Designing and maintaining a driver roster that not only informs your administrative team about potential bottlenecks but also provides a sense of confidence in company compliance is one of the best ways that fleets can take control of driver pools and improve their company’s operational oversight and efficiency.
However, encouraging administrative staff to adopt new technology can be an uphill battle. In this article, there are 5 ways that your company can benefit from having real-time driver roster management software in place.
The primary causes for driver roster fluctuations commonly come down to a few things. Including, industry demand for drivers, driver availability, driver satisfaction, compensation and reward structures, and cultural differences between companies and drivers.
Driver Application Intake
Companies can improve the efficiency of their driver application intake processes when they have access to visual dashboards and digital application completion workflows that guide the applicant through required processes.
Another benefit of having digital applications is the increased controls and qualification formula standards that can be applied across all applicants. These include controls like driver risk ratings and driver retention probability formulas.
Active Driver Management
Managing drivers usually entails keeping up to date with expiring certificates, upcoming renewals, and substance testing which are all required for the driver to maintain their license. With digital driver roster management software, companies can get automatic notifications which eliminates the need for regular folder reviews and brings areas of noncompliance to light sooner.
Additionally, fleet managers gain access to historical driver data without the need for tedious and ongoing paper reviews. This makes a world of difference for companies that often switch fleet managers or have high employee turnover in administrative roles.
Inactive Driver Management
Drivers that aren’t actively driving but are still employed by the company are just as important to maintain as active drivers (many CDL drivers rely on their employer to help them maintain their license even if they’re not currently driving. Companies should do all they can to help drivers maintain their license). Digital driver roster management technologies like DOTReady eliminate many of the burdens that come after a driver’s employment status changes.
Depending on the circumstance of the change, the follow-up processes required by law can become complex very quickly. Especially in the case where past issues or violations are found to be present. When equipped with filtration mechanisms, sorting and analyzing driver pools becomes significantly easier.
Performance Benchmarking
Maintaining an eye on a fleet of drivers makes gaining directional insight into overall performance and company driving habits within reach for new and experienced administrative personnel. For example, with most digital driver roster management software, companies are able to rank driver performance by KPIs (key performance indicators) better manage rewards programs, and uncover key insights for hiring decisions in the future.
Driver Turnover Insights
Driver Roster Management software provides clarity into the various reasons for driver turnover and the timeframes that average and above-average drivers stick around for. Within a few months after integrating with a digital driver intake and management software (like DOTReady), companies gain insight into the reality of driver turnover timeframes as well as the underlying factors driving them.
Company Policy Compliance
Another underrated benefit of digitizing driver rosters is the ability to quickly and easily see which drivers have agreed to and are abiding by core company policies. For example, an HR manager might want to revise a company policy and easily distribute it to drivers with signature inputs but not want to go through the process of printing them out and hunting down drivers to get a signature.
With the help of a driver pool management system, companies can update, distribute, and track the status of policy acceptance throughout the fleet and quickly reference them when needed.
In summary, driver roster fluctuations should be seen as an opportunity to identify systems and processes that are lacking or haven’t been integrated yet. Historical data, trend framing, automated actions, and compliance systems can all be enhanced with the adoption of roster management technologies and give administrative departments more control and communication channels between drivers and upper management.
