Tech plan saving lives in Hawkes Bay
WHEN PAN PAC ASKED CCS LOGISTICS to coordinate and consolidate the work of its various transport contractors in the Hawkes Bay, no one thought at the time it would save lives.
But that’s just one impressive result from the project.
Corinne Watson, General Manager of CCS Logistics, told the Woodflow 2018 conference in Rotorua last month an estimated four fatalities have been avoided in third-party/ not-at-fault crashes.
Yes, it’s a statistical calculation, but it is based on improvements seen among the 135 drivers, especially in lowering their speeds, since the project began in 2015.
Prior to the project, the 35 companies contracting transport to Pan Pac used four different GPS systems and the aim was to get all the information on tracking each of their trucks to be brought into a single system. That way, the movement of log trucks between the forest, Pan Pac’s log yard north of Napier and the local port could be better managed to make it more efficient. Also, Health & Safety could be proactively managed.
The driver for the project was a prediction that wood flows out of the forests in the Hawkes Bay will increase 50% by 2025.
“Pan Pac wanted the 50% increase in volumes but without a 50% increase in headaches,” says Ms Watson.
Pan Pac was hoping that the project would allow that extra volume to be carted without a linear increase in the size of the fleet, which stood at 79 trucks in 2015.
Ms Watson says the key was getting buy-in from all the drivers, as well as the transport contractors, ie they had to see benefits themselves for it work.
Fleet scores were kept, up to 10-out-10 across a range of metrics, from keeping within speed limits to ensuring proper driver behaviour that is monitored via cab cams by the transport contractors, managing fatigue and wearing seatbelts. When the project began, the average score was 4-out-of-10 but this has now risen to 7-out-of-10.
Other results are a significant reduction in ‘at-fault’ crashes, drivers volunteering video of their mistakes to help others, lasting changes in driver habits, a 33% reduction in insurance claims, plus that all-important estimated saving of four lives on the road.
Thanks to video footage of incidents that do occur, thousands of hours of management time is saved investigating them.
Productivity has increased per truck and waiting times at various pinch-points are being addressed, but Ms Watson says further work is needed to lift this side of the ledger.
NZL