Microlise telematics

Who drives for a company that uses this system?

What are your personal views of it?

Discuss

one of the main reasons I left my last job was down to this,
The whole company came obsessed with it,
Final straw for me was when a ball rolled out in the road and I anchored up,I was pulled in to office that week and showed the road I was on on google earth and told it’s a straight road I should of anticipated it coming and because i now had a “G” not an “A” on my harsh braking score it’s not good enough. :smiley:
Even saw a manager tell a very experienced good driver who never phoned in sick great fella etc that if he didn’t improve he would have to start disaplinary procedures,while the what I would class as poor drivers were getting good scores they were classed as God’s :imp:

It depends…

On the attitude of the microlisers. If as already mentioned, they’re a pious bunch of nit-pickers hell bent on criticising your every move then I’d be looking elsewhere for employment. If they’re using the data intelligently and maximising fleet performance yadder yadder yadder I have no problems with that.

However, my experience so far of Mercedes trucks regulating their own speed in traffic. In particular the exremely late braking when approaching stationary traffic that would leave a huge ‘bad boy’ braking mark on your score for the day. Leaves me thinking that the two technologies really aren’t in sync yet.

We use the Scania system whatever it’s called. I’ve been asked why I don’t use cruise control as much as the others and I said it’s because I like to regulate my speed and keeps me in touch with everything because I’m constantly reacting.

But using cruise control is better for fuel economy they said.

So I drilled their figures and picked a random set with high cruise control usage percentage and pointed out I use less braking and get comparable MPG with that by doing it my way.

“Hmm, so you do. That’s interesting” he said before changing the subject lol.

All these clever systems depend on being read and acted upon by someone who knows one end of a lorry from another, and who knows what’s involved in the actual operation the vehicle is used for.

In the real world of logistics management, one size fits all, they want cheap as possible unthinking drones who attend the steering wheel and tick all the right boxes, good luck with the results…a peruse around the wreckage down the far end of the yard might be a more illuminating half hour than relying on telematics scores :wink:

yourhavingalarf:
It depends…

On the attitude of the microlisers. If as already mentioned, they’re a pious bunch of nit-pickers hell bent on criticising your every move then I’d be looking elsewhere for employment. If they’re using the data intelligently and maximising fleet performance yadder yadder yadder I have no problems with that.

However, my experience so far of Mercedes trucks regulating their own speed in traffic. In particular the exremely late braking when approaching stationary traffic that would leave a huge ‘bad boy’ braking mark on your score for the day. Leaves me thinking that the two technologies really aren’t in sync yet.

Amen to that,I’m reliably informed by a merc technician that microlise and mercs are a serious mismatch.

yourhavingalarf:
It depends…

On the attitude of the microlisers. If as already mentioned, they’re a pious bunch of nit-pickers hell bent on criticising your every move then I’d be looking elsewhere for employment. If they’re using the data intelligently and maximising fleet performance yadder yadder yadder I have no problems with that.

However, my experience so far of Mercedes trucks regulating their own speed in traffic. In particular the exremely late braking when approaching stationary traffic that would leave a huge ‘bad boy’ braking mark on your score for the day. Leaves me thinking that the two technologies really aren’t in sync yet.

Very true. Had a harsh braking one the other day because a learner driver appeared to think they were pulling a low-loader behind their Micra, with the swing they took to turn left. Haven’t heard anything about it. My old place were obsessed with it, if I got asked about a harsh braking “incident” (as they called it ffs) I would ask them if they’d rather I hadn’t braked.

yorkshire terrier:
one of the main reasons I left my last job was down to this,
The whole company came obsessed with it,
Final straw for me was when a ball rolled out in the road and I anchored up,I was pulled in to office that week and showed the road I was on on google earth and told it’s a straight road I should of anticipated it coming and because i now had a “G” not an “A” on my harsh braking score it’s not good enough. :smiley:
Even saw a manager tell a very experienced good driver who never phoned in sick great fella etc that if he didn’t improve he would have to start disaplinary procedures,while the what I would class as poor drivers were getting good scores they were classed as God’s :imp:

That’s just ridiculous - if a ball bounces into the road there’s usually a kid bouncing along after it.

To use a google streetview to prove a point is farcical.

It’s going to be a hell of a journey to get back to the real world in these analysts heads. :unamused:

Socketset:

yorkshire terrier:
one of the main reasons I left my last job was down to this,
The whole company came obsessed with it,
Final straw for me was when a ball rolled out in the road and I anchored up,I was pulled in to office that week and showed the road I was on on google earth and told it’s a straight road I should of anticipated it coming and because i now had a “G” not an “A” on my harsh braking score it’s not good enough. :smiley:
Even saw a manager tell a very experienced good driver who never phoned in sick great fella etc that if he didn’t improve he would have to start disaplinary procedures,while the what I would class as poor drivers were getting good scores they were classed as God’s :imp:

That’s just ridiculous - if a ball bounces into the road there’s usually a kid bouncing along after it.

To use a google streetview to prove a point is farcical.

It’s going to be a hell of a journey to get back to the real world in these analysts heads. :unamused:

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: That last line is brilliant!

Never used it. It Wouldn’t bother me if I worked someware that did.
If I get employee of the month , £50 or what ever great if I don’t I don’t.
I’ll continue to drive to the road conditions and how I feel safe.
And doubt they could sack me for not getting a good score anyway

manalishi:

yourhavingalarf:
It depends…

On the attitude of the microlisers. If as already mentioned, they’re a pious bunch of nit-pickers hell bent on criticising your every move then I’d be looking elsewhere for employment. If they’re using the data intelligently and maximising fleet performance yadder yadder yadder I have no problems with that.

However, my experience so far of Mercedes trucks regulating their own speed in traffic. In particular the exremely late braking when approaching stationary traffic that would leave a huge ‘bad boy’ braking mark on your score for the day. Leaves me thinking that the two technologies really aren’t in sync yet.

Amen to that,I’m reliably informed by a merc technician that microlise and mercs are a serious mismatch.

Where I worked a few years back it was difficult to find a trailer that was compatible with the Mercs let alone anything more technical.

Ours are set up wrong so are ignored. If you start slowing and braking gently at the half mile sign before a roundabout it flashes up as harsh braking. Then when pulling away it keeps alarming revs too high. Its a bloody automatic and I can’t do anything about it. Really annoying when you are trying to use the sat nav to find a junction and the warnings fill the screen

Driver trainer once phoned to tell me my fleet score was down.
Told him to shove the job up his arse.
He hung up.

Most of the comments just illustrate that the job today is ran by d/heads of the highest order, who know jack ■■■■ about the job in real terms, but instead live in a world of theory. :bulb:

robroy:
Most of the comments just illustrate that the job today is ran by d/heads of the highest order, who know jack [zb] about the job in real terms, but instead live in a world of theory. :bulb:

I went on assesment a while back. Guy who took me out said do not rev over the green indicator on rev counter. Ok i said no problemo.

Was driving around up and down gears without going outside fuel economy area.

Got to a hill in green as instructed just before it went over changed up a gear. The lorrys slowed and i stopped. He said why did you change up gear and not rev it up to get up hill.

I said to him because you stated i wasnt allowed out the fuel economy area on counter. He wasnt amused.

Safe to say i didnt pass so called assesment.

Not that i was arsed. Some amount of robots out there now.

Mine is giving me a poor score for combined coasting at the moment, saying to improve you need to coast in gear more.

Problem with this is that in both scanias and mercs when the cruise control is on it puts it in N automatically when it’s coasting.

So for microlise they want the cruise control on as much as possible, Scania and merc have designed their own systems to go coast in neutral, yet microlise marks you down for this.

Had them on the buses for years, must admit, I never had a problem.

Drivers only got called in if the harsh braking was high.

I check mine occasionally, I mainly get overspeeds last most of the drivers.
It’s silly because it will say overspeed for 49 secs at 54.52 mph at m25.

Anything over 54 mph is overspeed at my place.
Sometimes the trucks get set to 56 mph though so if I’m in one of them I can easily pick up 2 dozen overspeeds in a day. :grimacing:

The system is stupid but I’ve never had any grief regarding it so I don’t mind.

Used them for years driving vans. Managers were red hot about it when it first started but eventually backed off when they realised you couldn’t win. We used to get pulled up for engine idling even though we had you keep them running when the freezer temps dropped if we were waiting about. Best one was the manager who kept on at us because we were revving too high before changing gear. Couldn’t get through to her the vans were automatics…In the end everybody just ignored it.

Log in, remove it from the holder and place it face down on the bunk.

The system requires the data to be viewed by somebody who knows about trucks not someone who spends all afternoon like Sherlock Holmes going over a route that contains a weight limit then questioning a driver (me) with nearly thirty years experience why they haven’t driven over the weak bridge in Bradford on Avon.

The system is usually used by large fleets and when properly used is a good system, also I believe that the more expensive version with the mapping suited to trucks is very good, as always cost comes before everything and the cheap entry level software is what the majority of us will be using, use it as a guide never trust it 100%.

The amount and detail of the data is truly remarkable even switching on the ignition is recorded.