Road Tech offers a wide range of software to assist coach and bus operators in managing their businesses and remaining compliant. James Day learns the full story behind the company
When you think of technology suppliers in the coach and bus industry, you may imagine them being hidden away in a large office complex, university campus or industrial estate, where space is often at a premium. The home base of transport software provider Road Tech may surprise you.
The company is based in a building called Shenley Hall in Hertfordshire, which it astutely acquired when it came up for sale for little more than the cost of an industrial estate warehouse. As well as housing the company’s staff and servers, it includes substantial grounds with space to land a helicopter, several meeting rooms and a highly-specified training classroom, a reasonably large dining area with kitchen facilities and some beautiful outdoor benches carved out of a fallen tree. As workplaces go, it’s a rather good one. [wlm_nonmember][…]
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I had the opportunity to meet with Road Tech’s Adrian Barrett, who sat with me in one of the company’s pleasant meeting rooms to discuss what it has to offer.
He said: “The transport industry has changed massively over the last few years due to new technology. The business of moving goods and people around always seems to be the last industry to be updated, but it seems to be catching up nowadays.
“Companies like ourselves drive it forward. If we didn’t do so, the technology wouldn’t be embraced as much as it is.”
Sharing a solution
Road Tech was incorporated in 1985 and traces its roots to the haulage industry.
“We started with the first ever off-the-shelf transport management system, primarily for hauliers,” Adrian explained. “We produced a system which was made specifically for Tudor Transport – the company operated by Road Tech founder Derek Beaver. He was tired of spending his evenings writing invoices until almost midnight.
“He decided to find a programmer and build a system which could create these invoices. He created a booking system and sent the new invoices out to a couple of companies. They quickly started asking where Derek sourced his invoices from.”
Derek took the decision to turn the system into a commercial product, which was called Roadrunner. The system was initially sold to a number of hauliers in the area around Leeds, before spreading to operators elsewhere in England and Scotland as well as the Ministry of Defence.
“It became the market leading transport management system,” Adrian enthused.
Integrated systems
Roadrunner is now one of five key systems provided by Road Tech. The others are driving licence checking system Checkmaster, walk around check app PreDrive, tracking and telematics system Falcon Tracking and the tachograph analysis service which the company is perhaps best known for – Tachomaster.
While each of these pieces of software can work independently, they integrate with each other a great deal, and users of multiple software products can unlock additional functionality.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” Adrian said. “All five of these products work together. When you’re in Falcon, you can see the tachograph status of a vehicle you are looking at if you have Tachomaster as well. When you’re in Checkmaster, it will link with Tachomaster to show licence check status of drivers while you’re analysing tachograph data. It is this integration of data which is so important. It then becomes very powerful data.
“We don’t know of any other company that has this range of integrated systems available. There are others offering integration with other company’s products, and our Tachomaster system has some integration with third-party products, but that is not the same thing.
“The destiny of all the products is down to us. We and our customers decide when we develop and how we develop. We don’t ever have to go to a third party and request that they develop something for us.”
Falcon Tracking
After the initial Roadrunner product was launched, the next service to enter the Road Tech portfolio was Falcon Tracking. While Roadrunner was and still is predominantly aimed at the haulage industry, Falcon is applicable to all commercial vehicles, whether PSV or HGV.
“We bought a company called Cablink in 2001, which we metamorphosised into Falcon Tracking,” Adrian said. “It was one of the first tracking systems on the market.”
Falcon displays vehicle locations through Google Maps, with snail trail data showing recent movements. Where a large number of vehicles are in a small area, the data is condensed into a ‘cluster’ and displayed as a number, which can be clicked or zoomed in on to show more specific locations.
The service provides live information about vehicle speed, location, fuel consumption (through a CAN Bus connection), idling and driver performance. Geofences can also be set up, with alerts triggered when a vehicle crosses a pre-set boundary.
Overall, the system is designed to detect anomalies and expose patterns in driver behaviour, to help operators to increase the efficiency of their fleet.
Operators can also search by address to find out where their closest vehicles are and, with Tachomaster integration, whether their drivers have the necessary hours available. This can be ideal for quickly assessing whether vehicles are available to cover short-notice work or breakdowns.
Tachomaster
The Tachomaster system was first introduced in 2006, when the first digital tachographs became available. As such, the system had a complete standing start, with zero customers signed up, but the Tachomaster customer base grew rapidly.
“Since 2006, we have acquired over 6,500 Tachomaster customers, varying from large multi-depot operators to small family run coach and bus operators,” Adrian commented. “We have an average of 55,000-60,000 tachograph downloads carried out per day by Tachomaster.
“In May last year we celebrated Tachomaster receiving the 100 millionth download since 2006, making it the undisputed market leader. We are now already up to over 124 million, which is testament to Tachomaster’s functionality, constant free development and back-up and support. Road Tech has found that there are an increasing number of operators taking advantage of the automatic remote download feature which is available.”
The Tachomaster service has a pay-as-you-go business model, costing £1 per driver per week and the price hasn’t increased since 2006.
PreDrive
PreDrive is Road Tech’s daily walk around check application. The system allows drivers to digitally record and report their checks through a smartphone or tablet, which the operator is then able to view through the system.
The content of the walk around check the driver is required to do is entirely customisable by the user. Different checks can be easily set up by the user for different makes or types of vehicle. If the user then types in the vehicle registration, the correct check will automatically appear. The order in which each of the fields appear can also be easily changed. Operators can also customise the instructions given to drivers when they report a specific defect and direct vehicles to specific garages which have the appropriate facilities available to carry out any necessary work.
The system can integrate with Tachomaster, automatically updating the drivers working status when the driver begins their checks.
The system can take advantage of the cameras included in most smart devices to allow drivers to submit pictures of the defect. When the check is recorded, the location of the vehicle and the time of the check is automatically added to the report, providing additional information which users have the option of running through Tachomaster and Falcon Tracking.
Operators will receive automatic alerts when specific problems are reported.
The cost of the service is similar to Tachomaster – £1 per vehicle per week, which allows an unlimited number of checks and reports on each vehicle to be performed within each week. There is no limit to the size of the checklist or how many times per week the checks are made. Therefore, pre or post-shift checks can be performed at no extra charge.
There is also a damage reporting facility and the system gives a complete audit trail through to rectification. The information can then be emailed to workshops
or a third party maintenance provider to help minimise downtime.
Road Tech provides a free training course, which runs on the first Wednesday of every month, to help operators get the most out of the system. It is open to every user.
Checkmaster
Road Tech’s most recent system is Checkmaster, which allows DVLA driver licence checking.
The system has some hurdles to overcome in the form of the new GDPR legislation, but operators can get new GDPR mandates for drivers, a document which the drivers then sign to grant operators permission to check their licences as often as required for a period of three years.
Adrian explained: “A lot of people have been using the DVLA’s online licence checking website, which is potentially risky because it means handling information like a driver’s national insurance number and date of birth without specific permission from the driver. GDPR is in place to stop people getting that data illegally and to protect the driver.”
Checkmaster obtains only the necessary data instantly through a direct line to the DVLA. This can be done without obtaining a check code from the driver every time the licence is checked.
Staying in the loop
Road Tech provides a computer programme which handles the various notifcations delivered by its software, called Road Tech Notifier.
Specific alerts can be sent based on an enormous number of configurable triggers. For example, if a vehicle has an unresolved defect which remains unfixed beyond a specified time period, an alert can be sent to the manager monitoring the system. Important alerts can be set up to persist, whereby they will stay on screen until the manager takes action on it.
The software can be configured to automatically launch when the machine is booted up, and will store all reminders sent while the manager is away from their desk.
“We’re making a notifier app for mobile devices as well,” Adrian added. “It will work a bit differently, as apps don’t run in the background on smartphones in quite the same way as they do on a computer.”
Customers can create as many accounts with which to log into Road Tech’s software as required. These can be administrator level accounts, with complete control over all aspects of the software, accounts with more restricted interaction, or read-only accounts, depending on the requirements of the user.
Video tutorials
An extensive knowledge base for Road Tech’s software is available to access free of charge. A large number of voiced video tutorials are available – made by Adrian himself – explaining how to carry out a multitude of tasks using Road Tech’s software, all of which are free to access. A Road Tech account is not required to view them.
A couple of examples of these tutorials were displayed, which clearly and concisely talked through each step of the process they were demonstrating. They seemed ideal to help someone with limited technical knowledge to use the system effectively.
“We keep access to videos free to help us sell the products,” Adrian said. “If you want to find out about the product and what it can do, the video tutorials can help to display this.”
Supporting Earned Recognition
Road Tech is a validated system provider for the DVSA’s Earned Recognition scheme. There are two main aspects of Earned Recognition – compliance with drivers’ hours regulations and effective maintenance, the former of which Road Tech is able to support. Maintenance systems are currently not Road Tech’s core market.
Tachomaster has a specific Earned Recognition module, which tracks how the operator is doing with regards to meeting the scheme’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and helps the operator to share their data with DVSA if they breach these KPIs at any point – a requirement of the scheme. The aim is for operators to effectively become self-policing, as the Tachomaster system aims to help operators identify where they have issues and correct them to help them remain on the scheme and enjoy its benefits.
Tachomaster does not give DVSA direct access to data or systems, and Road Tech does not carry out the biennial audits required by the scheme, though it does help to organise the data in preparation for these. The ERS module has a 12 week free trial and does not require the operator to send the data to the DVSA, unless or until they are ready. Operators can use the module to help identify problems and improve compliance.
Since the system is designed to notify operators of any potential issues and help them to achieve the required level of compliance, Road Tech has made the module available to all operators who use the Tachomaster system, not just those enrolled within Earned Recognition already.
PreDrive Competition
CBW and Road Tech have partnered up to offer a competition for CBW readers, where entrants can win three months of free access to the company’s PreDrive walk around check system. The prize is available to both existing and new Road Tech customers.
To be in with a chance of winning, answer the following question:
How many PreDrive checks can be performed for £1 per vehicle per week?
A: 14-20
B: 52-120
C: Unlimited
The entry form for the competition can be found on the CBW website. Visit cbwmagazine.com/roadtech
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