Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/667099
52 commercial carrier journal | april 2016 technology CSA concerns spur e-DVIR growth BY AARON HUFF C omplying with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Admin- istration's 396.11 regulation for driver vehicle inspection reports appears simple enough. Just follow these four steps: • Have drivers conduct pre- and post-trip inspections. • Have drivers note any safety-related defects. • Have drivers submit a report to management. • Management sees to it that vehicles are repaired before they return to service. In the real world, these steps sometimes are followed loosely. Drivers might pencil-whip or altogether skip the first three steps, or management may not act on DVIRs in a timely manner. Looking at the share of maintenance violations in the FMCSA's Compliance Safety Accountability program, the DVIR process appears to have room for improvement. Over the past 24 months, 51 percent of CSA violations have been maintenance-related, with lights, brakes and tires the most common defects. According to CCJ publisher Randall-Reilly Business Media's RigDig Business Intelligence unit, California has the highest concentration of maintenance violations, which account for 70 percent of the state's total. Taking action Electronic DVIRs are available in most fleet telematics systems, and fleets often use them as a companion to electronic logging applications. Until last year, Nebraska Transportation Co. had been using paper DVIRs. After installing a telematics system from Zonar, its drivers now take a portable display unit outside the cab to use the company's Electronic Vehicle Inspection Report application. The app verifies that drivers actually did walk around the vehicle, as it requires the scanning of RFID tags placed in different zones to complete an inspection. Information captured by the EVIR system also makes it "very easy to see exactly what is wrong," says Josh Lacy, director of op- erations for the Gering, Neb.-based fleet. Mechanics are notified immediately by email when drivers note defects, and they have instant visibility to the location, driver and time of the report. "Drivers also like it because they know mechanics are seeing the information and not relying on someone else to pass it on down the road," Lacy says. Telematics providers continue to extend DVIR functionality outside the cab using mobile devices and apps to improve the vehicle inspection process. Fleets can use MiX Telematics' MiX Go forms-based application to create their own custom inspec- tion process.Inspection forms in MiX Go can be set up to prompt drivers to capture pictures of defects and capture a signature to verify the report's accuracy. Maintenance integration Besides capturing DVIRs either electronically or by using mobile devices, the trend is to use the reports as part of an integrated repair process. Dossier Systems, a provider of fleet maintenance management software, integrates with Zonar's EVIR application to create repair orders for critical defects. Dossier plans to announce more inte- grations with additional telematics providers this year. Fleets use Decisiv's cloud-based platform to schedule and man- age service events. The software integrates with fleet maintenance software and telematics systems to notify of equipment defects and to manage the repair process, whether that takes place at a fleet's internal shop, dealer or other third-party service provider. When a DVIR contains a defect, TMW Systems can send a notification to the shop to schedule a repair order and notify dispatchers. For safety-related defects, its software systems – which include both fleet maintenance and dispatch systems – can prevent a truck from being dispatched until the repair work is completed. EBE Technologies' new Ships Vehicle Maintenance Solution has a number of integration points for electronic DVIRs. Besides using VMS to schedule repairs, fleets can hold drivers accountable for the quality of their inspections by correlating DVIRs to CSA violations from roadside inspections. Through integration with dispatch software, VMS also can send automatic reminders to drivers through the telematics sys- tem if they are dispatched without completing a DVIR. EBE also can include DVIR compliance as an element in the driver score- cards it compiles for its clients as part of a separate application. With the added pressure of CSA on vehicle maintenance, interest is growing in technologies that can not only increase DVIR compliance but also make the process more effective and efficient. in focus: ELECTRONIC INSPECTIONS Drivers use Zonar's Android-powered tablet to conduct pre- and post-trip inspections.