Transport and logistics companies all around the world are capitalising on technological innovations to reduce waste, increase productivity, reach carbon neutrality and appeal to ever more demanding customer and client expectations.
Historically many transport companies now use digital fleet tracking solutions but still rely on paper based printouts and ways of working to manage other processes.
Our mission at DriverNet is to help pave the Road to Net Zero and we believe that starts with going paperless. Read on to find out how we can help your business become more productive, carbon neutral and cost-effective.
Less is More
The biggest issue with paper is time and money. The bigger your company, the more paper you will work with, the more you will have to spend on solutions for storing it.
Gartner, Inc. found in their survey that businesses spend between 1-3% of their total revenue on paper and printing, including the costs arising from the energy required to power the printers. One ‘hard’ document, whether a catalogue or single piece of paper will cost around £15 to look after and maintain during its life. This however does not affect most print outs, with up to 45% finding their way into the bin or recycling.
With paper also comes stationery costs for pens, pencils, staplers, copiers and scanners, hole punchers, shredders, more recycling bins. Paper is more likely to become misfiled, redundant, lost, damaged or even stolen so this also means more time spent manually moving, organising and maintaining every document on a regular basis.
This can make paper based information and records very tedious to find, access, share and distribute, compared to digital solutions that also boost compliance and make passing an audit a far more seamless and painless experience.
If your business involves coordinating and/or communicating with drivers, we alleviate all of these problems with DriverNet – our paperless platform which makes information storage and communication easy.
I Wasn’t Hired For This..
You don’t want employees allocating too much time away from their core responsibilities to deal with admin work which results in misused hours and hurts overall productivity, reducing employee satisfaction.
You perhaps have a dedicated admin team to deal with creating, filing, maintaining, retrieving, distributing and destroying paper documents, involving high levels of manual labour and associated overhead costs.
This is particularly costly for bigger organisations since they would have to account for more paper. Though it can be just as unviable for smaller businesses that might already be struggling to maintain profit margins.
In paperless organisations, these concerns are largely eliminated because most of the admin work can be automated through digital platforms allowing your employees to focus more on what matters to your business.
Professional & Automated Platform
One of the biggest advantages of digital systems is automation. Many time-intensive tasks can be done automatically with computers, often instantly and without any user input i.e. updating files and records, sorting folders, checking expiry dates and proofing errors.
Even a basic tool like a search bar in an employee directory can potentially save you hours trying to find what might otherwise be a ‘needle in a haystack’. Over 50% of HR professionals in a recent survey reported spending over 20 minutes a day searching for paperwork, a problem which also adds needless stress and time preparing for internal and external audits.
Additionally, as smartphones become increasingly more prevalent, so does our ability to access and share information with employees at anytime, anywhere on their own devices. This promotes collaboration, eliminates the need for printouts, phone calls and paper based records to manage your drivers and operatives.
In addition to minimising human error, streamlining operations and saving time, DriverNet’s paperless platform provides a more professional and modern approach to manage driver HR, admin and communications. It also will help you future-proof your business, recruit new generations of drivers and boost retention levels.
Paper is Not Secure
If you forget to collect an important print job unfiled paper could be mistaken for waste or thrown away. There is also a risk that employees’ personal data could be accessed or viewed erroneously.
Digitised information does not suffer from the same risks. DriverNet allows you to control and track who can access, edit, store and share your documents, enhancing how your business protects sensitive data.
These features are integrated into DriverNet, which removes the need for using paper and spreadsheets to manage all of your key transport processes in one powerful, professional HR platform:
- Driver rotas & duty information
- E-signed documents
- Briefs & communications
- Risk assessments
- Trip sheets & duty cards
- Vehicle checks
- Maps and routes
- Vehicle accident reports
- Documents & certificates management
- Employee records
All of which can be stored, viewed, edited and shared securely in real-time, with automated reminders being sent when expiry dates approach, to boost compliance and audit readiness. You can also easily create, store and sign digital documents, completely removing the need to print, scan and store paper versions.
Protect the Planet
A study by UNCTAD reveals just how harmful paper waste can be to the environment; if the Asia-Pacific region alone were to mandate digital transformation of its businesses, it would save roughly 13 million tons of CO2 – this is the equivalent of planting 439 million trees!
Paper production produces environmental pollution. Paper and cardboard account for 26% of waste in landfill sites. Paper rots over time, creating methane gas which is 25 times more toxic than CO2, with paper consumption only increasing as paper-reliant organisations grow.
As a result, there has been a major shifting trend in public opinion and corporate responsibility towards sustainability and an increased scrutiny of energy consumption and non-recyclable waste.
This is important because consumers are 87% more likely to purchase products or services from companies that support the issues they believe in, and 76% less likely to buy from companies that conflict with their values, Forbes reports.
This means that paperless organisations are not only more efficient for businesses, favoured by employees and more appealing to consumers but also, quite literally, helping to protect the planet.
Even if your organisation already has a digital tracking solution, or you need a comprehensive transport management solution, DriverNet reduces your reliance on paper, increases admin productivity, saves time and money whilst reducing your carbon footprint; please click here to find out more.
