According to a recent survey by Teletrac Navman, over the last year, 29% of businesses said compliance was the biggest challenge to their business. 33% of these businesses said that they were managing compliance with their telematics solution and 27% of businesses are looking to invest in technology to help with the regulation of compliance within their business – an issue high on the agenda of fleet managers.
From driver hours management to maintenance planning, fleet management software can help simplify fleet compliance. With the latest fleet management software and a wide range of flexible apps and integrations fleet managers can digitise and streamline the processes that underpin compliance management.
Fleet compliance can typically be grouped into four key areas: driver management, vehicle management, policies management, and document management.
Image: Teletrac Navman
Driver Management
As a fleet operator or manager, you ultimately have a duty of care to both your drivers and the general public. Driver management encompasses everything from health checks and training to tachograph hours, ensuring you can maximise driving time within the legal limits and effectively manage any fatigue or health concerns. Driver behaviour on the road or at customer premises is a major compliance concern for any fleet operator, not just because of the cost and size of the asset they’re driving, or the value of the load they’re carrying, but for the protection of the public as well. Being able to see how a vehicle is being handled and addressing any misdemeanours quickly will protect from unwanted crashes, unplanned maintenance, and unnecessary insurance claims and premium rises.
Vehicle Management
Scheduled services and MOTs are a well understood part of compliance but having effective foresight of them can help balance workload across the remaining fleet to ensure no loss of operations. Moreover, vehicle management should also consider regular vehicle inspections, risk assessments, and maintenance, as working on scheduled services and MOTs alone exposes a fleet operator to any faults or issues that may impact the vehicle or driver on the next job, and therefore the fleet’s compliance. This therefore requires an effective internal process for planning and delivering inspections, particularly if the fleet is of a considerable size.
Policies Management
All fleets require driver license renewals, vehicle licenses, insurance and taxing of vehicles. These are the basics when it comes to policies compliance, however, permits carry a little more navigation. One major example of permit compliance affecting all manner of fleets is the Direct Vision Standard from Transport for London, which came into force in March 2021. It affects almost all HGVs over 12 tonnes gross which operate in Greater London and will only be issued if a vehicle passes a particular rating, which is all logged digitally and can be monitored by ANPR. Automating these processes through telematics can therefore remove the risk of hefty fines on your business.
Document Management
With a lot of boxes to tick and a lot of documentation provided to prove those boxes have been ticked, plus a whole host of regulators that may ask for that proof, document management and effective access is pivotal for both fleet managers and operators, as well as drivers.
Documents can be easily and centrally managed through cloud-based hosting, and easy recall systems and interfaces make life that little bit easier for drivers to receive or access when on the road. With the help of business intelligence, the compliance milestones can also be mapped over extended periods to ensure resource and job allocation can be more forward planned, ensuring no vehicle downtime.
Moreover, fleet management platforms get rid of the need to source multiple reports and manipulate data to get the information that managers need, saving time and removing the frustrations of juggling multiple compliance checkpoints.
Access the survey here.
Author: Barney Goffer, UK Product Manager, Teletrac Navman
