In a previous post we introduced the lessons learned and key findings for a successful adoption of an efficient and secure driving system in an organization, especially a bus transport company. This set of best practices have been tested from more than 5 years of accumulated successful projects involving different size and nature of operators.

One of the identified key element is the Efficient Driving management System (EDMS). But what is an EDMS after all and which elements conform it?

It comes handy an existing Industry Standard by AENOR (Spanish Agency for Normalization) called EA0050 “Efficient Driving Management System for road transport companies”. This standard comes from June 2015 and we can proudly say we collaborated in its creation together with other industrial  reference entities and operators.

As stated in EA0050 “Efficient Driving Management System for road transport companies” (The bold parts are ours):

AENOR Specification EA 0050 describes the requirements that must be adopted to define, implement, maintain and improve an efficient driving management system in companies with industrial vehicle fleets. Included in this designation are road transport companies within both the logistics and passenger transport sectors, as well as environmental companies.

The Specification provides a reference guide for the parameters and metrics required for efficient driving and the preferred value ranges for said parameters, classified depending on context.

It establishes the efficient driving measurement and support systems that can be approved in accordance with this specification.

It specifies the foundations of an efficient driving monitoring system that serves as a basis for processes to assess a driver’s ability and the company’s own management practices.

The recommendations of specification AENOR EA 0050, from June 2015, are taken into consideration with this type of certification, in order to promote good practices of efficient driving, laid out in manuals for industrial vehicle drivers.

The SGCEEDMS, which combines the use of non-intrusive monitoring technologies in vehicles, which connect to Bus CAN, in addition to processes and methodologies to improve driver performance and efficiency requires contributions from the quality department, the service’s planning technicians and, clearly, the involvement of drivers and their managers. After the SGCE was implemented, it was maintained without significant efforts by the company.

Energy management systems in accordance with UNE-EN ISO 50001. Requirements with guidance for use (ISO 50001:2011), as a matter of fact, obtaining a certificate in accordance with this standard is highly related to the certification of the Efficient Driving Management System.AENOR website.

– AENOR website

If we attend to the bold parts, we can extract and summarize what the important elements of a EDMS are:

• Parameters and indicators (metrics) and their context and objectives.
  
  
• Support systems (technology) for the implementation (existing on the company and new ones).
  
  
• Scope: Different people (areas) and elements (vehicles, infrastructure) of the organization involved and their role.
  
  
• Last but not least, processes and methodology: We can say this is the glue that allows the rest of the pieces stick together and continuously improve.   They are common elements to every ISO standard, so the reader that knows quality seals find them quite familiar. In a nutshell, every ISO management system methodology has these common elements:
  
  
  • Scope.
  • Base lines (initial situation): In the below figure a  Black Box period for having this initial situation of metrics together with other historic information is highlighted (e.g. fleet consumption of the previous year).
  • Operation plan, based on a PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act), involving training techniques, communications plans and the usage of the support systems in a planned manner (Plan &Do).  Then there is a continuous follow up (Check &Act) to adjust the plan just in case (e.g. no fulfilment of planned objectives) and to have a feedback loop (Act). This last step usually involves motivational/incentives programmes.

In following posts, we ‘ll describe deeper some of these elements, which are key for a successful performance of an EDMS on the long term.