Tachodisc In The News
RT Compliance Newsletter – November 2011
NEW TECHNOLOGY MAKES REMOTE DOWNLOADING AN OPTION FOR ALL
The industry’s first introduction to the concept of remote downloading was back in 2006 when the major Truck Manufacturers got everyone excited about the prospect of a solution where the vehicle and driver data could be transmitted to the transport company, without any involvement of the driver and independently of the location of the truck.
This was welcomed by the industry, but the development of such technologies was not as simple as first thought. It is only now after five years that a more affordable solution has become available, the DigiDL, and Woodland Logistics are the first UK commercial company to put this new remote downloading technology from Tachodisc to use.
We asked Lesley Thomson, Woodland Logistics Safety & Quality Officer to explain why they initially installed the DigiDL technology into 43 new vehicles purchased to service a specific customer contract.
“Given the geographical spread of this new contract, which spans across five sites from Scotland to London, we needed a solution that would allow us to better manage and control the process of downloading driver and vehicle data from all these locations - rather than deploying managers all over the country and relying on drivers.
Tachodisc suggested the new DigiDL technology and it seemed the ideal solution, but it was new to the market, nobody else had even trialled it in a live commercial situation. However, it was the only retro fit device available that suited our requirements for truly facilitating remote access without human intervention - so with Tachodisc we set to work arranging trials and live tests.
During the trials we soon realised that this technology was amazing and would make the process of downloading data from remote locations so easy. Now, that is fully set-up, it is saving us so much time and more importantly, it ensures we are complying with legislation and protecting our O Licence.
With the help of Tachodisc, we have programmed the DigiDLs to automatically download drivers’ cards once a week and the vehicles once a month. Via GPRS, the data is then wirelessly transmitted to Tachodisc’s server where it is safely hosted in a protected environment. We then simply access and analysis the data via Tachodisc’s analysis software programme.
You cannot put a price on legal compliance, but the DigiDLs have literally removed the headache of downloading data from driver cards and vehicles that are spread all over the country.
We could not have done this without Tachodisc’s expert advice or sophisticated IT structure. Thanks to their continued support we are now leading the way with this remote technology.”
Such has been the success of the trial on the 43 vehicles, Woodland Logistics are now retro-fitting the DigiDLs on all vehicles in the fleet with a 59 registration and above and on all new vehicles procured. Woodland Logistics aim to have the DigiDL downloading technology fitted on 50% of the fleet by the end of 2011.
Tachodisc is offering the DigiDL as one single service package, from point of order through to fitment and data management, allowing access to the benefits of remote download with relatively little financial investment or IT infrastructure required. For further information, please telephone Tachodisc 01925 283320, email sales@tachodisc.co.uk or visit www.tachodisc.co.uk.
TAC190