Nijman Zeetank has slashed its driver debrief administration time with TruTac’s software and apps. The paperless systems have proved invaluable to the firm, which often has drivers out in the field for long periods.

The company runs a tramping fleet comprising 50 articulated trucks and 100 trailers across two sites and its drivers can be on the road for several weeks. The UK operation specialises in the transport of products for the glass and bulk liquids industries.

“We’re an international haulier, so our drivers can be away for at least a week,” says operations manager Steve Clarke. “Typically, they’ll start on a Sunday or a Monday and then we won’t see them until the weekend – but they could be away for two or three weeks at a time.”

Steve explains that the integrated nature of TruTac’s software systems and the visual style of the app has made it much simpler to tackle issues such as infringement debriefs. “We used to have to wait for a driver to complete a trip before debriefing a tachograph issue but now we can speak to the drivers and complete the debriefs quicker, which helps to prevent some of the minor issues reoccurring.”

“Our drivers have the TruControl app, so their tachograph information is fed back to them. They can see information about their drivers’ hours, and that helps us to reduce infringements by giving them more information. It’s also presented in a way that’s engaging – it’s not just a sheet of numbers, it’s graphic – so they can see where they’re up to, including daily, weekly, and fortnightly driving totals, and as soon as the information is received from a tachograph download we know it is accurate.

“The fact that we can send infringement debriefs straight through to the driver, who can then acknowledge them, has reduced our admin considerably. Trying to catch drivers and conduct debriefs in-person is incredibly difficult, whereas now, we can call them up when it’s safe and legal to do so, discuss it with them and sign it off, and they can countersign that infringement debrief at the same time. It’s a really good system.”

Nijman Zeetank is a longstanding TruTac customer and has been using the TruAnalysis tachograph management system for 15 years. It has since added TruControl, TruChecks, TruLicence, TruFleet, and TruWorkshop, and has been instrumental in shaping the products and services offered by the fleet management software specialist.

“TruTac have been in touch with us quite a lot for feedback,” says Steve. “They’ve gathered the information, discussed it with some of their other customers and implemented quite a lot of changes off the back of the responses we’ve provided. A lot of their products are customer-led.

“They’ve obviously followed the DVSA guidelines because when you open the workshop module and look at things like the vehicle checks, you can see they’ve taken a lot from there but then they’ve made some enhancements that have made the apps more relevant to our business, which has certainly been positive for us.”

According to TruTac, its one-stop shop of software products for fleet management and compliance control are used by  over 5700 operators.