The traffic manager of a transport and logistics company is the gear that makes all the pieces work in unison, optimizing resources and maximizing profit. We analyze what these tasks are and how it carries them out.
Traffic chiefs control all means and the interrelationships of the agents that intervene in the business, manage their own and third-party vehicles, drivers, customers and loads, external services, etc., and all this while ensuring that they comply with the strict regulations that govern the sector.
Obviously, the traffic manager cannot work alone, but must be accompanied by a team of professionals with experience and the Technological tools that allows them to carry out and control their activities such as business management systems (ERPs), commercial management tools, and fundamentally, a fleet management and control system adapted to your activity and daily operations, if possible integrated all of them to facilitate work and efficiency in services.
If we analyze the activities of a traffic manager, we can organize them into the following groups:
Activity planning and vehicle distribution area
Includes the daily planning and scheduling of the next days of the distribution of customer loads, assigning available vehicles and drivers, associated with the characteristics of each of the resources: type of load, dates and place of collection and delivery, travel conditions and conservation conditions of the merchandise, schedules to be met, route and compliance with the legal driving conditions for each of the territories through which it circulates and its restrictions, etc.
In this activity, it is key that the management and planning tools allow us to correct and real-time allocation of resources available, which considers factors such as driving regulations (breaks, stops,...), vehicle maintenance, special permits, etc. Therefore, having the appropriate information for each of the resources, vehicles and drivers is essential for perfect assignment and coordination, avoiding penalties, delays, or customer complaints.
The fleet control system used must automatically collect and store information from the different vehicle and/or trailer and driver systems and trigger alerts so that any incident can be resolved in real time from traffic.
Management and control of the fleet during trips
Once a service is launched, the fleet management system must have the trip plan of each one of the services, as well as the type of load and conditions of conservation or safety. From traffic it is necessary to know permanently the vehicle situation (GPS) and its drivers (APP), detect possible deviations from the designed travel plan, and manage alarms and incidents such as accidents, thefts, breaks in the cold chain, etc.
The system must track and store indelibly and permanently all incidents that occur during trips: stops and breaks, speeds, consumption, monitor safety elements and technical parameters of the vehicle, analyze the carrier's driving, management of driving times, management of travel documentation, etc.
Collection and storage of data for registration and accounting
Once a service is finished, it is also the task of the traffic manager and his team collect all travel information to carry out the settlement and send it to billing, as well as the associated expenses of fuel consumption, travel expenses, driver expenses, driver working hours for their allocation to their payroll, vehicle maintenance alerts, etc.
Finally, it will also be the traffic manager's responsibility to manage the available information, present activity reports management and exploit the available data to optimize resources, vehicles and drivers, reducing capacity if not needed or seeking external resources when there are peaks in demand to cover, all with the aim of maximizing business profit.
Fleet management systems like GesInFlot, carry out tasks of management, control, planning, monitoring and storage of all the information related to the transport activity, and their objective is to cover the real and complete needs of a traffic office without leaving anything to chance or manual control.
