ELECTRONIC WORK DIARIES (EWD) WEBINAR
How Technology and Going Paperless will Transform Your Business
Managing a modern operation in today’s environment is complex, yet full of opportunity. What are some of these difficulties? Ensuring you’re on-top of everything that goes on within the business is borderline impossible to do alone. But with some help, you can catch issues before they become problems. You can get a head start on your day.
- No more wading through stacks of paperwork
- Reduce the chances of your important paperwork getting damaged
- Reduce the cost of labour, no more need to send work diary pages externally
- Audit requirement nightmare is over & managing during COVID is made easy
Questions and Answers
How Technology, Electronic Work Diaries and going Paperless can help your business
During the webinar, we had an overwhelming number of questions. They were all great, but we couldn't get to them all. So we sat down with our experts again, pictured below, and had them answered. Continue reading below to get the answers you're after.
Shannon Kyle
Transport Solutions Specialist, Teletrac Navman
Leigh Farrow
Transport Solutions Specialist, Teletrac Navman
Leigh Smart
Director, Formula Chemicals
Will new system require driver to complete pre-start mandatory before being able logging on?
No, not as part of an Electronic Work Diary, but we strongly advise that a pre-start checklist is completed before commencing driving.
Does the system still handle driver movement between trucks mid shift the same as current EWD system?
Yes, the driver is able to maintain work or rest status when changing vehicles. The driver simply logs into the device within each vehicle, and the new rego is recorded.
Hi Shannon, Nice presentation. Is there an optimum interface size? Can mobile phones be used?
Teletrac Navman’s EWD is approved for use by the NHVR on the MT201 device, a 7” tablet built within a managed environment that accesses the suite of compliance and productivity applications. The EWD is not approved to be used on mobile devices.
Are there any calibration requirements for the unit on regular basis?
No calibration is required, but there are requirements under the Heavy Vehicle National Law for Teletrac Navman to ensure that the EWD continues to operate in accordance with the EWD standards.
For Leigh Smart - we are transitioning to the EWD from next week (30 drivers), what do you think is the most important aspect to help make the transition as smooth as possible? What are some of the challenges businesses have faced so far with EWDs?
Having someone come out to train the team from Teletrac Navman is beneficial, allowing for everyone in the business to get the opportunity to not only ask their questions of an expert, but also see how it works in the real world.
It may not be smooth sailing for all to begin with as you introduce the solution to your team but bearing with it and helping manage change by keeping everyone informed and trained goes a long way. You’ll find in a very short time, and with the support and training of Teletrac Navman, you’ll get everything that you need for the system.
Making sure that the record keeper is set up, that all the drivers are set up in the system including their drivers licence, rule set, all allows you to begin with the least issues as possible.
The added benefit of starting an EWD alongside the written work diary provides surety that the driver has his data there, then transition off paper to just electronic after a month or two does help with driver buy-in. It gives you the 28 days of consistent data until the EWD is running smoothly.
For Leigh Smart, his drivers that picked it up quickly became mentors to other drivers that took longer to grasp, allowing everyone to work together. Identifying those that will be ‘champions’ goes a long way to reduce fears in uptake, as well as providing guidance to those that need it most.
We are currently using Sentinel already in our business. Director and NextGen, we were told that EWD were not available to us until possibly January as there is a new system? Can you confirm if this is correct, we would like to implement paperless work diaries now however awaiting confirmation that we can use our current system for this.
In 2020 we announced the launch of our new AI based platform TN360, and we will be giving our all our Transport customers who transition to EWD access to the system, so they can experience this first hand. Please reach out to your dealer or Teletrac Navman to discuss the transition arrangements.
If TN360 upgrade is required, when is this available to us?
Access to the EWD solution via TN360 is available to all customers. Please reach out to your dealer or Teletrac Navman to discuss the transition arrangements.
What happens if the EWD unit fails? Is there a backup solution and what is the response time for getting the EWD up and running again?
The record keeper in your business is required to notify the NHVR within 2 business days that a drivers EWD is malfunctioning. There is provision in the law to use a supplementary record for 7 day, source an alternate EWD or revert back to a Written Work Diary (WWD).
According to Leigh Smart of Formula Chemicals, having a spare device that is normally there as a training device or for the operations team to have to ensure the system works properly, helps to reduce unit failure disruption. Technology can fail and isn’t perfect, but having a contingency to hand over to the driver if they find the vehicle’s device is not operating correctly, is important.
Is the EWD locked so the parameters can't be changed to not comply with fatigue regulations?
Drivers have the opportunity to make changes to their EWD events within a 24 hour period, before all of the events are locked and cannot be changed. A back-office record keeper has no ability to amend driver records.
Does the EWD allow you to take an early break rather than at the recommended time and then recalculate when the next break will be?
Yes, you can record a change of activity, work to rest, at any time. When you next start work the EWD will calculate your available work time all based on your previous 28 day history.
Cost of EWD's implementation per vehicle?
There are a number of ways an EWD can be implemented into the business. Please contact our team on 1800 945 260 to have a discussion about your requirements. The cost of non-compliance can be massive, including the negative public perception. The EWD is an accurate piece of information that you can use as evidentiary data that a driver can rely on to manage their fatigue. Figuring out the cost savings for your business is an important first step – and it’ll definitely be more than the cost of telematics and an Electronic Work Diary, especially when you break it down to a cost per day.
This is currently working for Standard and BFM, when do you see AFM Rules approved?
We are currently working with the NHVR on approving AFM, or Advanced Fatigue Management, rulesets for use under the EWD. The NHVR is in the process of formalising their draft position on AFM, and as soon as this is released we will be able to provide a timeline for AFM on the Teletrac Navman EWD.
There are real dangers that the tech can, and does, fail in different ways. Does Teletrac Navman keep a chronological list of known issues identified with the system in case a driver &/or business decides to take a breach or fine to court? Eg: a driver was out of satellite connection & the EWD identifies the wrong location.
In terms of location, there are satellites that cover most of Australia consistently unless you’re in a tunnel or an area covered and out of view of the satellite. The driver has the ability, within the EWD, to update the location if it is found to be inaccurate through GPS.
There are provisions for supplementary records to be used in the event of device issues. There are reporting and notification requirements placed on all certified providers by the NHVR.
In terms of functionality, the EWD solution works independent of the cellular network to be able to show enforcement the drivers fatigue status and information directly. It is all stored and calculated live on the device for 28 days as well as providing real-time alerts for the driver about their work and rest hours. The data is then sync’d to the fleet management system for view from the back-office. As a back up, the driver can still use their work diary if the EWD is currently not operational.
In terms of compliance view, what do drivers show when they are stopped by enforcement?
A driver will select the tab “Compliance View” and hand the tablet to roadside enforcement. This will lock the diary from being used to change events. On return of the device to the driver they will be required to re-enter their EWD driver password to resume control of the diary. The information included is:
- Last 28 days
- Events view
- Any amendments
- Any annotations
- Any breaches of work periods requiring greater than 15mins rest (e.g. working more than 7.5 hours on Standard Hours ruleset)
Can the police or whomever, view data at any time to write up infringements on fatigue breaches or even speeding?
No not at all. Only fatigue data can be obtained from an EWD, either on the roadside or by requested information from the record keeper via an authorised channel. This is the same for a written work diary and has not changed..
Does an EWD count in 15 minute blocks like the work diary? or is it more frequent?
Work and rest are rounded up and down to the minute. Noting that 15mins continuous rest must still be recorded, however this can be from 10:02 to 10:18.
Can you share with us what kind of fatigue reporting is available? How does it work?
Teletrac Navman, through TN360, provides access to a number of EWD reports including fatigue violations, drivers hours in relation to work/rest options, summary of hours worked each calendar day, events manually added by a driver and compliance management to action and close out violation events. This is on top of real-time fatigue dashboards of information that is available per driver for you to further analyse your drivers current status based on their fatigue history.
Can you tell us examples of real-time data being used and how it was solved with the implementation of EWD?
Real-time fatigue data from EWD’s can be used in a number of ways depending on the type of operation.
- For distribution fleets, it allows operations staff to plan second/third loads based on available hours.
- For linehaul & BFM operators, it keeps track of current status, including long and night hours, to allow schedulers to plan work schedules (including ad hoc work) based on driver’s current available hours.
In both cases, it allows the business to demonstrate proactive fatigue risk management.
We are thinking of making the move to EWD, but how does TN help with the migration process?
Teletrac Navman provides assistance throughout the migration process using a number of checklists to ensure this process is seamless for our customers. We provide access to user guides and weekly online EWD training sessions to ensure you have all the information you require to fulfil your obligations of EWD.