Data downloading
Frequent downloads from a fleet’s ECMs can help managers pinpoint underperformance by drivers early – before fuel costs soar out of control.
By Aaron Huff
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MobileMax – a mobile communications, tracking and wireless fleet management system from GeoLogic – has an application called ADV Monitor that companies can use to capture, download and report vehicle and driver fuel performance data across their entire fleet. |
Every 20,000 miles or so, drivers at O&S Trucking enter one of three inbound safety lanes at the company’s maintenance facility in Springfield, Mo. A technician connects a cable to the vehicle’s diagnostics port and downloads data from the ECM. The data enters a PC-based software application.
This past June, Elisha Sawyer, fuel services manager of the 360-truck carrier, began meeting with drivers as they pass through the safety lane to review fuel performance, using printed reports with ECM data on speeding, idling, shifting and mpg measured as a percentage of total travel time. “The average person doesn’t know what it means,” Sawyer says. “I give them training and tell them what our goals are, and they see where their numbers are at.”
A driver may be spending too much time in ninth gear versus 10th gear, or have a low cruise percentage. But rather than just point out negatives, Sawyer also discusses areas that drivers handled well and explains why. After her meetings, Sawyer offers T-shirts with fuel-saving ideas on the back. “It makes their day,” she says.
Software from truck engine manufacturers, as well as independent vendors, offer detailed analysis of fuel economy. But a manual download process is a challenge if drivers and vehicles do not return to the yard frequently.
“If you capture your equipment frequently enough, any number of methods are available to extract data,” says Murry Fitzer, chief executive officer of Florilli Transportation. “But if you are running irregular routes, the downloads aren’t frequent enough.”
Like many fleet operations, Florilli Transportation – a 225-truck refrigerated truckload carrier based in West Liberty, Iowa – uses satellite and/or cellular-based wireless applications to access ECM data remotely and automatically. Florilli Transportation downloads data weekly across its entire fleet by using GeoLogic’s MobileMax wireless fleet management system, which transmits ECM data once a day to a server. The carrier extracts the data each week into a spreadsheet program, allowing sorting any way the company wants.
Weekly reports ensure sensitivity to fuel economy, Fitzer says. If a manager spots a driver with substandard fuel economy for the previous week, he either can send a message to the driver or call them in and counsel them on ways to improve. To catch long-term trends, driver managers look at fuel economy and other vehicle and driver performance metrics over a six-week period.
“Certainly we have a desired or target level we are looking for,” Fitzer says. “In addition to that, we are going to look at each individual driver from week to week and expect to see improvement.” The weekly reporting system also provides quick feedback as to whether or not drivers are making improvements. “We certainly try to manage the exceptions,” Fitzer says.
Wireless communications can improve data reporting by automating frequent downloads regardless of equipment location, but that’s only the beginning. To obtain a truly accurate picture of fuel economy and how to improve it, you may need to analyze it by terminal, engine type, loads and several other specific parameters. That way, you can make sure you are comparing oranges to oranges.
Foodliner, a 650-truck bulk pneumatic hauler, designed a reporting system using Microsoft Access that pulls data from PerformX, a Web-based driver and vehicle performance monitoring application from PeopleNet. PerformX captures ECM data such as idle time, speeding, mpg and RPMs. Foodliner combines this data in a spreadsheet with company-specific information such as vehicle, driver, engine type, year, type of operation (dry or liquid bulk) and terminal.
Each month, Tim Stoeck, controller for Dubuque, Iowa-based Foodliner, e-mails fuel reports to terminal managers containing key metrics, such as idle times and mpg, that are specific to their types of operations and drivers. “We don’t compare operation to operation,” Stoeck says. “We look at terminals in and of themselves.”
Before adopting the new reports, trying to manage idle time was practically impossible because some operations use power-take-off (PTO) when loading and unloading. Foodliner couldn’t separate PTO idle time from unnecessary idle time. Now the company can do that by using position reports in its PeopleNet system to identify when vehicles were at customer locations and likely using the PTO. Foodliner also breaks down idling data into gallon per hour and price for each truck.
Foodliner managers also use a trend report to identify changes in mpg that offer the basis for investigation into the cause, such as the operation profile, driver habit or maintenance. Variations from the norm might result from a driver’s work mix or length of haul – or it could be that the driver needs to receive remedial training. As a general rule, drops of more than 0.5 mpg usually are due to maintenance problems, Stoeck says.
Since implementing the reporting and accountability system, the company has increased its average mpg by “a couple tenths,” Stoeck estimates. “With 650 trucks, that is a pretty big savings,” he says. “But (fuel economy) is always a moving target.”
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