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Counting the minutes - Measuring truck driver time efficiency

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Author

  • Günter Prockl
  • Henrik Sternberg

Editor

  • Romulo Orrico

Summary, in English

The performance of truck drivers is crucial to the sustainability, in particular profitability, of motor carrier operations. Despite this, driver efficiency has received scarce attention in the transport and logistics literature. While the literature has focused on mathematical optimization, generic logistics frameworks and conceptual technology applications, measurement of drivers’ efficiency has rarely been addressed. Given the importance of the drivers in transport operations, the purpose of this paper is to identify and define methods and measurements on driver efficiency. Furthermore, the purpose is to build a framework to classify previous literature and the measurements involved. This research has been inductive in its nature, departing from a literature review focused on various aspects of transport operations performance, driver control and measurement. The empirical data underlying this paper has been collected over 5 years throughout numerous projects in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland related to transport efficiency and summarizes the experiences made in these projects. In total, 80 drivers belonging to 22 motor carriers were measured using different types of participant observations and driver self-observation. The findings of this synthesis revealed first that driver measurement is scarce and virtually non-existent outside the boundaries of eco-driving. The findings indicate that driver self-observation is a reliable tool for measuring driver efficiency and that tacho-meter based approaches are unreliable. Finally, this paper gives novel insights on using smart-phones as tools to interact with the driver. The research impact of this work can be identified in two separate areas. Firstly, the paper addresses the need for a broader view on drivers’ efficiency, departing from previous fuel-centred approaches. Secondly the paper gives directions on how to re-interprete findings from previous literature that has used flawed tachometer-based approaches. On a strategical level, this paper advices the haulier industry to address drivers’ efficiency on a more holistic level then what has previously been done. Practitioners addressing driver efficiency will find important principles to guide their work in measuring drivers.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Publication/Series

[Host publication title missing]

Document type

Conference paper

Publisher

WCTRS

Topic

  • Other Mechanical Engineering

Keywords

  • Motor carrier
  • haulier operations
  • driver control
  • driver performance
  • efficiency

Conference name

World Conference on Transportation

Conference date

2013-07-15

Status

Published