Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/923471
commercial carrier journal | january 2018 47 COVER STORY: DRIVER GAMIFICATION that measures their compliance with posted speed limits. e metric comes from SpeedGauge, a cloud-based appli- cation that allows both a fleet manager and a driver to view the same informa- tion when coaching sessions take place. e driver app and the SpeedGauge application are linked to highlight on a map where speeding events occurred. "When you have a driver manager and driver looking at the same thing at the same time, it's a different discussion versus 'You have to watch your speed from last month,' " Schill says. Other safety metrics in the score- card include hard braking, complaints and accidents. e production cate- gory scores drivers for mileage, route compliance and on-time service. e equipment category is focused on fuel efficiency, and the administrative cat- egory scores drivers for scanning trip documents in a timely manner. e company also rewards drivers for tenure, which ends up being a "tiebreak- er" in some situations for drivers to quali- fy for the cash incentive, Schill says. Instant driver feedback Mobile fleet management systems typical- ly come with driver scorecard features that make it easy to score and rank drivers using the data these systems automatical- ly collect from the vehicle. Some systems also have the option for drivers to deploy a mobile app on their personal devices to provide them with the same real-time access to scores as their managers to evaluate their own performance. MiX Telematics offers the myMiX gamification app as an option for its mobile fleet management system. Fleet managers can create a driver scorecard called Red, Amber, Green; this "RAG" report is designed to make it easy to separate drivers into the three different areas based on how fleets decide to weigh different behaviors. Fleets that use the MiX system with the optional MiX Vision event recorder can incorporate scores with visual evidence of behaviors such as distracted driving, says Pete Allen, chief client officer. e report ranks the events in each category – speeding, hard braking, log- book compliance and more – on a scale of 1 to 5. With the myMix app, drivers can see the same real-time updated information. Besides viewing their score, drivers can see where they rank within their peer groups and have a de- tailed breakdown of their fuel economy behaviors and safety metrics. Normalizing fuel metrics Incentive programs for fuel performance are difficult to sustain unless drivers feel empowered to reach attainable targets, says Ed McCarthy, vice president of oper- ations and customer success for Vnomics. To feel empowered, drivers have to know that the goals being measured are com- pletely within their control. Incentive plans that rely on mpg may cause drivers to lose motivation, as some variables such as topography, traffic conditions and heavier loads are out of their hands. Vnomics' True Fuel is an automated system for scoring driver fuel efficiency that uses machine learning algorithms to determine the fuel potential — the opti- mal amount of fuel the vehicle requires to do the work at any given time — and the actual fuel used. e difference is the total fuel loss. A True Fuel score shows how the driver per- formed relative to the vehicle's potential and "takes things that the driver can't con- trol out of the equation," McCarthy says. Programs that require administrative support also can lose momentum, as trucking companies run lean and have a lot of things competing for management's time, he says. Vnomics measures the amount of fuel loss due to speeding, idling and engine control (rpms). e system's in-vehicle hardware scores drivers and provides automated feedback using audible tones the instant they exceed thresholds for fuel-efficient behaviors. Terpening Trucking, a Syracuse, Syracuse, N.Y.-based petroleum and fuel hauler Terpening Trucking uses Vnomics' True Fuel system to score drivers and provide automated feedback. MiX Telematics offers the myMiX gami- fication app as an option for its mobile fleet management system.