A driver on a school run, a day trip and an evening concert
Your planner is filling next Thursday. Dave does the school contract in the morning. There is a day trip to the coast for a social club that needs a driver from half nine, and Dave is free after the school run, so he gets it. Then an enquiry comes in for an evening concert return, and Dave is local and likes the evening work. On the wall chart it looks fine.
On Wednesday the transport manager checks the week and realises Dave's Thursday would be a very long day with not enough rest before Friday's school run, and that he had a late finish on Tuesday as well. The day trip has to be moved to another driver, who is on a rest day, and the evening concert goes to a hired-in driver.
The planner does not know the rules the plan has to follow
Drivers' hours rules differ depending on the type of work, and many coach firms run a mix: school contracts, local services, private hire, tours abroad. The rules for each are known to your transport manager. The problem is that the planning tool, usually a wall chart or spreadsheet, shows jobs and names but not time, so it cannot warn anyone.
- Jobs are placed on the plan by name, without duty start and finish times.
- Driving time, breaks and rest between duties are worked out mentally.
- The weekly picture for each driver is not visible on the daily plan.
- Late evening work is added after the day has already been planned.
- Only the transport manager can spot problems, and only when they check.
We do not interpret the rules for you. Which rules apply and what the limits are is set and checked by your transport manager. The planner uses the thresholds they enter.
Late changes are expensive and stressful
Discovering a problem after the work is allocated means moving jobs at short notice, calling drivers on rest days, hiring in, or turning work away. Drivers dislike last-minute changes to their week. The transport manager spends time rechecking plans instead of managing the operation.
It also creates risk you would rather not carry, because a plan that relies on someone spotting every issue will sometimes miss one.
A planner that shows time as you allocate
We build a planning board that understands duties as well as jobs.
- Each job has its planned duty: sign-on time, first pick-up, waiting periods, driving legs and sign-off, calculated from the booking's itinerary and route.
- When you drag a job onto a driver, the board shows their day as a timeline with driving, other work, breaks and waiting, and their running totals for the day and week.
- Your transport manager sets the thresholds and patterns to check against for each type of work, such as maximum duty length, driving time before a break, and rest between duties.
- Allocations that may cross a threshold are flagged at the moment of allocation, with the reason, so the planner can choose another driver or the manager can review.
- The board suggests other drivers who have the licence category, route knowledge and time available for the job.
- Actual times from tachograph data or driver timesheets can be compared with planned duty afterwards, so planning estimates improve.
| Planning moment | Wall chart | Duty-aware planner |
|---|---|---|
| Adding a day trip after a school run | Looks fine | Shows the day's duty and breaks |
| Adding evening work | Name added to the chart | Flags short rest before tomorrow |
| Weekly picture | Worked out separately | Running totals per driver |
| Finding another driver | Ring round | Suggested from available drivers |
| After the job | No comparison | Planned against actual times |
Planning next Thursday with the board
When the day trip is dragged onto Dave, the board shows his day stretching long, and flags that adding the concert would leave a short rest before Friday. The planner gives the concert to Sue, who has an easy day and knows the venue. The transport manager sees no flags on the week and signs it off, rather than reworking it on Wednesday.
Drivers see their own confirmed duties on their phones, with start times and job details, and changes after that point are rare.
Are hours problems found too late?
- Work is planned on a wall chart or spreadsheet by driver name.
- Duty times and breaks are worked out mentally.
- The transport manager finds problems when checking the finished plan.
- Evening and late work is added without seeing the next morning.
- You have had to move jobs or hire in drivers at short notice.