Are You Spending Too Much Time Dealing With Tachographs?

We all know the regulatory requirements for using tachographs. They’re an essential part of ensuring that your fleet operates safely whilst on the road and that you’re looking after your drivers’ welfare too.

Whilst the benefits are clear, that doesn’t change the fact that dealing with the data that each tachograph produces is a time consuming business.  Our clients report spending 20 to 30 minutes downloading data from each vehicle when they returned to base. Multiply that across the fleet and you’re looking at significant hours spent on simple data collection before you’ve even begun to collate and analyse the information.

Streamlining your data collection processes can significantly reduce the time spent on that single activity. It can also have an impact on the efficiency of the fleet as the transport manager is able to free up time to identify and improve other processes. It also increases your ability to maximise the time your vehicles spend out on the road instead of having them sitting waiting for their data to be collected.

Current Systems

Our clients were typically using a USB device to download data from each vehicle when it returned to base. This would then be collated with the information collected from other vehicles that had returned on the same day.

This presented various challenges depending upon the way the fleet was operating. Transport managers were unable to monitor vehicles involved in longer journeys as they may not return to base for several days. This was particularly true where a business operated over multiple locations. The data was required at a central location for analysis, but the vehicle itself may have completed its journey at a remote location.

The Solution

TomTom Business Solutions commissioned research into the use of tachographs amongst fleet managers. They found that 28% never analysed their tachograph data to ensure compliance. 20% had had a tachograph infringement recorded against them in the last three years and 15% had missed download deadlines which could have resulted in a financial penalty. The potential for breaches of the regulations and financial penalties were a growing concern.

TomTom Telematics now offers remote downloads which overcomes many of the challenges faced by transport managers. Data can now be accessed remotely whilst vehicles are still on the road and collected to a central point. This frees up time and allows fleet logistics to be planned in advance without waiting for a vehicle to return to the depot where data is being collected.

Remote downloads have been of huge benefit to our clients – here’s what Harbro had to say:

“Remote Tachograph Downloads from TomTom Telematics are perfect for our business as our drivers are based at various rural locations across Scotland.  This has saved us significant time and cost by being able to remotely download whilst the vehicles are moving during the day.  Previously we used a USB device to download vehicle unit and driver’s card and it took 20-30 minutes per vehicle but this time is completely saved by the remote download..”

Here at Vtec Solutions, we offer a telematics solution from Tom Tom, which takes the difficulty out of managing your fleet and gives you detailed data at the touch of a button.
If you would like to take the hassle out of downloads and analysis, then contact us today!