Just wondering if having telematics fitted to trucks is a good thing or bad thing. Also being paid a bonus on your driving style being monitored by these. I can see in accidents, if your driving correctly they can help, but to be constantly pulled about braking, green band driving etc etc are they becoming a pain where the sun don’t shine.
cleanass:
Just wondering if having telematics fitted to trucks is a good thing or bad thing. Also being paid a bonus on your driving style being monitored by these. I can see in accidents, if your driving correctly they can help, but to be constantly pulled about braking, green band driving etc etc are they becoming a pain where the sun don’t shine.
We have telematics in some of ours. Apparently fitted by MAN. Supposedly to reduce fuel consumption and wear and tear. We get a printout at the end of the week showing our scores, it gets pinned to the notice board and ignored by everyone.
I found that I get reasonable scores (B across the board) by simply driving normally. Put a bit more concentration into it and you can push up to A quite easily.
We’re the same, I get B and C mostly. Seems impossible for me to get A no matter how hard I try. Quite a few drivers doing same work and same vehicles do manage it tho.
Same here - Microlise and its put up on the wall every week so everyone knows where they stand. The company is quite good about it. When the trucks were changed we started to get low scores for green band operating as the DAFs had hill descent speed control so automatically changed down and would descend from Stainmore just below the redline all the way down the hill. The company altered the scoring to take account of that.
If you drive like a sane person then there should be no problem getting a green score. If you’re constantly getting pulled about green band driving and braking then you want to be calming down son…driving outside of the green band just turns diesel into smoke and getting a low score on braking means you’re driving too close to peoples backsides and not planning ahead.
I’m pretty much always on A on nights, even had a run of 1.00 scores which surprisingly only got me 11th on the table but on days it drops down to a B - there’s only so much anticipating of stupid that one person can do. 
One point I will make is that I’ve noticed is that when its quiet, those of us on agency down the list at C or D rating tend not to be in much.
Conor:
When the trucks were changed we started to get low scores for green band operating as the DAFs had hill descent speed control so automatically changed down and would descend from Stainmore just below the redline all the way down the hill. The company altered the scoring to take account of that.If you drive like a sane person then there should be no problem getting a green score. If you’re constantly getting pulled about green band driving and braking then you want to be calming down son.
One point I will make is that I’ve noticed is that when its quiet, those of us on agency down the list at C or D rating tend not to be in much.
Not sure if it’ll work on a DAF, but with a MAN going downhill, turn the auto gearbox to manual and using the exhaust brake can keep you in the green band. Agree with your other points completely.
I kept scoring low for harsh cornering, when I analysed ny drive it was for doing motorway slip roads (where motorways merge) at 50! Slowed down to 45 and my scores improved.
If you can, try and get the criteria for each score.
^^^^^ to achieve effective retardation using the exhaust brake you want to be above the green band and into the yellow, but below the red mate.
the maoster:
^^^^^ to achieve effective retardation using the exhaust brake you want to be above the green band and into the yellow, but below the red mate.
Cheers, I didn’t know that. On our 2014 MAN units the green band (digital display) extends into the yellow during exhaust braking. Guess that explains why.
cleanass:
Just wondering if having telematics fitted to trucks is a good thing or bad thing.
How can being spied on be a good thing? Wouldn’t you rather be left alone to do your job & have that bonus as well as the cost to get that telematics bollx incorporated into your basic pay:?:
I was thinking about this as I have a scania for a while while the driver is off. There is a driving score on the Scania and I am at 97%. I am usually a ‘get the job done’ guy but this has altered the way I drive. We don’t get scored at our place (here’s the keys, see ya later) but it really can alter the truck use. The regular driver was getting just over 7 mpg but for the past 5 weeks I’m at 8.6mpg.
I have seen a difference in my attitudes to other road users too, that can only be due to trying to keep a good score for personal reasons (competitive nature) but do wonder if it will transfer over to my regular steed, Ivan the Iveco, which doesn’t have it fitted.
If it was a proper telematics system, I’m not sure I would be happy being monitored unless the bonus was worth keeping an eye things 
My main struggles are in green band and cruise control. Seems that my average gets dragged down by days when I spend ages stuck in traffic but surely it should recognise that moving at 10mph you will be neither on cruise or in the green band! Unfortunately we only get the detailed reports for harsh braking and idling I think. Nothing else seems to be on there so I don’t know which part it goes wrong on. Interestingly, I pressed the phone button on our handsfree kit when parked up the other day (linked to the telematics tablet) to see if it was a one touch button to call the office (save pulling over everytime!) but instead it started saying ‘harsh acceleration, harsh braking, scharfes Bremsen’ and various other things in different languages. Do some companies have a live feedback thing where it tells you when you get bad marks?
We have it at our place but they don’t give you a bonus for it. It covers all the basis, if you’re hitting C’s and B’s then you’re good. There is one guy whose constantly been sitting at “E” grade since they started putting up the charts.
My Scanny rigid has this system, & I try to score as high as I can, so I can wear a smug grin. I’ve got the progressive braking up to 87% & revs 97%. However the third score is supposed to rate performance up & over hills & I can’t get more than 55%, bringing the average of the three right down. Apparently you’re supposed to ease off the gas before you reach a crest & let momentum take you up & over, but doing that doesn’t improve the score…anybody got any suggestions? (Plus, how could the system possibly know you’re going uphill anyway?).
Plastic chicken:
My Scanny rigid has this system, & I try to score as high as I can, so I can wear a smug grin. I’ve got the progressive braking up to 87% & revs 97%. However the third score is supposed to rate performance up & over hills & I can’t get more than 55%, bringing the average of the three right down. Apparently you’re supposed to ease off the gas before you reach a crest & let momentum take you up & over, but doing that doesn’t improve the score…anybody got any suggestions? (Plus, how could the system possibly know you’re going uphill anyway?).
I usually score high 90s on our Scannys, but I’m driving the same road day in, day out, so I have learnt when it wants you to come off the gas before cresting a specific hill. I have no idea how it works it out our new ones does it automatically on cruise, it seems to have an idea of the weight on the vehicle and the steepness of the hill and it will engage neutral before the top and by the time your at the bottom your back at 56. Its a git when your on a motorway doing an overtake climbing a hill and the power drops off and you end up falling back behind the vehicle you were overtaking, unless you override it and accept the penalty.
We have it at our place. So far I couldn’t be bothered about the score. No bonus no score.
We have it too.Worth £100 a month if you hit the targets.And it’s not hard to achieve really.
We have no such wizardry in our place but I have “heard” about some companies that would like you on CC as much as (I suppose) is possible, maybe that is what what contributes to a higher accident rate, who knows?
But my thoughts are if the traffic slows or becomes unpredictable take the CC off and judge it. Leaving the CC on to the last critical moment you “think” you can get away with it (to keep your score up) is just inviting horribleness.
Does this wizardry take into account variables like city driving, hills A roads and B roads with bendy bits and general pebbyness from other drivers?
Or (example) is it spend the installation fee (aint cheap with the software licence the the cost to software and hardware installed then 45k a year for a couple or three to monitor the results and print them out to save 30k YEAR IN FUEL 
Guestimates, 
Perhaps it’s just me, but personally I’d rather that drivers of large hgv’s (and coaches) keep their eye on the road and what is happening around them out there, rather than keep looking down at the dashboard to see if they are ‘still in the green’. I do wonder how many are guilty of driving without due care and attention for something that has the potential to be more distracting than a mobile phone.
I have always driven using the rev counter as a guide and adapted to driving where use of the brakes is minimal, but the essential difference is I haven’t been observing it obsessively. As for score charts or whatever other motivational stuff companies put in place, I truly aint interested in other employees performances, what they have been up to (or not) and I’d prefer it if they keep their nose out my business too.
LIBERTY_GUY:
Perhaps it’s just me, but personally I’d rather that drivers of large hgv’s (and coaches) keep their eye on the road and what is happening around them out there, rather than keep looking down at the dashboard to see if they are ‘still in the green’. I do wonder how many are guilty of driving without due care and attention for something that has the potential to be more distracting than a mobile phone.I have always driven using the rev counter as a guide and adapted to driving where use of the brakes is minimal, but the essential difference is I haven’t been observing it obsessively. As for score charts or whatever other motivational stuff companies put in place, I truly aint interested in other employees performances, what they have been up to (or not) and I’d prefer it if they keep their nose out my business too.
Spot on there sir
I check the vehicle, turn the key and drive to conditions.
Telematics is one of them words in our industry that gets on my wick.
The others are compliance,performance and logistics,