ARCHIVE FOR THE ‘driver-behaviour’ CATEGORY

Resource Type: eBook
Published by:  Telogis
Title Gaming the System to improve driver behaviour
Download: Click here to Download the full ebook here

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Synopsis

As a field service manager you might be wondering how gamification can help your business, or perhaps you’re ready to start but you’re looking for ideas on the best way to implement.

This eBook published by Telogis can help you find the answers to these questions and understand how different employees might respond to gamification based on their personalities.

Overview

Gamification is a word that you will be hearing more often, with industry experts picking it as a growing trend in business applications.

The term arose back in 2002 but it wasn’t until 2010 that it started to gain traction. Software developers began using the engaging traits of electronic games to increase participation in business programs. Before long, business applications that allowed users to socialise, collect achievements and be rewarded started to pop up.

Over the years gamification has matured. More real-world testing has helped “gamified” business applications to evolve beyond a simplistic points system. This ebook explores the three fundamental elements of integrating Gamification into your business:

1. Mission
2. Alignment
3. Deployment

Phase 1: Establishing your mission

A business without a mission is like a ship without a rudder. Even if you already have a mission, it’s worth reviewing or updating it to match the current business environment. While your mobile workforce may be a subset of a larger business, there’s no reason it shouldn’t have its own mission, one that aligns and supports the overall corporate mission.

Once the mission is established, it’s time to break it down to individual goals or objectives that support the mission. Keep your objectives as specific as possible. No sport would ever get popular if the goal was vague, moved regularly or unclear to the players.

 

No matter what your objectives are – increasing productivity, decreasing fuel costs, improving driver safety or increasing asset utilisation – the secret to achieving them is keeping them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound (SMART).

Phase 2: Align your mission objectives

To make sure you stay on track to achieve your objectives you need to check your alignment.

This means reviewing your objectives, to check they align with how you operate as a business. For example, if your company puts more emphasis on working as fast as possible without respect for safety, then setting an objective to reduce speeding won’t align.

Get your company influencers (normally managers or supervisors) involved and review your objectives with them. They’ll let you know quickly where they think alignment is lacking. It’s important that your managers are onboard with the new objectives – they will play an important role in influencing others and ultimately help achieve a successful outcome.

After reviewing and refining your objectives, aligning them with your organisation, you’re ready for implementation. It’s time to deploy.

Phase 3:  Deployment

The size of your organisation will determine the scale of your deployment planning. In the case of using Telogis Coach mobile app, small companies may only need brief training that includes a quick-start guide to explain how it works and instructions on how to download, install and log in to the app on their mobile device.

Large enterprises would benefit from the tailored implementation provided by Telogis Professional Services. Their expertise and deployment experience can help avoid common pitfalls and roll it out right the first time.

 

Monitoring results

First of all, you want to make sure everyone in your organization knows what your objectives are. If one of your KPIs is to reduce speeding by 50% then let the whole team know, not just management. A team wins when it knows what it’s playing for.

You’ll also need a scoreboard. Telogis Coach includes an enterprise dashboard that shows real-time results for specific KPIs - you can log in from anywhere and get an up-to-date score, either across the entire fleet or individual crews.

Celebrating wins

You don’t need to do cartwheels in the office every time a driver gets a perfect score but there should be recognition and reward. In most cases the size of the reward is not important; it’s about making sure they know you know, and it means something to you.

Recording the game time

Decide on how long each “game” lasts. Employees will soon tire of a game with no end in sight. You can choose any reasonable period but in general, for achieving fleet KPIs, a period of 90 days is most common. At the end of each period, results are tallied, players rewarded and recognised and the game starts over.

Gamer types

Not only will you have some of each gamer type personalities in your organisation, there’s also a little of each type in all of us. You should remember this with your gamification program and make sure you’re keeping each type happy.

Killers need sufficient competition. Achievers need plenty of recognition and rewards. Socialisers need lots of interaction with other players and Explorers need the opportunity to be creative with the game. Check from time to time that you have the balance right.

Give your team time to adjust to the new gamification approach, be generous with recognition and rewards and stay focused on your mission.

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Want to know more? Click here to download the full ebook

 

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UK gas distribution company SGN expects to save about £1million by implementing a driver performance improvement programme across its 2,000-strong fleet.

SGN,  the gas utilities company which operates across the south of England and the whole of Scotland, is using TomTom Telematics technology, including the driver behaviour improvement system OptiDrive 360, to tackle inefficient practice.

During a 100-vehicle trial, SGN reduced the volume of fuel wasted through idling by almost 68% and improved average fuel consumption by 11%.

“The finance department at SGN recognised a huge opportunity for using driver performance data to transform operational efficiency and we now stand to make major savings on both fuel and maintenance,” said Chris Stone, Head of Finance at SGN.

“Prior to implementing this programme, the company was wasting 13,000 litres a month through vehicle idling alone, but now we are able to provide drivers and managers with visibility around problem trends and the reasons why they occur.

“We understand drivers don’t intentionally drive badly so this isn’t about punishing them. Instead, we are focused on working with our employees to help them perform more efficiently and safely on the road.”

OptiDrive 360 scores drivers based on a range of key performance indicators including speeding, driving events, idling and gear shifting and constant speed. Regular performance reports are shared with managers, allowing them to work with individual drivers to tackle any specific issues.

The TomTom system also integrates with SGN’s fleet management provider Inchcape. This means Inchcape is given access to live engine fault code data, allowing them to conduct pre-emptive maintenance work when required.

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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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Smart meter installation and maintenance company Trojan Utilities has reduced its fuel usage by 24% after implementing a telematics system from Masternaut across its 100-plus strong fleet of vans. The system is used for a range of purposes by multiple departments across the business.

The Masternaut system provides Trojan with in-depth driver behaviour monitoring, looking at speeding, mileage and harsh events, helping Trojan to determine the effect various improvements have on fuel usage. The system is also used to dispatch engineers to proactively plan jobs and reactive emergency installs. The two-way messaging system allows engineers and Trojan Utilities to import contact numbers and communicate whilst out in the field too.

Since installation, Masternaut’s system has helped deliver a reduction in fuel usage through a combination of dynamic scheduling and improved driver behaviour. Reducing harsh events, idling and miles driven by each driver has seen a drop in fuel usage of 24%.

Driver behaviour overall has seen a major improvement with a 97% reduction in instances of speeding, helping make Trojan Utilities’ mobile workforce and other road users more safe.

By 2020, every home in the UK is projected to be able to use smart meter technology to see how much energy a household is using and manage it more effectively. As of May 2015, Trojan Utilities has installed over 160,000 smart meters, a figure that is rising by over 2,500 meters per week, with telematics helping it to manage that level of installations on a long-term basis.

 

Gemma Openshaw, Operations Director, commented, “Masternaut has become essential to our business, because it offered us everything we needed in one package. The system is used every day and we can’t operate without it. Without Masternaut, our fuel bill would be much higher so the system is effectively paying for itself. As a business, we’re operating in a challenging sector and the system has helped us cope with the rigours of installing in excess of 2,500 meters per week. That figure is only going to rise as we get closer to 2020, but with Masternaut, we’re confident that we’ll continue to stay ahead of the curve in the growing demand for smart meters.”

Steve Towe, Chief Commercial Officer and UK Managing Director, Masternaut, added: “The smart meter technology roll out is scheduled to be completed by 2020, and with millions of properties across the country needing them installed, this is certainly a significant challenge for all involved.”

He continues, “Telematics is giving Trojan Utilities a significant edge in managing this task, giving fleet managers total control and visibility of their fleet UK wise. In addition, the system is providing benefits in the form of reduced fuel usage and improved driver behaviour, reducing costs and improving driver welfare.”

 

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Despite 86% of fleets experiencing collisions in the past 12-months, an alarming number of drivers are still driving without consideration for their safety...

One in six (16%) business drivers feel invincible when driving, claiming that they never consider their safety to be at risk, according to research from Masternaut, a pan-European provider of fleet telematics solutions.

Van and LCV drivers are the least likely to feel invincible, with only 10% saying that they don’t consider their safety while driving. This contrasts to 26% of public transport drivers, who feel invincible on the road at all times. 17% of business fleet car drivers and HGV and lorry drivers never think about their personal safety on the road.

In contrast, 15% of business drivers said that they feel vulnerable all of the time when they are on the road. HGV and lorry drivers feel the most unsafe, with 21% of drivers feeling vulnerable all of the time when they are driving.

 

As part of a focus on helping fleets improve safety on the road, Masternaut surveyed 2,000 UK employees that drive as part of their job to highlight the progress in road safety education and the work that is still required for further improvement.

Steve Towe, Chief Commercial Officer and UK Managing Director, commented, “Our research shows that a high percentage of business drivers don’t consider their safety to be at risk - despite driving being amongst the most dangerous profession. Research from The Institute of Advanced Motorists’ Drive & Survive shows that 86% of fleets have experienced an accident in the past 12 months, so it’s alarming to see so many drivers still not considering their safety when driving.”

Motorways were cited as the most unsafe type of road to drive on with 27% of drivers concerned about their safety. This is despite just 3.9% of all 2013 UK road accidents* taking place on motorways, showing that motorways are comparatively the safest type of road to drive on.

Drivers also felt unsafe on rural roads, with a quarter (25%) saying they feel vulnerable. This rises to 42% amongst HGV and lorry drivers and 36% of LCV and van drivers.

“The tools and technology exist to help educate drivers on safe driving practises, which can be driven by the intelligent application of telematics,” continues Towe. “Telematics has broader social benefits that it can offer to protect our drivers, not just in terms of notifying us of a collision, but in preventive and proactive driver-centric applications designed to improve behaviour”.

Driver training programmes should be one of the critical tools for fleets to ensure that their drivers feel safe when driving and most importantly, avoid causing unnecessary risks to other road users. We, as an industry, are great at articulating fuel savings but we also want to see the debate widen to include safety. We believe we can do so much more” added Towe.

 

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. This in the past has been the limiting factor in the uptake of driver services, but has now been solved with Masternaut’s next generation telematics platform, Masternaut Connect.

Masternaut Connect is proven to improve driver behaviour, reducing instances of speeding and 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 safety and driving standards within their workforce, helping to reduce the amount of invincible and vulnerable drivers on the roads.

 

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One of the worlds leading companies in specialised fleet management payment cards FleetCor have significantly increased their role in the European fleet management sector by acquiring one of Europe’s leading telematics providers Masternaut.

The acquisition, which was made in partnership with growth equity firm Summit Partners, will open up huge cross sales opportunities across both customer bases with Masternaut rapidly becoming an acknowledged leader in the telematics industry across the whole of the Europe, whilst FleetCor themselves already have an enviable footprint amongst European companies who operate a fleet via the proliferation of their fuel cards.

Masternaut’s rise to prominence has been both swift (the company is less than 20 years old) and impressive with the organisation now boasting over 300,000 vehicles and people connected to the their SaaS based solution. More than 15,000 users interact every hour with the systems, and over 50 million data transactions are processed into 20,000 reports on a daily basis.

One such customer, Irish gourmet sandwich provider Deli-Lites Ireland, recently announced that they have been able to increase delivery performance by 14% after bringing on board the telematics provider. Fleet managers for the Irish firm are now able to gain a far more accurate picture of the performance of their vehicles including the amount of fuel used, MPG, and run times.

The impact has been impressive, with co-ordination challenges minimised and impressive fuel savings of 10% already being witnessed alongside Deli- Lites Ireland now having the ability to accurately measure the temperature of vehicles remotely, something, which is of course a huge factor for any food delivery company.

A further benefit to Deli-Lites Ireland is being felt in their HR division where they have implemented a driver-training plan to further improve driver performance.

This is a route that many other companies need to follow according to research from Masternaut themselves. 70% of companies surveyed admitted that their employers do not offer any such training. This is despite the fact that in the UK legislation is now in place to ensure that driver standards are being constantly monitored and improved.

In fact the same survey revealed 40% of British drivers were unaware of the legislation and remain in the dark on how their employers intend to monitor and improve their standards.

When we consider that a fifth of respondents also stated that they have had an accident whilst driving for work and that when asked who would be liable for such an accident, 80% said it would be their responsibility, while 20% thought an accident would be their employer’s, the need to build better understanding of such driver improvement programs and increase participation becomes even greater.

Martin Hiscox, CEO and chairman of Masternaut, commented,

“Driving for work is recognised as one of the most dangerous occupations and these findings clearly demonstrate a vital need for employers to educate staff on safe driving practices. There is a clear need for this to happen and the technology, the tool-kits for training, monitoring and improving driver behaviour all exist. The insurance industry is spending £2.2bn in claims annually, processing over 792,000 claims for commercial fleet insurance. This is the tip of the iceberg when you consider on-costs, downtime and the cost to businesses that self-insure.”

“It raises a bigger issue for employers about not having visibility of their mobile workforce, so they can ensure they are safe and can put steps in place to spot problems and deal with them. The Telematics industry is making huge steps to help the commercial fleet but even now we are surprised that so few employers are offering their staff the chance to take driver training, to ensure they’re kept safe whilst on the road and helping them be safer and more efficient.”

With such savings at stake and governments across Europe clamping down on poor driver behaviour, FleetCor’s move to firmly become an active part of the telematics industry through their acquisition of Masternaut couldn’t be better timed.

This was certainly echoed in FleetCor Chairman and CEO Ron Clarke’s comments at the time the merger was announced.

“We are delighted to team up with Summit Partners in acquiring Masternaut. In a short period of time, Masternaut has developed the best-in-class telematics product and a pan-European footprint. We at FleetCor have valuable fleet customer and partner relationships in Europe. Combination of the two would allow us to deliver more value to our clients, differentiate our product offerings, and ultimately grow our businesses.”