Driver management: 6 tools for day-to-day work

Among the tools for driver control, we can consider both those related to visibility into their behavior on the road and those related to the payment made to them at the end of each month.

As with managing any kind of team, you need to know ways to make your routine easier and faster.

That is why we have brought together the main ways to manage the drivers in your fleet. Check them out below:

• Fatigue sensor;
• Fleet monitoring;
• Fleet policy;
• Electronic checklist;
• Maintenance history;
• Driver control spreadsheet.

Fatigue sensor

The fatigue sensor is one of the tools for driver control because it is common for drivers to become tired and fatigued, even though this is something we want to avoid as much as possible. When they reach that point, the tiredness is so great that they may fall asleep and cause accidents.

This technology emerged with the intention of monitoring signs of tiredness and poor driving, issuing alerts to the driver and also to a control center.

That way, the appropriate safety measures can be taken. Either the driver makes a stop on their own, or the manager contacts them asking them to rest and return to their activities after a certain period.

Fleet monitoring

Fleet monitoring can be done through a few different tools for driver control, such as:

Vehicle tracker

Tracking is the simplest of the monitoring technologies. It works through a tag installed in the vehicle that reads its location.

This makes it possible to quickly identify any deviation from the route, which is an advantage for identifying cases of theft and loss of goods. However, as a tool for driver control, it ends up not being the best alternative, since it cannot add information about driving style.

Telematics

Telematics is a more interesting alternative than the tracker for driver management.

With this type of technology, complete information on the trip's average speed, the mileage covered and the vehicle's idle time is recorded and stored in a central system.

In addition, real-time vehicle tracking also takes place.

Video telematics

Along the same lines, video telematics has begun to emerge in Brazil and is expected to become popular. It has the same benefits and features as telematics, but with the addition of cameras on board the vehicle.

These cameras look for signs of driver fatigue and tiredness, issuing audible alerts when they identify closed eyes, for example.

Want to see this in your fleet? Talk to a Prolog specialist

Fleet policy

The fleet policy is an essential document in every transport operation. It records and describes everything a fleet employee should expect when working at the company, as well as the role they have and how they should behave to comply with the company's rules.

In addition, it can be used as one of the tools for driver control insofar as it lists all the activities the driver is responsible for and what can lead to penalties, loss of bonus points and even dismissals and/or termination of service contracts.

Electronic checklist

Even though the electronic checklist is a tool for fleet maintenance management, it can also contribute to driver control. After all, the system requires an electronic signature to be entered at the end of each inspection.

That way, the driver takes responsibility for the issues caused to a vehicle after driving a route.

It also offers a feature that can even be considered a tool in its own right: the fleet's maintenance history.

Maintenance history

By recording which services were performed, preventive or corrective, you are generating data for different analyses to take place. Among them, the most frequent issues and who was responsible for them.

Based on an observation like this, the measures taken are more efficient. Whether to promote new driver training or to create a new scoring and bonus system for drivers.

The maintenance history can also provide several other important views for making the best decisions in the fleet's day-to-day.

Driver control spreadsheet

The driver control spreadsheet is what will bring together all the information about each of these professionals in the fleet.

In addition to registering each driver, it can also control the trips each one makes, whether they are completing routine checklists, and even create a ranking to know who is managing to meet the established goals.

This type of tool for driver control also has the advantage of being customizable, allowing you to change the type of action you want to control and which scores carry higher or lower value in your operation.

To make your management easier, we have developed a spreadsheet and made it available for free. Just download it and make a copy to start editing (in Portuguese) and have better driver control.