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Planning your journeys in the transport and logistics industry is important for both efficiency and driver safety. It lets you plan your driver’s journey with ease by building customised routes. When paired with telematics and a fleet management solution, you get a world of benefits, like real-time notifications while drivers are guided to their destination safely. The last point is particularly important when your company transports livestock, hazardous goods or oversized vehicles.
Below are some examples of how planning your journey can help to better manage routes and let you rest assured that your trucks are on route at all times.
Ensuring livestock’s welfare needs are met throughout the journey
The Ministry for Primary Industries 2018 Code of Welfare states that “good planning before a journey helps ensure that the needs of animals can be met at all times, that they are provided with reasonable and secure accommodation and that unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress is avoided”. In particular, it’s important to cover unforeseen circumstances, like unanticipated delays or changes in road conditions, by having contingency plans to ensure the animal’s welfare needs are met. In other words - having a plan b, c and d – just in case.
Being able to have an unlimited number of alternative routes already planned, especially during road closures and traffic, is important when transporting livestock. The 2018 Code of Welfare even lists alternative routes among its requirements to fleet managers: “there must be a contingency plan in place that allows the needs of animals to be met in the event of any delays arising during the part of the journey for which the transport operator is responsible”.
To comply with the code and avoid delays and harm to livestock or company assets, our solution allows you to create start and end points, along with a large number of stops in between, to act as waypoints to ensure drivers stick to the specific routes. And when a new route is needed, you can send routes directly to your fleet, allowing the driver to instantly see the new route in the in-vehicle device, and minimise any delays.
Complying with route restrictions on oversized vehicles
NZ Transport Agency have listed several requirements and restrictions when driving oversized vehicles. This includes route restrictions, visibility requirements and clearances from road controlling authorities and complying with specific council bylaws. An example is the Auckland Harbour Bridge, which has these requirements:
Maximum height 4.8m. A vehicle exceeding 3.1m in width must contact the Traffic Operations Centre and may travel on this route provided it is accompanied by a Class 1 Pilot Vehicle as authorised by the Traffic Operations Centre.
Because the list of compliance requirements is extensive when driving oversized vehicles, telematics is a very helpful tool for fleet managers to effectively guide drivers of oversized vehicles to their destination safely. You can set up a clearly marked route with turn-by-turn voice guided navigation to ensure the driver stays on route. When the driver is directed off the route, in case of roadworks or as directed by enforcement, it redirects the driver back onto the route to ensure they stay on the correct path at all times, instead of going on the shortest path to the destination. There is also the added option of having live traffic on route displayed to the driver, to ensure a proactive approach to any upcoming hazards.
Transporting dangerous or hazardous goods
Similar to transporting livestock and oversized vehicles, dangerous goods also have a list of regulations that fleet managers must comply with. For transport on land, dangerous goods include substances that have explosive, flammable, toxic, infectious, corrosive or environmentally hazardous properties, and containers that have held dangerous goods. NZTA states that the responsibilities of the driver or operator must ensure compliance with the Land Transport Rule. An example of the requirements laid out in this rule are:
(i) the vehicle is not continuously parked for more than 18 hours unless it is in a depot; and
(ii) the vehicle is securely loaded; and
(iii) emergency response information is carried; and
(iv) the vehicle stops at level crossings;
Here’s where the real-time alerts come in handy. Your company can choose to set up notifications via email, SMS or in-system notifications in real-time when the route is started, finished or your vehicle goes off-route. In addition, depending on the needs of you customer – with you can also provide them with real-time trip reporting and analytics during the journey and after the goods have been safely delivered to its destination.
Teletrac Navman’s fleet management solutions let’s you optimise routes and ensure efficiency across your business. To learn more about how solutions like journey planner can benefit your company, visit: https://www.teletracnavman.co.nz/solutions/solutions-by-role/compliance-manager/journey-planner