Why the safety and welfare of professional drivers goes beyond drivers’ hours regulations
Why they act as a shield
With the compliance experts
Four leading operators in the spotlight ahead of Euro Bus Expo
Welcome to the Autumn issue of CONNECTED. Autumn is often described as a season of harvest, colour and celebration, and metaphorically speaking these words could also be used to describe all the flourishing developments we are seeing here at Aquarius in our 20th anniversary year.
2024 has been an exciting year for Aquarius and on so many levels – a new senior management team, a new office building in Warrington … but for me the standout has been the number of non-tacho customers we’ve onboarded this year who have proactively come to us for Asset Maintenance after thorough research of the market.
As non-tacho operations, we would not have been on their radar prior to Asset Maintenance because of our history in tachograph analysis and Drivers’ Hours Law. Therefore, the developments that we’ve made to support our base analysis product and for alternative markets, with Asset Maintenance being the prime example, is very exciting.
From van and minibus operators to those working out of scope with their own in-house vehicle / plant workshops, I’m thrilled that they’ve all praised the system for its customisability and ease of use - and continue to cite our online and telephone support as another huge benefit of working with us.
This for me is a testament to how far we have grown and developed our software portfolio, especially over the last 5 years; and it is thanks to the hard work of our teams and the strong relationships they have built with customers – by listening to customers, and having our own expert team of in-house developers, we’ve been able to mould Asset Maintenance into the strong fleet management system it is today, while keeping with our underlying ethos of providing reliable, focussed technology.
Mark Johnston Managing Director
One of the growth areas where these developments are prevalent is in the coach and bus market, which is why for this issue, ahead of Euro Bus Expo in November, we are shining the ‘customer spotlight’ on several of our PSV customers – tacho and nontacho. Take a look on page 9 to see how they use Asset Maintenance and all our integrated solutions.
In this issue, we also have a new addition to the Aquarius App to share; a customisable Welfare & Safety Check which provides a simple tool for line managers to assess and record driver information during safety spot checks, to make sure they are fit, healthy, and safe to drive and work. See page 13.
Plus, as always, there’s lots of compliance advice (in the form of a letters page this time around) and news, including the latest from the 2024 Motor Transport Awards. It was a fantastic night of celebration on the 4th of September, which also saw two of our customers pick up prestigious awards - Campeys of Selby Ltd won Haulier of the Year, and Darcica Logistics Limited won the Sustainable Transport Award.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue of CONNECTED, and please do get in touch if you’d like to be featured in a future edition, or have ideas for technical or compliance-related stories.
By Chris Cuffe, Aquarius IT Consultant
The term preventative maintenance was not commonly used until the early 1900s. Road engineers were amongst the earliest to advocate preventative maintenance and in 1914 New York’s Engineering Record compared simply repairing roads against the more positive effects of early intervention.
Moving forward, industries such as aviation began to adopt routine and preventative maintenance
So how does this history relate to your assets such as vehicles, plant and machinery? Surely, equipment is more reliable than it ever was and should require less maintenance. Certainly, your average family car will cover 100,000 miles and the likelihood of a complete failure with regular servicing is fairly remote.
In the commercial world though it’s not just whether an asset will continue to operate in any capacity, it’s also about how safe it is - together with the avoidance of expensive machinery failures in use. An asset that is working efficiently will naturally work harder in terms of its return on investment and will be less likely to cause injury to workers or the public.
There is specific legislation in place for the maintenance of heavy goods
mainly due to safety concerns. It was not until 1948 however that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) implemented licencing standards. Boeing launched their first 747 in the 1960s which led to further innovations in maintenance and instead of using a trial-anderror approach a ‘bottom up process’ was adopted which broke the aircraft into sub systems and analysed failures and hence targeted maintenance routines could be developed.
vehicles and trailers, which is required under Road Traffic law, at agreed intervals. The government website has a very useful guide called ‘Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness’ which covers all commercial vehicles and public service vehicles. The guide is approved by the Traffic Commissioners.
Plant and machinery are generally covered under PUWER [The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998] which broadly states [note this is a simple precis] that equipment should be;
• suitable for its intended use
• be maintained in a safe condition
• be inspected for safety and deterioration
• be accompanied by suitable health and safety measures
• used in accordance with requirements
It should be noted that some equipment will be subject to further safety legislation such as lifting equipment [LOLER] and pressure equipment which must meet the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations.
Manufacturers of plant will provide published guidance on routine maintenance normally based on hours of use. On larger plant a built-in meter will generally be used to record hours. The service routines will have been developed based on known failure points and will cover things such as lubrication of specific bearings and points, replacement of fluids and cleaning or replacement of filters. In addition, there will be safety checks prescribed for correct stickering, the operation of safety mechanisms and the general condition and serviceability of the machinery.
Government and expert guidance states that it is not enough to rely on a maintenance system alone, it has to be combined with quality maintenance practices and skills with supervision and effective management ¹.
• Daily driver defect checks are mandatory for HGV but regular checks of other plant and machinery should form part of your maintenance programme. The person carrying out the inspection should be suitably trained and competent. Whilst this can be paper based, electronic forms will provide a more manageable and auditable solution for defect repairs.
• There should be a specific process for dealing with defect repairs and a vehicle or machine should not be used if it is unroadworthy or unserviceable.
• Safety inspections should be pre-planned to a set programme. Electronic recording is particularly helpful in this regard as systems can generate early warnings and can help avoid clashes in the calendar. Spreadsheets and bits of paper may work for small operations but even when you get to a dozen assets there will be a lot of events to record in a year.
• All necessary works should be completed and recorded before a vehicle or piece of plant can be declared roadworthy or serviceable.
• There needs to be a process to manage vehicles or plant that need to come out of service (VOR) and later be brought back into service with strict guidelines laid out.
• Where safety inspections are contracted out there should be a formal written agreement and operators need to monitor the performance of the third party.
• Safety inspection intervals should be in line with the likely degradation of the vehicle or plant together with the age of the asset. HGVs over 12 years old for instance must be inspected every 6 weeks regardless. The maximum period is 13 weeks for an HGV in an ‘easy operation’.
• Adhoc inspections [gate checks] by senior managers to cross check drivers and other responsible parties should form an essential part of the maintenance process.
• A robust process for tyre management. The condition and age forms part of the inspection process but tyres that reach 9 or 10 years old should be regularly risk assessed.
• Vehicles should be brake tested at least 4 times per year but Traffic Commissioners are suggesting that its best practice to perform a roller brake test at every PMI.
• Modern diagnostic features should not be ignored and sensors should not be deleted if the vehicle has had a crash repair or windscreen replacement for instance. All repairs to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) should be carried out by competent engineers.
As mentioned above, defect checks are an essential part of a maintenance programme. HGV drivers should be competent and should be aware they are legally responsible for the condition of their vehicle. Machine operators, whilst not legally bound in the same way, should have a high degree of competence if performing an inspection. Electronic recording on a hand-held device is highly effective as information on defects will be reported in a timely fashion and the detail can often include photographs to help
A PMI or Vehicle Inspection Form can be completed electronically or in paper form. If a third party is performing the inspection, the most common method of reporting back is via an emailed PDF sheet. This will contain all of the minimum inspection requirements, together with any custom checks such as Direct Vision Standards. In many cases the customer will have agreed for rectification work to have been carried out where it has been identified, but in some
engineers assess the level of urgency which could include taking the vehicle out of service. Provision should be made for any drivers whose first language is not English, again electronic solutions can be very good at providing information in other languages. If you are running or hiring vehicles or trailers, be aware of the rules around defect checks and inspections as whilst the vehicle owner has responsibilities around maintenance, the hirer still has a responsibility for road worthiness, the same also applies to trailers.
cases elements will be advisory. There should be a process to keep a record of advisory elements so that rectification work can be programmed in or problems can be appropriately monitored. Again, electronic systems can provide the ability to register and record all inspection work and to process and monitor issues. If schedules are missed for any reason, it should be possible for a system to recalculate future inspection dates to remain compliant.
Collaborative scheduling and planning for events such as PMI, Tax, MOT, Loler, defects etc.
Instant access to records together with hard copies if needed.
A full audit trail of all transactions on a record to avoid tampering.
Electronic documents to cover all maintenance records.
Management and reporting on all defect checking.
Process to manage Vehicle off Road (VOR) occurrences.
Process to manage vehicle safety recalls.
Compliance dashboard and benchmarking.
Meeting all security and GDPR requirements.
Separate and secure logins for each user.
Reliable data backup and security.
Provision for daily walkaround checks using a hand-held device together with a method for digital sign off. This is often met by the use of a unique login PIN or password.
Process for turning defects into works e.g. creation of electronic job-cards.
Process for in-service defects using a hand-held device.
Availability of records for at least the minimum period [normally 15 months].
As an operator of HGV vehicles your operator licence will be contingent on a proper and appropriate maintenance programme. If a vehicle examiner applies an ‘unsatisfactory’ report perhaps as a result of an initial roadside inspection, this could ultimately lead to regulatory action by the relevant Traffic Commissioner. Enforcement Support Officers have the right to visit operations and if further breaches are found this could lead to a Public Enquiry and the revocation of an Operator Licence. If your vehicle is involved in an incident and Gross Negligence is determined then criminal sentences are possible and, at the extreme, charges of Corporate Manslaughter have been historically handed down. When it comes to plant and machinery ultimately the same levels of jeopardy apply.
As a legitimate business it makes no sense to penny pinch on maintenance. Proactive maintenance will act as a shield against costly breakdowns, maintain the good repute of the operation and protect workers and the general public against injury or death.
At Aquarius we have worked for many years with vehicle operators and the authorities to develop systems to manage all of the processes identified in this article. Our Asset Maintenance module allows users to entirely manage the life cycle of any type of asset and to comply with all of the legal requirements. Our software is highly customisable to allow each customer to work in line with their own quality systems and practices. It’s possible to manage assets on a time, mileage or usage basis and all assets can be managed in the same platform. Our existing customers are quick to point out how rapidly our systems have been able to transform their operations.
¹ Elements of the information shown in Best Practice have been taken in precis from the DVSA Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness. It is recommended that you read the guide in full together with other sources, for instance the Health and Safety Executive. Whilst we have used our best endeavours to represent the topics covered in this article accurately, we cannot accept any responsibility should you choose to follow our guidance in isolation.
Exiting times ahead for our sales, marketing and support teams, because in the summer we moved into new offices in Warrington. The building is an old chapel, which has been beautifully restored to provide a perfect workspace for our team, and has enabled us to expand our meeting facilities. It’s also conveniently located right next to the M6 & M56 junction, so if you are passing by, and want to drop in, let us know.
Congratulations to all the finalists and winners at this year’s Motor Transport Awards including our customers Campeys of Selby Ltd who won Haulier of the Year, and Darcica Logistics Limited who won the Sustainable Transport Award. It was a fantastic evening celebrating all the achievements from the last 12 months in road transport and we were honoured to present the Service to Industry Award to Christopher HansonAbbott from Brigade Electronics UK Ltd - pictured here alongside Guy Reynolds, Aquarius Director, Steve Hobson, editor of Motor Transport and celebrity awards host Alan Carr.
Thanks also to our special guests Carl Musson, MTS Logistics (Bardon) Ltd, Gabby Lawrence - L Lynch Plant Hire & Haulage, Kai Jacobs, HATS Group Transport Services and Owen Griffin, Griffins Logistics Ltd.
If any of the PSV customer ‘spotlight’ profiles we’ve featured in this issue resonate with your business, come and see the Aquarius team at Euro Bus Expo in November on Stand 451 –the show is free to attend and showcases all the latest buses, coaches, mini and midi vehicles, equipment and services that can enhance the passenger experience and improve business productivity.
There is also a Masterclass Stage, where expert speakers will discuss the industry’s latest concerns, with topics extending from coach industry consolidation and PSVAR to the future structure of bus services, compliance in the digital world, and building resilience within the workforce.
Register for free here
Aquarius Director’ Guy Reynolds was recently invited to be a guest on the Breakfast at Beverley’s podcast, which went live on the 23rd of September. During the episode Guy and host Beverley Bell CBE discussed all things transport and technology, with Guy sharing his own insights and expertise.
Watch here
In the last issue of CONNECTED, we shared the news that we have a new senior management team, which includes Neil Chetwynd being promoted to Director of Development. Neil is based in our Birmingham office with our in-house development team – a team who may not always be as visible as our customer-facing sales and marketing teams. Therefore, here is a little background on Neil, so you can put a face to a name.
Neil has been a dedicated member of our team for over a decade, and his experience of working in both technical support and IT roles has given him a deep understanding of all our products, services, and customer needs.
For the last few years, this experience has extended to working as part of the senior management team, which has given him great insight into the commercial side of product development. Alongside this, his competency as a ‘full stack’ developer ensures his awareness of the very latest in technology, helping Aquarius stay ahead of the development curve.
Neil uses this knowledge to lead the development team, with a focus on innovation, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. His inherent leadership qualities, progressive mindset and thirst for learning, facilitate a really positive creative environment, where all ideas are encouraged so that we can ensure customers are using the best product on the market.
Phoenix Bussing has been supplying luxurious sleeper buses for on-tour music artists since 1988 and during that time they have successfully grown from the original 4 converted buses to a fleet of 40+ purpose-built 45ft long double decker buses - with 20 of the new 16, 14 and 8-berth vehicles coming into the fleet just in the last couple of years due to the influx of music artists from all around the world going on tour, and wanting the luxury and the personal service Phoenix are renown for.
Travelling artists have included Lady Gaga, The Killers, One Direction, Kylie, Oasis, Billie Eilish, Muse, Ellie Goulding, Michael Bublé and Paloma Faith to name just several out of hundreds –we would love to see their little black book!
One can only imagine the huge global logistical operation involved in these music tours, and a further important consideration for Andy Gray, the
With this eighth issue of CONNECTED having a PCV focus ahead of Euro Bus Expo, we are shining the spotlight on not one, but four of our bus and coach customers, and each shares a small insight into why, and how they use our suite of software products.
Transport Manager at Phoenix is maintaining compliance when their drivers and buses will sometimes be out for months at a time without returning to base.
In line with the nature of their premium service, and the buses kept in tip top condition and annually fitted out with the latest luxuries and technologies to meet customer demands for wanting the ‘best’; Phoenix also very much value the importance of their professional drivers and their role in delivering the ‘best’ customer experience. That’s why following the successful introduction of ClockWatcher Elite in 2012, they invested in Aquarius’s leading remote downloading and eSign technology to overcome the logistical issues faced by the travelling drivers, and the transport office in managing long-distance driver and vehicle digital data downloads.
A technological investment Andy says was, and is still invaluable. “Prior to using Aquarius’s remote downloading technology, it was time consuming chasing drivers for data, especially as they were sometimes out on the road for 3 weeks and then would have a month off; this made compliance difficult to manage, so we embraced remote downloading for touring vehicles in the UK and Europe. It took the onus off the driver which made them happier too.”
“Being a ‘remote’ operation eSign has also helped us massively; drivers are able to log into the software via the Aquarius App and see if they have infringements, they can then be debriefed and can digitally sign them from any location. They can also see their own calendar, which is useful because it gives them an overview of the hours driven in a week / fortnight and last rest breaks for example.”
As an extension to this, in partnership with CUBO, the Aquarius team has also helped Phoenix integrate CUBO’s telematics software into ClockWatcher Elite. As a remote operation, one example for compliance purposes where this helps Andy and his team is by seeing where missing KM’s are live on the map.
“It’s a crazy busy time with music tours at the moment; and by having the confidence in ClockWatcher Elite to manage and report on our compliance data, and having the best support from the entire Aquarius team, it frees our time, and our drivers time, to focus on the job in hand,” confirmed Andy.
Felixstowe Travel operates a fleet of 12 executive coaches and buses, and they specialise in offering customers luxury excursions and day trips from Ipswich, Woodbridge & Felixstowe, as well as airport transfers, and school coach hire. They are a long-standing customer of our tacho analysis software services, and recently, having successfully achieved DVSA’s Earned Recognition (ER) status, they added Asset Maintenance and Defect Check to their back-office systems, which has given them an all-encompassing ‘connective’ fleet management software solution for reporting on both driver and vehicle activity.
After several months of using the system, we caught up with Alan Braybrooke, the co-owner of Felixstowe Travel, to see how they are finding our ERapproved software solutions.
What are the main reasons you decided to take on Defect Check and Asset Maintenance?
proactive, real-time warnings help us keep track and up to date with all our compliance responsibilities related to driver and vehicle activity.
With Asset Maintenance in particular, can we talk about the benefits from a planning and scheduling perspective of services, PMIs, Brake Testing, MOTs, and Tax Renewals for example? We love how all the information is in one place, and can show all the jobs for
there are going to be any conflicts when planning tours and future customer bookings.
What about the link with the Defect Check?
We find how the Defect App (which I like for being customisable) integrates with Asset Maintenance to be very useful, and a key business benefit. With the defect checks being automatically added to the system in real-time, we can action any maintenance requirements immediately. This is not only vitally important from a safety perspective but it also saves us time and money in the long run – for example, we can get a minor repair like a windscreen chip fixed before it becomes a bigger, more costly job.
Our main reasons were ease of use. We have an in-house fitter, but all of our vehicle maintenance services are carried out by local third parties. Therefore, we needed an ER-approved system that would enable us to centrally log what work has been done on each vehicle and by who. In turn for ER, this gives us a digital audit trail that we can simply report on each month.
We also specifically like that the Aquarius interface is very easy to use and fairly intuitive; and for ER specifically, the
each vehicle individually or as a fleet on one screen. This used to be managed on various spreadsheets, which made it time-intensive to administer, but now we simply click a button and all the information is there visually, in one place ready to action, analyse and report on.
With it being a legal requirement to evidence a rolling 52-week planner of all vehicle maintenance requirements, having a visual forward planner like this, that automatically populates service and renewal dates, also helps us see if
What are the overall benefits of having a connected system for driver and vehicle data?
At the end of the day, the biggest benefit to us is saved administration time. We are a small team, and this helps us stay compliant with the minimum amount of time required – in turn, this gives us more time to focus on our main business and serving our customers.
Any other comments?
With over 20 years of experience in dealing with maintenance, I find Aquarius’s software the easiest to use for our business. The online and telephone support is also on point, and even for more unusual issues they are always answered quickly and effectively.
Timberbush Tours operate a fleet of executive 10–53-seater vehicles from their base in Edinburgh, where they organise private and group tours of the Scottish Highlands.
They have been using ClockWatcher Elite for over a decade, which was followed by eSIGN, and through the relationships formed in this time with the Aquarius team, they then became one of the first coach companies with a commercial workshop to take on Asset Maintenance.
Of significance with Timberbush is how the workshop uses Asset Maintenance to manage not only its own fleet, but also the vehicles from external customers – with the software enabling them to manage these two very different work elements separately, but on one digital platform, with one log-in.
For their own requirements Timberbush uses Asset Maintenance to schedule, manage and report all areas of fleet management related to vehicle maintenance / inspection. They also benefit from the flexibility of the system, and have created their own customised checks based on their own business needs. This includes a Health Check, as the vehicles, which can be put through their paces in the Highland terrain, are regularly given a health check. For ease of management and transparency, the software gives them a live audit trail of all the legally required maintenance services, alongside the proactive checks carried out.
As a commercial workshop with external customers, this audit trail is also important for exercising due diligence when it comes to vehicle safety. For example, if the workshop has inspected a vehicle and made recommendations that the owner chooses not to do, and then that vehicle is involved in an investigation or accident, Timberbush need to be able to show the DVSA their record of inspection. With Asset Maintenance they have a full audit trail for all our PMIs.
Timberbush can also be credited for introducing the idea of adding Email Alerts into Asset Maintenance, which was deemed commercially viable by the in-house Aquarius team and rolled out for the benefit of all customers. For workshops operating commercially, the Email Alerts are used to alert key personnel on key activities and vehicle status.
Mark Thornton, Head of Operations at Timberbush Tours, adds: “With a relatively new workshop, having Aquarius as our support in the background has been instrumental in ensuring we remain compliant with maintenance requirements, while also helping us streamline both customer bookings and our own repairs.
The team at Aquarius are highly responsive and knowledgeable across the various aspects they cover, from tachographs to PMIs.”
Being located in a rural location, we understood at the beginning that the one thing on your ‘wish list’ was to have a digital Driver Defect Check system that could also work offline in poor signal areas?
Family-run Tanat Valley Coaches has a fascinating history that goes back over a century, and we think there are similarities that can be compared to how the company operated then and how it does today in a digital world.
Based on the remote Shropshire / Welsh border, their forefather William Williams first started with a car to take passengers to places where the train didn’t go. A couple of years later, with his brother Elfyn Morris, they purchased a lorry to transport timber, stone, animal feed and fertiliser. They soon found that the people of the remote farms and villages also needed to get themselves and their produce into the weekly market at Oswestry. Every Wednesday the brothers would convert the lorry into a bus; using planks for seats and a canvas secured as a make-shift roof. The farms, cottages and small holdings along the back lanes became a regular route for the lorry/bus, and the service proved to be very successful, transporting the locals to market along with their calves, chickens, lambs, cheese, milk and eggs.
Fast forward 100 years, and this entrepreneurial spirit lives on through the company. They now operate a fleet of vehicles, from 16-seaters to 70-seater luxury coaches, their own on-site workshop, employ over 60 local people and transport around 1,500 schoolchildren to and from school every school day.
Tanat Valley Coaches are one of Aquarius’s newest ‘Digital to Digital’ coach customers; the team led by the company’s Transport Manager’ Trevor Wellstead and Operations Manager’ Zak Edwards, were already experienced in using an integrated digital system to manage their driver and vehicle compliance responsibilities, so first we asked them why the change?
Zak, who joined the company over a year ago said: “Prior to Aquarius, we were using a competitor’s product, but in all honesty, it was the support and the unresponsiveness of this service which left us frustrated the most – enquiries were automated / ticketed online and faceless so it was difficult to have two-way communications. With Trevor, we therefore decided to look for an alternative system and a company who we could simply pick the phone up to, and Aquarius ticked all the boxes - a proven and trusted software solution backed by a responsiveness ‘human’ support team.”
Yes, absolutely. The bedrock of the company’s history is finding solutions for rural communities to be able to live and work – and it’s no different now living in a digital age in a poor signal area. Everything was workable with the paper-based system we used, but uniquely with Aquarius we found a digital solution that would enable us to manage our daily driver defects in poor signal areas, offline.
For Trevor and I, this has proved to be a game changer administratively and logistically, as we can ensure drivers daily checks are sent to us even if the location that the driver did the daily check in has a poor signal. With Aquarius’s Defect Check App, the drivers can now perform the checks offline and then as soon as they get into a better signal area they can send the check through at the touch of a button. I’m not aware if there are any other systems that can do this, or at least not one that can be customised to this level.
What are the top 3 benefits for your business of using Aquarius and an integrated solution of managing driver and vehicle data on one platform?
For me as Operations Manager:
1) Everything related to driver and vehicle compliance being all in one area and that anything to do with a vehicle, be it a defect, repair or PMI is recorded digitally.
2) As mentioned above, with the driver defects now coming to me digitally, without me having to chase drivers when they come back to base.
3) Being able to have two-way communications with drivers via the Aquarius App – being able to send infringements for example that they can look at remotely, and tell us what happened or sign-off.
With Asset Maintenance particularly, how have your fitters responded to using the system because we’ve positively noticed a high level of engagement from them and they have fed back some great development comments?
Our fitters so far have coped quite well with the change. When you put in any new system there are always challenges, and changes that are needed to suit your business, but so far, we have been able to ring up the support team with any issues and they get listened to - and if possible, things are changed to suit us. We tried to get one person trained first who could operate the system, and they were then able to instruct the other fitters how to overcome any issues they faced – this has worked well.
Subir Gupta, Aquarius Sales Manager
CHECK UP ON THE WELFARE OF DRIVERS WITH THE AQUARIUS APP
We all know that the health, safety and welfare of drivers is of upmost importance, not only to safeguard the driver, but to also protect a company and its reputation. In modern times, this goes beyond the basic organisational controls of drivers’ hours regulations, because of the inherent mental and physical factors involved in driving professionally – factors that can have a direct influence on road safety and the drivers own personal safety.
To help road transport operators proactively support their workforce, we’ve recently added a new customisable Welfare & Safety Check into the Aquarius App. We liken it to, that just as there is a Driver Walk Around Check for vehicles, the digital Welfare & Safety Check provides a simple tool for line managers to assess and record driver information during safety spot checks, to make sure they are fit, healthy, and safe to drive and work.
Similar to all the ‘check’ modules in the Aquarius App, the new Welfare and Safety Check comes with a pre-set list of checks that can be customised or added to, based on each company’s own requirements. Checks can range from recording the results of routine breathalyser / drug tests, to spot checking the cab to make sure there are no obvious signs of wellbeing issues, and that everything is safe and comfortable for the driver. Written and photographic checks could also include making sure mobile phone policies are being adhered to, and the right PPE has been issued and is being worn.
We have been in conversation with several customers about this subject for months; and we know there are many companies who already carry out these spot checks on paper as part of their enhanced duty of care policies, and are looking for an easier way to capture the information digitally for analysis, traceability, and due diligence. By prioritising the welfare of drivers, they have found this not only benefits the individual personally but also enhances road safety and overall productivity.
The Aquarius App has been purposedly designed to aid this process. Line managers responsible for these in-person spot checks will have a company-approved check list on their phone or tablet, which will make the whole process easier and quicker to manage.
In turn, by opening up this line of communication and having a digital audit trail, the information can be analysed, and investigated further for even greater back-office insight – and reminders can also be scheduled if any driver followups are needed. This will all enable employers to be better informed about their workforce, so that the most effective health, safety and welfare measures can be put in place proactively, for the benefit of everyone involved.
Contact us for a free demonstration
Collett and Sons Ltd recently shared an impressive video showing how their drivers expertly transported components to Cushaling Wind Farm, Ireland.
They commented that the blades, measuring an impressive 80 metres, are the longest onshore turbine blades ever delivered in the history of both Ireland and the UK. To transport them, they utilised their brand-new Blade Adapter trailer (Clamp and dolly system). This innovative design provides improved ground clearance, enhanced manoeuvrability and greater stability compared to standard super wing carriers.
Watch the video to see how they their steer the trailer to navigate various roads and junctions along the route, to ensure safe and successful delivery!
Huws Gray Group published its inaugural annual sustainability report in October, which shows the company’s performance achievements in the areas of environment, social, and governance.
A couple of the impressive highlights from the report show that since October 2023, 100% of their energy comes from REGO backed renewable energy suppliers, and 85% of their fleet is electric or hybrid - and that they’ve successfully concluded a trial switching from diesel to lithium-ion powered fork lift trucks in their depots.
Congratulations to Campey Turf Care Systems who have been named as a finalist for the Global Star award at the GMCC Excellence Awards 2024.
Good luck to the team who will be attending the Awards lunch where the winners will be announced, on the 11th October at the Albert Hall.
Congratulations and good luck to all of this year’s Logistics UK finalists, with a special mention to our customers - Chris Welch from Welch’s Transport who is up for Logistics Leader of the Year; Collett & Sons who are in the running for Road Transport Operator of the Year; and Suma Wholefoods who are hoping to win Diversity and Inclusion Champion of the Year. The glittering awards ceremony will be held in London on the 12th of December.
Also coming up on the 13th November, is the 2024 Route One awards, and once again may we wish all of this year’s finalists the best of luck.
It’s onwards and upwards for Fox Brothers Holdings Group, after announcing in September that private equity firm Stellex Capital Management had acquired a stake in the family-run company – a move that will see Chief Executive Paul Fox remain at the helm. The Company also welcomes to the board of directors, Mark Joel as Company Chair and Andy Swinnerton as Chief Operating Officer.
As part of this transaction, the company will also merge with J A Jackson, a well-known quarry operator and producer of recycled aggregates and ready mixed concrete. This strategic integration will generate synergies between all parts of the business, and will transform Fox Brothers into a fully integrated, circular economy construction materials solutions business, able to help decarbonise the construction materials supply chain.
Oxford Bus has launched its first battery-electric fleet member to carry a livery that marks the winner of its established Brand the Bus competition – the winner of the 2024 contest was Oxford Hospitals Charity and the pink and white livery scheme features images of staff who work in the hospitals.
The winning prize package is worth £40,000 and includes the vehicle livery and a year’s worth of advertising with Greatest Hits Radio.
Well done to Lawsons (Whetstone) Ltd, and in particular Jordan Payne, a Branch Team Supervisor, who won the prestigious Builders Merchants Federation Ltd Apprentice of the Year Award 2024. Judged by a panel of leading industry figures, the award recognises Jordan’s workplace educational achievements and commitment to his professional growth.
Jeremy Norris, Managing Director of Lawsons, said: “Lawsons is committed to developing talent, nurturing and supporting the next generation of managers and department heads. Jordan has shown himself to be a disciplined, motivated and very able member of our team whom we will be delighted to see continue to develop his career at Lawsons. We heartily congratulate his achievement”.
After celebrating a huge win at this year’s MT Awards, Haulier of the Year’ Campeys of Selby continue to go from strength to strength.
As part of their expansion plans, they have agreed a ten-year lease at Konect62 in Knottingley, a new multi-modal logistics and industrial scheme in West Yorkshire.
Congratulations to Empress Coaches, who on the 31st August celebrated 95 years since registering their first coach; a brand new 20 seat Dennis GL, which they collected directly from the Dennis factory in Guildford.
The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) recently opened a call for evidence (CfE) on the Border Force operation that detects clandestine entrants to the UK.
Such clandestine entrants have recently been highlighted as potentially becoming a more difficult challenge for coach operators that travel abroad.
The ICIBI CfE will focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of Border Force efforts to deter and detect clandestine entrants, particularly at juxtaposed controls at ports in northern France including Calais.
Laura Hadzik, JMW Solicitors’ Head of Commercial Road Transport has been asked by the ICIBI to provide her views on the clandestine entrant civil penalty scheme, and its impact on international hauliers and coach operators, as part of this independent review.
She said: “Currently, under the clandestine entrant civil penalty scheme, both driver and operator are liable to a penalty — and operators are responsible for payment of the driver’s penalty as well as their own. This translates into hefty penalties, including six-figure sums imposed on operators virtually daily.
“The recent Court of Appeal’s decision in the KLG Trucking case confirms that Border Force is correct to impose penalties in cases where operators have fully complied with the relevant regulations in relation to the securing and checking of vehicles. The ruling also means that there should be a strict application of the code in determining the level of penalties.
What more can hauliers and coach operators do? For an industry already doing everything it can to prevent clandestine entrants gaining access to their vehicles, this question is frustratingly impossible to answer. This review is therefore much needed.”
It will be interesting to find out how the results from the consultation will impact future decisions.
Under the government’s clandestine entrant civil scheme, operators are required to have effective preventative clandestine systems in place. Central to these systems, are the driver being responsible for securing the vehicle and checking for signs of unauthorised access – importantly here this checking process must be done at the point of departure AND after each stop enroute back to base.
This robust record-keeping and being able to show an audit trail to Border Force, along with evidencing driver training, are imperative.
In line with Border Force’s downloadable checklist, which provides a great starting template for drivers to work from when recording checks. For coaches, for example it includes checking overhead luggage racks and under the seats. We have taken this one step further by digitising the Border Force’s check list and creating a dedicated Clandestine Check on the Aquarius App
The Clandestine Check has been specifically designed to assist drivers in effectively checking the security of their vehicle and trailer whilst travelling/transporting goods across borders; alongside the pre-programmed Border Force checklist, operators also have the option to fully customise the clandestine check list to suit the individual needs of their operation, and by vehicle / trailer type.
This Clandestine Check not only provides a lessadministrative and a simpler way for drivers to record vehicle checks on their phone at each stopping point, while they are on enroute back to base; the driver can also log photographic evidence against each check, with a date/ time stamp and GPS location being recorded by the system. Once completed the details of the checks can be transmitted back to base where the data can be logged and investigated if needed.
An added safety feature is a SOS Button, which if the driver is in trouble will immediately connect them to the nearest business emergency contact - and the message will also be immediately relayed back to head office who can visually track the driver’s journey in real time.
This record of evidence is vital. When Border Force are considering the level of penalty to be imposed, consideration will be given to the records a driver is able to produce of their checks – other considerations include if this is an operator’s first incident, the financial circumstances of the driver and company, and whether the operator is a member of the Civil Penalty Accreditation Scheme.
A key area for our support team is to help customers with their compliance-related software questions, and Marc Caplin, Aquarius’ Compliance Manager shares some of the most recently asked questions he has answered, with a couple of more unusual examples that may be of interest.
Q With it being a company’s legal obligation to ensure that all drivers are legally entitled to drive the vehicle they are responsible for, what are the standard procedures for checking driver’s licences?
A There is actually no legally-set frequency by which licences should be checked. In other industries, the expectation is that licences be checked at least annually but, in the transport sector, these checks should be carried out more frequently.
So, in answer to this question, for best practice, we have always recommended driver licence checks should be carried out once every THREE months, with more frequent checks for those drivers with points. This also mirrors FORS’ latest update on licence checking, which was published in May and comes into force from the 2nd of January 2025.
We know this can be a laborious task, but it is wholly necessary and can be easily, and cost-effectively managed digitally via our Licence Check portal https://www.aquariusit. com/services/drivercompliance/licence-check/
Q Why are some of my drivers’ showing artificially extended periods of driving or other work within analysis software?
A For context for this one, operators are reporting incorrect driver records whereby it looks like they have an extended period of Drive or Other Work for no reason, and the topic has recently been raised at CORTE meetings we have attended in Brussels.
The issue is caused due to the end of an activity not being recorded, which means that an activity will continue until another record is detected which explains why you often see continuous driving/ other work periods of many hours in duration. This issue will often (but not always!) be accompanied by an event/ fault being logged on the card file of “Last Card Session Not Correctly Closed”.
As an industry estimate, the problem is affecting 1% of records in any given month.
Our advice is to check whether the driver has reported the card ejecting itself at any point as there is a suspicion that this is happening in some cases. A more commonly heard theory is that the issue is caused by the driver ejected their card too rapidly at the end of their shift, so additional advice is that drivers should leave the card in the unit for a minute or two before ejecting it at the end of a duty period.
In most cases, the vehicle file will be unaffected by the issue and will therefore appear “correct”. Enforcement authorities are aware of this issue and advise that drivers should correct the data using printouts in cases where the driver is aware that this anomaly occurred.
Also, we are used to seeing extreme examples of this with continuous activities spanning several hours, but there may be many more instances that are going undetected if the false activity is of a shorter duration. These shorter occurrences may cause unexpected infringements so it’s worth keeping an eye on things!
Q Why is my analysis showing several minutes of driving time without a card being used but no associated missing mileage?
A When we looked into the particular example that triggered this question, we looked at the Card Usage facility within ClockWatcher which clearly showed that the ejection odo matched the insertion odo the next day.
After chatting to the customer, it would appear that the driver had come back to the depot on 4hrs 29 driving time and ejected the card as soon as they arrived on site and proceeded to shunt around the yard for another 9 minutes. Despite the driving time, the vehicle did not move far enough to register on the odometer.
This resulted in the operator in question issuing an internal memo to transport managers explaining that they should not solely rely on missing mileage as they should also be reviewing their “driving without a card” reports.
This is not a question as such, but it has cropped up a couple of times recently whereby an operator has viewed themselves as being “less liable” for tachograph infringements or general compliance because “they use a managed service”.
It goes without saying that this is inaccurate as it’s the operator’s responsibility to ensure they have employed an effective method of analysis, whether that’s through a software package, reseller, analysis bureau etc.
Regardless of the methods used to provide infringement information, it’s still the operator’s responsibility to ensure those infringements are debriefed effectively and that they have policies and procedures in place.
I suspect the perception of what constitutes a “managed service” has been carried through from the old analogue days where analysis bureaus would have more interaction with the data as they analysed paper charts but, even then, the operator’s responsibilities were the same.
On the 9th of September, a new package of measures to empower local leaders to take control of their bus services was unveiled by the new Labour government.
The legislation laid before Parliament gives all local transport authorities across England new powers to run their own bus services – powers previously limited to mayoral combined authorities. The move means that local leaders across the country can deliver services in a way that suits the needs of their communities.
The government has also launched a consultation on new draft guidance, which they say provides advice and support for local leaders looking to bring services into public control. This new, simplified guidance “will help break down barriers to local control of bus services, speeding up the process and bringing down costs”.
The guidance has also been created to put the needs of passengers and bus drivers first – by encouraging local transport authorities to consider driver welfare and passenger safety, including anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls.
The government state that the new Buses Bill, which will follow this first statutory instrument, will bring an end to the current postcode lottery by taking steps to improve bus services no matter where you live.
In the 9th of September issue of Motor Transport, Beverley Bell, Director at Beverley Bell Consulting wrote an insightful piece on why it is important that maintenance contractors should be regulated in a far more effective way.
Beverley cites that when she started out as a traffic commissioner (TC) nearly 25 years ago, she asked one of the senior civil servants why maintenance contractors weren’t regulated. They said there was no need because TCs could just take action against the operator. Beverley said: “I thought that was neither fair nor appropriate. Their idea was that it was up to the operator to police their maintenance contractor and TCs could just revoke the O-licence if they weren’t up to scratch.
“Literally anyone can set up as a commercial vehicle maintenance contractor with unqualified, inexperienced, incompetent and untrained staff. Legally there is nothing to prevent this. It is rather frightening that the DfT is passing the buck to licensed operators who are wholly at the mercy of their maintenance contractors.”
Read in full here
