It’s still early days for electronic work diaries, or EWDs as they are known, but as the dust starts to settle on the early entrants into the market there is one EWD that is emerging as a clear favourite among drivers.
Trevor Warner, truck driver and vice president of the National Road Freighters Association (NRFA) and Hubfleet user, can’t speak highly enough of it. “Hubfleet was easy to setup and get started. Data entry and location services is super fast! In the first week, I tried to break it and I failed to do so. It passed every test I threw at it.”
The NRFA is concerned that drivers and operators often wear the penalty of making an unintentional mistake in work diaries and the EWD currently provides the best way to avoid these fines.
Setup cost can be a major hurdle for small fleets and owner drivers, however this form of data collection provides substantial savings to businesses and streamlines HVNL fatigue compliance for all parties. No more handling and storage of those work diary pages, no more manually inputting of data into the existing compliance systems and no more expensive vehicle hardware.
Hubfleet provides complete driver compliance reports in electronic or PDF form, making audits and law enforcement record requests and roadside enforcement much easier.
With razor thin profit margins and strict legal obligations, any tool that saves time, money and does the job, must be a welcome addition to any safety management system.
We can make a positive impact on road safety by utilising these cutting-edge systems, so we can better manage driver fatigue with better scheduling tools.
One of the big mistakes that drivers make is assuming that their 24-hour periods reset after a major relevant rest break. However, it is possible to have overlapping 24-hour periods. For example, a driver starts work at 8am and works for 10 hours in an 11-hour period, finishing at 7pm. They then complete a 7-hour rest and start work again at 3am the next day. By mistakenly thinking that their 24-hour period has reset, they forget to add the hours between 3am and 8am to their previous day’s total. In this example, they have worked 15 hours in the 24-hour period, starting 8am the day before. Under standard hours, this would be considered a critical breach and could be punished with a fine of up to $16k and a loss of four license points.
One area where Hubfleet gets lots of positive reviews is on its messaging and the fact drivers get a good amount of warning about upcoming breaches. James Doherty, founder of Hubfleet, has been really pleased with the reviews, but he’s always listening to constructive feedback. “Talking to drivers, we felt there was room to improve, so I’m really excited about our next release which should be out in a few weeks as we’ll take our dashboard to a new level. There will be a ‘card’ for each period in a drivers’ ruleset that will give detailed information about potential breaches and upcoming rest requirements (pictured above). Drivers will be able to flick between overlapping periods for the same rule. This lets drivers know what’s coming over the next few days and allows them to plan much better.”
Drivers can sign up to a 14-day free trial and start using the Hubfleet EWD today. And if they get to the Hubfleet website by first visiting the National Road Freighters Association and clicking on the Hubfleet link, there they’ll automatically get a 10 per cent discount on their first year.