Over-the-road trucking moves 80% of freight in South Africa, and trucks move ten times the cargo in the US compared to rail. But nothing moves without a truck driver.
Trucking logistics are growing beyond the rate of available truck drivers, creating a capacity problem for the industry. Building more trucks and trailers for growing business needs is easy, but you can’t create experienced drivers on demand. And that makes retaining your fleet’s driver assets more valuable than ever.
Too few truck drivers
More trucks completing more journeys create a gruelling schedule for drivers. A global shortage of 7m truck drivers by 2028 means that good drivers are becoming rarer. In an increasingly competitive market for the best drivers, data and telematics can help increase driver retention.
Digital technology supports a fleet’s mechanical integrity, to create a great working environment for drivers who expect better workplace solutions. It’s meaningless for drivers to have trucks with excellently maintained engines and transmissions, if real-time route planning is poor and last-mile delivery issues become their problem. Drivers are not supposed to become customer agents when things go wrong.
GoMetro’s Bridge makes powerful fleet telematics simpler to use, with more of the features truck drivers and fleet managers need. Like the shareable live vehicle feed, which is fully secured, confirming to customers where their deliveries are, and shielding drivers from unnecessary status calls out on the road.
Using the best drivers better
Retention strategies are valuable in a market with an undersupply of skilled truck drivers, and the cost is not only about delivery schedules but truck maintenance.
Experienced drivers have better mechanical intuition and the acquired skills to deal with emergencies on the road. They’ll notice issues from inside the cab that junior drivers miss, stopping and responding before severe mechanical damage happens.
Overusing your best drivers is a sure way to degrade their performance and risk them resigning. Like the aviation industry, where seniority and experience are valued and flight hours carefully managed, fleet owners can benefit from doing the same. However, reconciling driver hours on HR spreadsheets with real-time delivery data is an administrative disaster that will drain many work hours with little benefit.
Making all your telematics work smarter is GoMetro Bridge’s intuitive dashboard. Simple and configurable, it makes deep fleet data viewable and usable, creating the analytics needed to make decisive planning decisions. Like optimized driver rosters.
Optimizing all your assets
The best and most experienced drivers should operate on the most challenging routes, delivering the most precious cargo, without spending exhaustive hours in the driver’s seat.
Suppose valuable cargo needs to be delivered to a new customer, on a route known for being challenging, in difficult weather. In that case, you want to know that an experienced driver has the driving hours in reserve to make that journey and create the best customer experience possible.
Fleets that run with minimal downtime know the value of preventative mechanical maintenance. But what about driver maintenance? Perfectly serviceable trucks are no good without great drivers in the cabin.
The data visibility and GoMetro’s Bridge means management and HR can monitor driver hours and driving fatigue most accurately, because not every hour in the cabin is similarly exhausting.
Avoiding HR disputes with data
Bridge’s data visibility and shareability are easy enough for HR to use without struggling with permissions or interrupting workflows. Empowering HR with real-time driver data allows them to avoid escalated disputes (with neutral data facts) and prepare rewards for deserving truck drivers.
Thousands of real-world deliveries forge great drivers. Their unique skills and driving discipline can significantly impact your fleet’s maintenance costs and on-time delivery reputation. High driver turnover might not affect monthly salary costs, but it can increase costs in other parts of your business, like late delivery disputes and increased mechanical maintenance.
Rewarding and retaining drivers is a small data investment with significant benefits. It’s like being committed to engine, transmission and differential oil changes – small costs and time sacrifices with big compound savings.
Managing driver talent with a spreadsheet is a sure way to have high turnover. In a future where good truck drivers will become ever rarer, GoMetro’s Bridge helps you keep your best by creating all the analytics you want, when you need it.
