers to any infringements when on the road by displaying a series of traffic-light coloured warning lights.

Anglian Water uses Ctrack Online’s reporting tool to capture management information regarding driver performance and driving exceptions. This has enabled the company to identify areas of improvement and maximise its driver training initiative, resulting in an almost fifty per cent reduction in the number driver exceptions – such as speeding and harsh acceleration, braking and cornering – from 25 miles per event to 49 miles per event.

As part of the driver behaviour programme, Anglian Water also operates a zero tolerance to speeding, so a bespoke speed band reporting tool has been created to enable the company to monitor where any issues are occurring.

 Ctrack will continue providing a consultative service to support the ongoing success of the vehicle tracking solution. A dedicated professional services team analyses all available data to provide guidance on how best to drive operational improvements and help realise maximum value. This has included monitoring vehicle usage to identify any areas of underutilisation, so Anglian Water can take steps to right size its operation or implement fleet rotation, which will he reduce costs and improve residual value.

 Stewart Lightbody, Head of Fleet Services at Anglian Water commented: “We have worked closely with Ctrack to develop an effective tracking solution that supports our commitment to Duty of Care. The safety of our staff, other road users and pedestrians in the areas we operate is our biggest priority, so we are delighted to see such positive changes to driver behaviour. Moving forward we are targeting a 25 per cent reduction in accidents as well further improvements in fuel efficiency.”

 John Wisdom, Managing Director of Ctrack said: “We are using our expertise within the utilities marketplace to develop a highly effective partnership with Anglian Water. By understanding their business and operational priorities, we have been able to use our industry-leading tracking solution to help achieve significant improvements in terms of fleet safety, efficiency and utilisation.”

 

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Gamification is helping fleet and field service organisations to engage and incentivise their drivers to become more safe and efficient on the roads, says John Cameron, general manager of Trimble Field Service Management.

Careless driving can cost fleet and field service companies thousands or even millions of pounds each year. The UK's Institute of Advanced Motorists’ Drive & Survive division report that 86 per cent of UK fleets have experienced an accident in the past 12 months, and that every fleet has had an accident where one of their drivers was ‘at fault’.

Many organisations look to improve driving behaviour by deploying telematics technology across their vehicle fleets. Whilst the technology has proven benefits, organisations often struggle to reap its full rewards as drivers may not always be fully engaged and motivated to improve their driving performance, mainly due to a lack of interest or incentive.

Demotivation is something many organisations struggle with, not just with initiatives for improving driver safety, but with all business aspects. In order to avoid the pitfalls of demotivation providing employees with recognition at work, regular rewards and a sense of competition amongst peers are all strong motivators.

In recent years, Gamification has come to the fore as a solution able to tap into an employee’s key motivators and sustain them. Indeed, organisations are increasingly calling upon the skills of software developers to apply the appealing traits of computer gaming into their business applications as a way to increase employee participation, engagement and accelerated learning in a business programme or initiative.

What is Gamification and how does it work?
Owning a smart phone or a tablet is a staple in many of our lives today and downloading apps, particularly gaming apps, is becoming ever more frequent. The power of popular games such as Candy Crush and Flappy Bird recently captured the lives of people from all walks of life. Students, businessmen, parents all became addicted to breaking the latest high score at any spare moment they could get. This inherent desire to compete, either with ourselves or others, is embedded within all of us.

In 2010, venture capitalists identified the potential for Gamification to incorporate the social/reward aspects of gaming into business software. This would not just make daily business tasks more enjoyable for employees, but would increase their collaboration and motivation at work to directly benefit the business and achieve company-wide goals.

Gamification and Driver Safety
A significant industry where Gamification has proven successful is in helping fleet and field service organisations to manage driver safety and risk. Being able to operate a safe and efficient fleet of drivers directly impacts the productivity and bottom line of a field operation. However, when it comes to adopting new processes, engaging employees is a notoriously difficult thing to do, especially when it is something as sensitive as monitoring their driver behaviour. Many businesses have therefore begun to implement gaming techniques into driver safety mobile apps to encourage drivers to perform better on the roads.

 

A driver safety mobile app typically records any extreme manoeuvres such as harsh acceleration, braking, turns and speed, the data of which is provided directly to the driver and sent to the back office for analysis. Gamification is integrated in the form of a scorecard that employees can use to record their driving performance. Although the recordings can be both personal and impartial it is the direct feedback that incentivises drivers to compete against themselves, and each other, for the best scores.

It often happens that employees are resistant to new initiatives because they don’t see any personal benefit in adopting them. Organisations therefore emphasise the gaming element of driver safety mobile apps to motivate their drivers, offering them positive recognition and rewards for good driving behaviour. Driver conversations inside an organisation therefore changes from gripes about the new technology to new excitement and collaboration around which team and individual has ranked top for the week and which areas they have improved in.

In order to reinforce focus over the long term, many apps also incorporate daily improvement tips based on an individual’s driving performance. For example, if speeding is proving to be a problem, the app will explain that higher speeds will result in longer stopping distances and excess fuel use, therefore negatively impacting their overall driver safety score.

Gamification ultimately offers a plethora of opportunities to fleet and field service organisations in helping them to motivate their drivers to change behaviours and develop their skills. However, the potential for Gamification doesn’t stop at driver safety. Gaming techniques can be incorporated into business applications both business and industry-wide. The pace at which gaming techniques is being adopted is gaining in momentum and market growth is expected to reach $5,500 billion by 2018.

Whether a company is looking to improve customer engagement, employee performance, training and education, innovation management, personal development, sustainability or health and wellness, organisations can integrate Gamification to help guarantee employees stay fully motivated and committed to achieve business goals.

 

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Almost four in ten business drivers have been given points on their license from work-related driving offences, according to research from telematics provider Masternaut...

In total, 39% of business drivers said that they had received points on their license for work-related driving misdemeanours. Almost two-thirds (62%) of those with points on their license were from speeding offences.

Other offences committed by business drivers include driving without reasonable consideration for other road users (15%), driving without due care or attention (14%), traffic light-related offences (14%) and dangerous driving (10%).

Masternaut surveyed 2,000 UK employees who drive as part of their job, to examine the effect of employee penalty points amassed when driving for work. Business drivers with points on their license, on average, have accrued seven points from work-related offences.

This follows UK accident data released in June 2015 by the Department of Transport, reporting an overall increase of 6% in road casualties in 2014, the first increase since 1997. HGVs, LCVs and vans saw an increase of 10% in casualties.

 

Telematics is shown to improve driver behaviour and safety, providing businesses with the technology and tool kits for keeping staff safe on the road. Both instant and ongoing coaching, driven by telematics data, alert drivers to poor driving reducing the risk for drivers and other road user

 

Despite more than a third of business drivers getting penalty points on their license from work offences, almost three quarters say that they are confident they would pass their driving test again. Meanwhile, seven in ten business drivers are confident that they know all the laws of the road.

However, this confidence might be misplaced as more than half (50%) of business drivers said that driving training would make them better and safer drivers. Previous research from Masternaut revealed that 70% of business drivers aren’t offered driver training by their employers.

Telematics is shown to improve driver behaviour and safety, providing businesses with the technology and tool kits for keeping staff safe on the road. Both instant and ongoing coaching, driven by telematics data, alert drivers to poor driving reducing the risk for drivers and other road users. Arriva Transport Solutions reduced negative driving events by 92% using telematics data provided by Masternaut Connect.

Steve Towe, Chief Commercial Officer and UK Managing Director, commented: “There’s a worrying number of business drivers on our roads who are driving in a manner that is serious enough for them to have points put on their license. Telematics provides broader social benefits beyond simple vehicle tracking and can help towards reducing the number of points accrued by drivers on the job. Not only can it provide fleets with the information to pinpoint offenders, the technology can provide ongoing driver feedback to improve drivers’ behaviour when they’re at work. By providing coaching and instant in-cab feedback, telematics can go a long way to reducing the number of points accumulated by drivers on the road, making them safer drivers in the process.”

Telematics technology from Masternaut has evolved so that driver-centric training programmes using data and insight from an intelligent telematics system can be delivered without the traditional map-based services protecting driver privacy.

Systems such as Masternaut Connect have been shown to improve driver behaviour, reducing instances of speeding as well as harsh braking, acceleration and cornering. UK businesses and fleet managers can easily implement a driver training programme using data and insight gained from Masternaut Connect. By collating information on driver behaviour, Connect can give an in-depth look at how businesses can improve driving standards within the workforce, helping to reduce the amount of penalty points and fines given to drivers.

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