Driver identification – for whom and why?

How well an overview do you have of the use of your company’s vehicles? If a company has a lot of machines and employees, keeping an eye on everything can be quite difficult. The vehicles have not been refueled or have been left dirty at the end of the day, there are fines in the company’s e-mail for speeding, and no one takes the fault. Sounds familiar?

To avoid such problems and to take advantage of many other benefits, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with Navirec’s driver identification solution.

Driver identification allows the driver to be identified with either an RFID card or a magnetic key before driving. It could even be said that this is an essential solution for companies with a shared vehicle fleet, as it provides the most accurate overview of working hours and drivers’ driving habits.

Based on the information collected, it is easy to keep track of salaries, call drivers who violate traffic rules or even reduce the company’s machinery costs. Drivers also won’t have to worry about filling in their driving logbook, as the reports are automatically generated by the Navirec solution based on the data collected by driver identification.

All in all, the introduction of driver identification in your company helps to save working time and makes work organization smoother and more efficient!

How does driver identification work?

In the Navirec solution, you can choose between two options for driver identification – RFID ie smart card, or I-button ie magnetic key driver identification. The solutions work equally well and the choice is purely a matter of taste.

In both cases, a reader is installed in the vehicle, against which the driver must place his/her smart card or magnetic key before starting the car. The card and key number are associated with a specific driver in the Navirec solution.

RFID card

Card-based driver identification works on the same principle as, for example, prompted bank or access cards. Therefore, it is not necessary to purchase a new card for driver identification, but any RFID-enabled smart card can be used.

For example, it could be a company door card or a store loyalty card. ID cards of the Republic of Estonia issued from 2018 are also supported by RFID.

I-button or magnetic key

The I-button works in the same way as the magnetic keys on the exterior doors of many apartment buildings, which are placed against a reader on a phono lock.

Additional driver identification options

Reminder

An audible signal (buzzer) can also be installed in the vehicle to remind the user of the need for identification. This helps to avoid human forgetfulness and ensures that all journeys are correctly recorded. Once detected, the Navirec solution immediately shows in real-time who is currently using which vehicle. The driving information is also automatically entered into the logbook. The trip ends when the car’s ignition is switched off.

Immobilizer

Driver detection can be set so that the car cannot be started before the card or magnetic key is placed against the reader. In this case, the vehicle’s ignition circuit is interrupted and the engine will not start. This works as a great anti-theft solution!

How to make driver identification work for you?

The driver-based logbook has been briefly discussed in this post already, but this is by no means the only value that the Navirec driver identification offers.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the options.

Convenient calculation of working hours and wages

If the use of the vehicles is directly related to the drivers’ duties, the use of driver identification is a convenient way to accurately calculate working time and payments. For example, many agricultural and forestry companies have automated the calculation of working time through driver identification and the combination of Navirec’s geo-regions.

Suppose that an employee is paid on an hourly basis and is responsible for felling trees in a designated woodland. The Navirec solution includes a forestry map on which you can mark a designated area. The time of entering and leaving the area will be shown in the report later. It is also possible to determine whether the driver was actually working during the time spent in the area (the harvester head was in a working position) or the machine was idling.

The driver-based report, therefore, provides a complete overview of driving time, machine operating hours, fuel consumption, and much more that needs to be considered in the cost-benefit analysis.

Driving style

Economical driving is not only important for safety and nature preservation. More economical driving helps to reduce fuel consumption by up to 25% and also ensures a longer fleet life.

Navirec’s ECO drive solution detects overspeeding, sharp accelerations and corners, sudden braking, and engine idling. Based on the collected data, the solution evaluates the driver’s driving style with an ECO score. In the case of driver identification, the report shows exactly which employees drive economically and which would should attend sustainable driving training.

Such a solution has been chosen, for example, by Omniva, the postal service company with the largest car fleet in the Baltics, which rewards drivers with the best driving scores monthly. Both fuel and vehicle maintenance costs have decreased. By monitoring drivers’ driving style, Bolt also increases customer safety and driver safety.

Driver identification history

Navirec’s driving history can be viewed in the solution for up to 7 years, so using driver identification, you can see exactly who used which machine and when.

This may be necessary, for example, if a traffic offense has been committed and a fine is sent to the company’s e-mail. To put employees in order, it is probably wise to let them pay for such mistakes themselves. With the driver identification solution, one does not have to look for the culprit for long.

If there are problems with careless use of vehicles, driver identification will also help to put the employee in order.

In conclusion

The introduction of driver identification has gone well for our customers and employees are getting used to the new system quickly. All in all, it helps to make the work of both the fleet manager and the employees themselves faster and smoother.

In addition to the automatically filled driver-based GPS logbook and more convenient calculation of working hours, driver recognition also disciplines employees to behave more exemplarily in traffic. This not only increases the safety of themselves and other road users, but also improves the company’s image, reduces fuel and machine maintenance costs, and keeps the fleet in working order for longer.

If you feel that driver identification would be a great solution for your company, be sure to let us know! Together, we will review the demo version of Navirec and show you how to create driver-based reports.