Samsara survey shows tacho support among drivers
Samsara, the pioneer of the Connected Operations Cloud, has released statistics from a recent survey it conducted suggesting significant support among commercial drivers for tachograph installation and use.
The research gauged the views of 500 professional UK drivers, including of HGVs, in August 2024.
It found that commercial drivers were calling for all road users to follow the same safety standards their industry is expected to follow, with 61 per cent reportedly agreeing that tachographs should be installed in all vehicles as standard.
Meanwhile, 55 per cent of commercial drivers surveyed believe that digital tachographs have a positive impact when they’re on the road, with only six per cent feeling negatively about using a tachograph in their vehicle.
Samsara offers a variety of tachograph management functionality as part of its compliance management offering, including live tacho status, instant analysis and remote downloads.
Users can access live driver data, manage infringements, and conduct remote downloads in a single platform and at no extra cost, the firm says, and eliminate the burden and expense of manually retrieving data with digital tachograph downloads and analysis. Actual data can be used to plan routes and dispatch vehicles, and driver hours maximised to improve productivity.
Managers can receive up-to-the-minute driver hours data and use real-time remaining driving hours calculations to identify potential infringements before they happen. Reporting requirements can be met with minimal effort, adds Samsara, and driver infringement reports and letters generated quickly and simply. An app designed specifically for drivers can provide live tachograph stats.
Samsara customers include Van der Linden, a 125-year-old road transport company specialising in dedicated delivery services. A niche player in the Netherlands, the family business prides itself on equipping customers – which include Dutch retail giant C&A and global logistics provider Rhenus Group – with best-in-class branded vehicles and delivery drivers.
However, outdated systems meant they were struggling to monitor drivers’ hours and keep compliant with EU rules. In the Netherlands, when a driver is fined for driving too many hours without observing the mandatory rest periods, the employer must pay a fine double that amount. With the cheapest fine for drivers set at €220, Van der Linden risked mounting costs from non-compliance across its growing fleet.
With a tailored Samsara solution, Van der Linden went from drivers clocking in with timecards and manually reporting monthly truck data, to automated hours calculations and real-time tachograph downloads.
The in-vehicle tachograph system informs drivers when they have reached their maximum hours and need to schedule rest. Managers can also monitor this remotely, sharing a monthly report with drivers that helps them identify why they have been breaking labour laws.
By automating, the business has saved hours in admin work, Samsara reports. Drivers better understand when and why they were in breach of the rules and how to prevent it, reducing the risk of fines and saving potentially hundreds of thousands of euros. Most importantly, Samsara assists in driver safety and wellbeing, helping employees to take adequate breaks and rest time.
“The number of drivers breaking the law is down month on month,” said Frans Zoetmulder, owner, Van der Linden.
“The real-time insights delivered by Samsara’s connected operations technology benefit the safety and wellbeing of our drivers while keeping us legally compliant and saving us and our drivers a lot of money.”
