Daily Vehicle Checks LGV Fleets

27 October 20236 September 2022 by Eric Rogers

Daily Vehicle Checks LGV Fleets

Are daily vehicle checks for LGV fleets really necessary?

Why do I need to do them?

There is no specific legislation that demands that a business should carry out pre – journey checks on a commercial vehicle under 3500kg, so as a owner or operator of a Light Goods Vehicle (LGV) fleet should you bother?

There are several compelling benefits in incorporating this short task into your drivers daily routine;

The answer is YES!

Duty of Care
Safety
Performance

Advanced Telematics Dashboard
Driver Monitoring
View Real Time Footage
Vehicle Maintenance and MOT Scheduling
Detailed Journey Reports
Geofencing Capabilities
Ongoing Customer service and Support

Duty of Care

Although as we stated at the top of this article there is no actual specific legislative requirement to carry out daily vehicle checks on your LGV fleet – the employer does have a Duty of Care to ensure that all vehicles that are used for work purposes are safe and compliant.

Safety

Data from the DfT reveals that 3894 road traffic accidents between 2013 -2018 were caused by faulty brakes alone. The cumulative cost of an incident involving a vehicle being driven for work can be enormous, not merely the insurance premium increase, but the knock on costs of – driver injury, HSE involvement, fines, reputational effect, the list goes on.

A quick and easy check list undertaken daily can identify issues before they become a safety concern and can, where correctly undertaken and recorded, prove that correct process was undertaken thereby reducing the onus on the fleet operator

Performance

Daily vehicle Checks allow you to identify vehicle problems before the vehicle breaks down and must be taken off the road.

Breakdowns and unscheduled repair work has a damaging impact on service performance across your mobile fleet, a preventative approach to maintenance not only reduces risk for the driver and the operator but also reduces costs by attending faults before they become extensive repairs.

For instance, identifying a dashboard warning light – which if not reported and of course acted upon can have expensive consequences – often an issue with multi driver vehicles.

At Fleet Witness we understand that the collection and storage of the daily vehicle checks can be onerous for the fleet operator, so we have included in our software a specific function that will collect and collate the daily vehicle checks enabling the fleet manager to identify and act upon the necessary issues in a simple and timely manner, and then schedule the required maintenance so avoiding unexpected breakdowns.

Call us for more information on 0203 897 3600

Digital Tachographs – Downloads and Analysis

24 April 20232 August 2022 by Eric Rogers

Digital Tachographs-
Downloads and Analysis

Effortlessly track and analyze your journey with Digital Tachographs

The Back Story.

All commercial vehicles first registered on or after 1st May 2006 that come within EU, GB or AETR rules must be fitted with a digital tachograph.

You can find all the rules and regulations here –

Tachographs: rules for drivers and operators: Overview – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Tachographs record information about driving time, speed and distance and are used to ensure that both drivers and employers follow the rules on driver’s hours.

So a digital tacho download and analysis solution provides fleet operators with a quick and painless way of meeting their Driver Hours compliance requirements without a drain on resources.

Fleet Witness’ automated tacho download and analysis offering eliminates the need to manually download driver and vehicle data, not only saving time but also ensuring that you don’t risk missing any crucial infractions .

What are Digital Tachographs?

A Digital Tachograph is a radio-sized device that digitally records driver hours and speeds.

Driver and operator ‘Smart cards’ store the data digitally

Thereafter an operator, can then remotely download the data easily and quickly. Storing and analysing digitally, in line with regulation and without the time consuming manual recording and analysis.

How are DTD a benefit to fleet operators

The collected data is mandatory to store and analyse, ensuring compliance;

Other key benefits include:

Reduce administrative burden of tachograph paperwork

Ensure Compliance with EU, GB & AETR regulation

Reduce stress associated with inspections

Making informed decisions on job allocations (who has weekly hours left etc)

How DTD streamlines data collection

Digital Tachograph Data is all remotely downloaded in real-time, so no need for either a driver or a vehicle to attend at site.

Fleet Witness offers you a fully managed service that retrieves your stored data for recording and analysis. Thereafter the system generates scheduled reports directly to your inbox.

Fleet Witness can help with DTD

Our system offers a high level of flexibility in the form of configurable downloads, alerts and reports. Enabling you to specify the frequency, design and content of your reporting.

Our ethos is to concentrate on driving business performance. By focussing on helping to improve your fleet operations and solve your fleet problems, we make sure that the solution always fits your need.

For instance, our system integrates with all of the main hardware and software providers so you don’t need to change the system that you are already using.

Interested in learning more about Digital Tachograph Data, and how Fleet Witness’ automated tacho download and analysis can help simplify and automate driver and vehicle data? Get in touch with one of our team today for a chat about your requirements.

Interested in learning more?

Give us a shout in the office and ask for more information – or call us on 0203 897 3600

School Coaches & Minibuses

24 April 202330 January 2020 by Eric Rogers

School Coaches & Minibuses

Capturing video and location evidence

Taunton School was suffering from opportunistic people making false claims against its drivers. They needed detailed video and location evidence which only dash cameras can provide.

Want To Learn More?

It was back to school recently for Fleet Witness, when we visited Taunton to fit cameras into their fleet of coaches and minibuses. Set in picturesque grounds, the magnificent building is ‘home’ to pupils from both the UK and abroad. Many are boarding, but around 180 pupils are transported daily from various locations in Somerset. Their safety and security is the school’s number one priority.

The Fleet

Taunton’s fleet consists of three coaches, twelve mini-buses, three MPVs and a couple of utility vehicles, and over the last few years, they have had a number of claims made against them which they were unable to defend due to a lack of evidence.

The school decided that the only way forward was to install dash cams across the whole of their fleet. A move which has been welcomed by both professional drivers and academic staff alike.

Fleet Witness worked closely with Taunton School to deploy, test and train the staff on how to manage and use the system effectively. Within days of the cameras being installed footage was captured that provided vital evidence in identifying damage done to one of the vehicles.

The footage gave Taunton the evidence required to prove accountability.

Reive and Grossart Haulage

18 April 202329 January 2020 by Eric Rogers

Reive and Grossart Haulage

Understanding and working to improve your business

Established in 1965, Reive and Grossart are a family owned and operated business with many years of experience in their sector; delivering goods safely, on time, and in perfect condition. The ethos is very much about quality customer service rather than volume. The company is small enough to cater to every client’s need but large enough to cope with 1000’s of tonnes on a weekly basis.

“Fleet Witness did an excellent job for us, in taking care of everything we needed. As a haulier, you want your suppliers to be people who are absolute experts in their field, dependable and understanding of the realities of the business, willing to listen, and who care as much about the industry as you do. Fleet Witness are those guys and they continue to support us with excellent customer care.

Reive and Grossart would be more than happy to recommend Fleet Witness and their services at any time.”

Iain Blackstock
Business Owner

Want To Learn More?

Since safety is very much a priority for Reive and Grossart, they contacted Fleet Witness to enquire about equipping the vehicles with all-around cameras for maximum, 360° coverage. Monitors and DVRs would also be installed, fully equipped with 4G so that clients could remotely access and download the footage.

Being the brains of the system, the DVR is where all cameras and programmable triggers wire back to. When this is correctly set up and configured, it can automatically communicate with our Fleet Witness Live platform, allowing real-time tracking and camera footage, along with detailed insights into journey details, driver behaviour, and more.

Van Theft – Couriers

24 April 202329 January 2020 by Eric Rogers

Van Theft - Couriers

Gathering live data delivered in real time

“With Fleet Witness Live, we were able to track and recover our stolen vans within less than 20 minutes. The cameras provided indisputable evidence against the criminals.”

Frank R – S3 Logistics

Want To Learn More?

Fleet Witness recently worked alongside a fleet of courier vans to supply and install a connected 5-camera system. This allowed full 360° visibility around and inside the vehicle, and live GPS tracking abilities from the Fleet Witness Live platform.

Like many companies, they had found their drivers in situations where they had been involved in an accident but had been unable to prove their innocence. Alongside this, their drivers transport valuable goods to customers every day.

Ensuring the safety of these goods is a major priority, it was decided that a 5 camera DVR system with access to the Fleet Witness Live tracking and management platform would be most suitable for the management of their fleet.

In Operation

The courier vans were fitted with five cameras covering all angles of the vehicle. These link back to our DVR – the brains of the operation. Live video footage and location details are automatically sent onto our server.

During a vehicle theft, which took place in broad daylight. Our customer was able to access Fleet Witness Live and find the exact location of the vehicle using our Smartphone App.

Our customer quickly recovered the vehicle and minimised loss of valuable goods, or damage to the vehicle itself.