The widespread uptake of electronic work diaries (EWD) in the Australian commercial road transport industry may become an emerging digital transport phenomenon in 2022.
Quallogi, an Australian company, was born from Kynection as a new entrant to simplify compliance for transport managers and drivers.
They have a range of systems to help transport operators manage heavy vehicle compliance and the company has always been on the forefront of new developments in the transport sector.
Some time ago, joint Director of Quallogi and Kynection, Courtney Smith, identified a transitional shift from installed telematics and fixed devices with proprietary hardware, towards a democratised state of engagement using mobile phones.
By taking advantage of the power of mobile this has enabled two key outcomes; an EWD can be downloaded to work on majority of devices already in market; and an EWD can be priced fairly because it’s a subscription cost only.
“People forget that the actual electronic work diary is owned by the driver. It’s their work hours. It’s their fatigue,” Courtney says. “It’s not actually owned by anyone else, so mobile makes this available just like paper work diaries.”
The shift of giving ownership of data back to the driver, according to Courtney, helps empower independent operators who seek to operate in the network, on their device, under their terms.
“We love the concept of the driver owning the data,” he says. “It won’t happen in every scenario, but we are creating an enablement model around that, which means the whole transport industry can have EWDs without friction.”
Quallogi was the first electronic work diary approved by NHVR for Android and IOS.
Subsequently it has been a major stakeholder in driving agnostic device approvals to market.
Moving forward, through a policy developed by NHVR, Q by Quallogi will work on a majority of mobile phones, so long as they have a screen size bigger than 4.5 inches and are not running an old operating system.
At present, when a major transport fleet deploys a new telematics program, it typically gets hardware installed into the company vehicles, which is often less challenging than onboarding all of its subcontractors and casual drivers.
An owner-driver might have four or five different clients he is working for over the course of a week.
This creates a challenge if the EWD is owned by a company, which is not ideal in many situations.
Q by Quallogi has created a strong industry wide pricing model designed to make it simpler for a casual operator or the manager of the largest fleet in Australia, with the ability to segment costs down to individual shifts by drivers.
A fleet can match their desired outcomes to the operational costs of the business, which is why a shift-based approach is truly disruptive.
Shift based pricing ensures maximum deployment of safety, easily aligned to existing cost structures.
“Whether they are a one-to-one or one-to-many driver, Quallogi gives the driver the ability to login, fulfil their responsibilities over a run or shift, which is then deducted from their shift plan. It’s a fair use pricing approach,” says Courtney.
“This means a driver starts their shift, undertakes safety checks, runs their EWD and simply clicks end of shift to fulfill their chain of responsibility obligations like pre-starts, fatigue, driver declarations and COVID validations. And they only get that shift taken from their shift plan when their shift is completed.”
“In the next generation drivers can share their data to as many operators as they choose, opening up the market for a truly industry wide up-take. This approach is a paradigm shift in the marketplace.”
On this front, Quallogi is pitching what it claims is the fairest pricing model in the market.
Given it was designed using a shift-based pricing mechanism, it’s effectively pay-as-you-go.
“Once you reach a threshold you can top up as a driver or fleet-wide,” says Courtney. “Our pricing at this point in time is that single owner-drivers will actually get better value than fleets until you cross 50 drivers.”
Quallogi plans on providing improved fleet outcomes to ensure operators still get advanced telematics tracking elements, providing insights on how drivers are operating in a network geographically and across daily shifts.
That interface will be used a lot more by transport fleets than it will be by owner-drivers hence the slight premium charged for a fleet.
“It’s a simple price based on the tools that an operator wants to use and it goes from zero dollars, if all you want to do is use the tool to check your fatigue hours to an incremental cost to manage fatigue or vehicle pre-starts with both options including driver declarations,” explains Courtney. “The full suite is super competitive in comparison to the market and may even be cheaper than a paper diary if you consider all costs.”
The upshot for the driver is attractive — if they are not working, they are not paying.
The net saving for a transport operator implementing chain of responsibility through their whole fleet is significant.
Owner-drivers and subcontractors represent, by far, the majority of the transport workers in Australia.
“We want to offer them as good a value offering if not better value than the largest fleets,” says Courtney.
“To do that we want to democratise the whole mechanism, so that owner-drivers get better value out of it and want to pay for it themselves and that small subcontractor fleets get the best solutions money can buy.”
Q by Quallogi is seeking ambassadors willing to work on improving the system and providing genuine, reliable feedback.
It’s a unique value proposition with live beta testing involved. Significant benefits are also up for grabs.
“We want to have relationships with owner-drivers and small fleets who can tell us what they want, how they want it, what’s working, what’s not,” says Courtney. “For a group of loyal users, we’re going to give them free access for life, so long as they continue with their engagement. Irrespective of being part of the Ambassador’s program or not, all users will be offered our fair shift pricing plans.”
Q by Quallogi decreases the administrative burden of having multiple logins across several platforms as it limits passwords and repetitive access on devices and proprietary systems, a constant headache for drivers who work for several companies.
“We’re going to have the ability for a driver to have one login to interface to many companies. It’s a huge value proposition,” says Courtney. “For chain of responsibility, we provide one login. It doesn’t matter who you are working for, the driver has authority to manage and see their data. That’s a powerful ability to transfer data through the network in a way that works for the driver, the person on the ground.”
Courtney refers to it as a grassroots design. So-called because it focuses on the issues and pain points of the people who are fulfilling the job obligations.
“This creates a network effect of value, because it will be a high value outcome for the large fleets and transport managers from day one” he says. “When you take the time to design a solution for the drivers that’s where the real value gets unlocked. And that’s where you get most uptake.”
Quallogi is currently in the process of working through how to make Q work with an AFM implementation, helping a large customer get the best outcome under their Advanced Fatigue Management framework.
As part of this implementation, Quallogi and its parent, Kynection, plans to work closely with the client and the NHVR.
Meanwhile Q by Quallogi is looking to roll out nationwide to include both the Northern Territory and Western Australia fatigue rules, which will satisfy the needs for operators nationwide.
“That’s an important component on delivering Q in the market moving forward,” Courtney says.
“It’s a proper design-led approach, good old Aussie thinking to create an EWD that can be used across the industry and for thousands of drivers for generations to come.”