Adopting apps essential to safety

The emergence of new applications for mobile devices is creating a safer environment and benefiting everyone in the chain — from drivers through to fleet managers —across a range of logistics and transport fields.

Take a moment to imagine a truck driver assigned to deliver freight within a city where the streets are clogged, the network hubs are destinations outside of the city’s boundaries and, on any given day, they might be tasked with transporting 100 deliveries or more.

Each delivery has a deadline to meet, all with differing levels of urgency. A breakdown on an arterial road, or a traffic light failing at a busy intersection, makes the driver’s task ever more challenging, raising the pressure in the process. But feeling the pressure is not an option for the driver, because staying safe and alert is the number one priority — especially when they’re managing multiple tasks with the prospect of long hours ahead.

In these conditions, a driver’s access to reliable and continuous communications is a must. An open line of communication enables the driver to stay constantly connected with the centre of operations so they can report any challenges they face on the road, while their colleagues can monitor their wellbeing wherever they are and headquarters can report any changed conditions that might affect the journey.

The pressure on drivers in the transport and logistics industry is colossal and, given the value of the road freight sector to the national economy, that’s not a surprise. According to recent research, revenue derived from the sector is estimated at around $52 billion and growing at a rate of 4.1% per year. It employs about 200,000 people and it’s estimated that more than 42,000 businesses rely on the sector. Road freight remains one of the most efficient ways to transport heavy loads, and additional research forecasts that road freight tasks will almost double by 2030.

Yet it remains an unfortunate reality that freight drivers are tasked to undertake one of the most dangerous jobs in Australia. According to the Transport Workers Union, Safe Work Australia has found that truck drivers are 15 times more likely to die than workers in any other profession, while on average, 10 truck drivers are killed on the road each year. Further research indicates that around a third of all work-related road crash fatalities occur within the freight industry.

We ask a lot of our drivers, and the pressure of on-time performance can create considerable risks despite our ever-present focus on drivers’ wellbeing.

No one wants timely delivery to come at the cost of safety. So how can we give our drivers all the support they need when they need it, even when they are on the other side of the city from headquarters? How can we help to prevent accidents from occurring, or ensure drivers have access to the vital emergency support they require for those incidents that are unpreventable?

Equipping all of our drivers with the right communications technology is one important way to ensure we are giving our drivers what they need, when they need it. Recent advances in communications technology — especially the emergence of mobile broadband and the ubiquity of digital capabilities — is helping to alleviate some of the burden on drivers without compromising safety or operational outcomes.

Communications devices — including smartphones, digital two-way radios and tablets — are increasing driver safety and productivity, due to the emergence of new applications that benefit logistics companies and many other enterprises.

For one thing, an increasing number of digital two-way radio apps are specifically tailored with the aim of improving safety standards, response times and efficiency. For example, one application can be used to track a driver’s speed leveraging the radio’s in-built GPS. If a driver is speeding an alert is sent back to headquarters, which can then request the driver to slow down. That same GPS functionality can be used to pinpoint precise locations to ensure driver safety in cases of emergency, while another application can navigate a driver out of gridlock by automatically determining a new route through leveraging both the GPS and mapping functionality of the two-way radio.

New applications are being developed that can also increase operational efficiency, which in turn decreases the pressure on our drivers — in particular, the emergence of job ticketing applications.

On days when drivers are managing a large number of deliveries, a job ticketing application provides a simple yet effective and efficient way for drivers to send a message back to headquarters after the completion of a delivery. Furthermore, staff at base can create, assign and monitor job tickets through the radio network to deliver routine tasks quickly and effectively. Tickets are sent from headquarters to a driver’s digital radio over the network, which can be accepted or declined with the push of a button by the driver. 

But part of the challenge in logistics has been communicating effectively and securely across groups of different people, due in large part to the use of incompatible communications systems between operational teams. For example, contracted or temp drivers might rely on a smartphone, while the full-time fleet is equipped with digital radios.

Thankfully, applications that enable smartphones to mirror the capabilities of digital two-way radios are emerging, which can turn virtually any device (including smartphones, tablets and computers) into two-way radios, creating a virtual network of push-to-talk voice communication for workers in any role wherever they may be.

Once the exclusive domain of two-way radios, these solutions work with any combination of broadband networks and devices, allowing for reliable, secure and affordable communications.

The logistics industry, especially the road freight sector, will continue to grow in scale and pressure, and is already a dangerous industry. It is therefore paramount that the workers at the heart of transport operations are equipped with the right tools to increase their safety and efficiency.

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