Australian truck drivers face a delicate balancing act. Tasked with meeting strict deadlines, drivers need to get jobs done on time without compromising on safety. New technology makes this an easier undertaking.
An artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) based platform allows businesses to streamline processes, predict trends and gain visual insights in real-time. Businesses can help drivers boost productivity and improve on-road behaviour without jeopardising their health and safety.
Here’s how smart technology offers a smoother experience on the road.
Route management: With so much data from on-board sensors and telematics devices, it’s difficult for businesses to find the information most relevant to them. ML-enabled fleet management systems sort through vast amounts of data instantly, highlighting the information you need to understand routes and guide drivers.
Managers, schedulers and allocators can build routes using customer pickup and delivery requirements and turn it into real-time turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation. This helps you avoid dangerous conditions and complete jobs more effectively, improving safety and customer service.
If you go off route, an alert is raised and the back-office can direct you back via the safest path to that route, not the quickest alternate path. Your whole trip is seamless.
Compliance made easy: Keeping track of your working hours via a paper work diary is time-consuming and tricky. It also leaves you at risk of potential errors – for example, if the work diary gets misplaced, or the information isn’t correctly entered.
Using an Electronic Work Diary through an AI-enabled platform eliminates manual data input, saving all details of a driver’s working and rest hours to the system to help them manage their own complicated compliance requirements. This helps you understand available work and rest hours to plan trips better.
With ML, businesses receive personalised predictions, insights and trends, helping managers make more informed decisions. For example, managers can ensure drivers aren’t being tasked with jobs that can’t be completed safely by receiving personalised insights about trip length, fatigue compliance and rest break times.
Improved vehicle maintenance: Physical logbooks of a vehicle’s maintenance history can create serious issues for transport companies, especially when considering some fleets consist of hundreds of vehicles. If not updated regularly, small manual errors can evolve into serious hazards for those behind the wheel.
Smart fleet management solutions integrate engine management and vehicle performance data in real-time, sending the info straight to a monitoring dashboard. Back-office employees have a comprehensive view of each vehicle, its condition and usage without needing to physically inspect the vehicle.
With AI and ML, businesses can view visual reports and receive personalised insights about service times, potential vehicle faults and maintenance trends. By addressing issues as they arise, you can rest assured that every vehicle you enter is safe and up to code.
The future of Australia’s transport industry is a data-driven one, and thankfully, advanced technologies are helping drivers by simplifying route management and reducing paperwork while guaranteeing every journey is safe and compliant.