EBE Technologies – a provider of document and content management, workflow and business process automation systems – has added new workflow capabilities to its Web-based Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 carrier and driver dashboard. The CSA 2010 dashboard, which was launched earlier this year, now includes carrier percentiles along with a depth of automated workflow possibilities to identify and correct poor driver behavior and reward positive activities in real time. Trending charts and visibility to total points vs. CSA 2010 “capped points” also have been added to provide more focused attention to patterned and at-risk behavior.
The application monitors and retrieves carrier- and driver-related inspection information from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compass portal daily and uses that data to trigger alerts to management and execute automated tasks and activities based on the measured behavior. The new version of the dashboard now provides visibility to carrier percentile rankings based on the carrier’s peer group within the industry. EBE says that through the collection of publicly available information of all inspection and crash history data, it is able to calculate a measure, then generate a percentile for all carriers within each peer group per BASIC category.
“This percentile is a very close representation of the FMCSA-generated percentiles,” says Cindy Nelson, EBE’s vice president of marketing and business development. “While we will not guarantee 100 percent alignment with the FMCSA percentile, we are confident the results will provide carriers with the insight to manage their fleets aggressively.”
The workflow options available – triggered by BASIC percentile ranking, inspections, violations or frequency of incidents – include assigning training, executing warning letters, scheduling driver management reviews or even suspending or terminating drivers. All of the assigned tasks then are monitored and tracked until the driver and or manager has completed the required activities to meet the safety standards and business rules defined by the company.
Through integration to carrier dispatch systems and driver files, posted inspections that cannot be correlated to an identified driver within the carrier’s fleet also are addressed through workflow. These inspections are placed in an “unmatched driver” workflow queue to be reviewed and either can be assigned a driver ID manually or contested to DataQ. Automated submissions to DataQ for contested inspections and the tracking of the responses all are incorporated into workflow.
EBE says the core functionality of its CSA 2010 Dashboard offers carriers daily downloads of posted inspection data along with the flexibility of reviewing carrier and driver scores and percentiles based on the carrier’s specific organizational hierarchy. Search capabilities by company type, operating unit, division, region or manager all are configured for each carrier. User defined thresholds, by percentiles or points, determine the level of visibility given to specific BASIC category behavior, and e-mail alerts can be sent to managers when a behavior threshold is crossed. Notifications also can be automated to alert safety personnel when new inspections are posted.
The new trending charts added to the core solution allow carriers to begin to identify patterns of their drivers as well as the company. These patterns also can trigger workflow events to manage the identified behavior in a more proactive manner. The trending analysis allows carriers to view trends for both the carrier and the driver by percentile, measure, CSA 2010 points or total points by month, quarter and year within a defined timeframe. “As more data is imported into the system, the trending will provide more insight to carrier scores and driver behavior,” Nelson says.
Total or “stacked” points also have been added to the new version of the dashboard. CSA 2010 methodology places a cap on severity points per BASIC category within a single inspection report. Carriers now can choose to view either the total violation points or CSA 2010 points for a more thorough analysis of the driver. “This functionality has been added based on the feedback we’ve received from the carriers using the solution,” Nelson says. “Carriers believe if they manage the total points vs. the CSA 2010 points, it will provide even more insight to driver behavior and trends.”
