Road tech's tachomaster system helps Ceva logistics

CEVA Logistics has been using Road Tech’s revolutionary Tachomaster system since the introduction of the new digital tachographs and the changes in legislation introduced in May 2006. CEVA first introduced Tachomaster in order to ensure compliance with new EU and WTD (Working Time Directive) legislation, but the system’s ability to provide instantly available data and high level management reports has also allowed the company to introduce significant operational efficiencies.

Tachomaster records and analyses tachograph data from digital and analogue sources and gives transport operators a simple, highly effective tool to help them run their business efficiently. The system provides a range of real-time, high resolution management information and reports together with highly secure data storage and safe back-up. Transport companies can use the system simply to compute the driving and rest times of their drivers to ensure legal compliance, or they can employ it as a powerful monitoring and resource planning tool to give complete transparency of operations over a number of sites and help to optimise vehicle usage and driver deployment.

With over 120 sites throughout the UK, over 2000 vehicles and over 3800 drivers, CEVA was looking for a solution that would handle both the new digital tachographs and also the legacy analogue recording system which would take some time to phase out. “What we wanted was a best of breed solution which would merge analogue and digital tachograph data management into one coherent, secure solution,” says Andy Jenkins, CEVA Logistics’ Manager Operations Training. “We looked at a number of systems before making a decision, but Tachomaster was by far the most user-friendly.”

The real time web-based approach used by Tachomaster means that information captured at driver debrief is made available instantly for digital tachos and within hours for analogue data. Tachomaster has developed a digitisation system for analogue charts which removes human error and improves the turnaround from weeks to hours. By integrating accurate mileage information with fuel drawings, drivers’ performance can be managed to maximise fuel efficiency.

Road Tech and CEVA worked together before the legal introduction of the new digitachs and CEVA was able to provide Road Tech with some of the early live data to test pre-implementation phases of the system.

The new legislation that required the introduction of digital tachographs has brought great improvements, according to Andy Jenkins. “In order to work within the legislation we need access to accurate information. The digital tachographs have enabled us to have faster access and with Tachomaster – because it is web-based – we can obtain the information instantly at any time. With the analogue charts we had to send them away for analysis and were frequently 2-3 weeks behind. As our company policy is to check 100% of all driver charts, this has been a significant improvement for us. It allows us to manage our operations more effectively, highlighting any regular infringements and dealing with them quickly. It has also reduced our workload – handling the analogue charts was almost a full-time job for someone, now it is all held digitally and we can concentrate that resource on operational management and improvements in performance.”