PUTTING SAFETY FIRST

BY ETTIE BERNEKING

Heads up, drivers. You’re about to get new alerts when you’re on the road. The good news is that these alerts should help make life a little easier.

For years, Prime has used a Prepass system that gave drivers a green light when they could skip typically required stops at weigh stations. If they needed to stop, the alert showed a red light. The alert was simple, but that was part of the problem. If drivers weren’t paying close attention, they could miss the scale. Or they could see the scale but be too close to safely pull over.

Either way, Prime knew it needed to find a new system that gave drivers alerts sooner. The new system does just that. Now, drivers receive alerts when they’re 2 miles away from a weigh station, 1 mile away and are then given a command to either bypass or pull in to the scale.

The new system also sends drivers additional alerts for upcoming low bridges, real-time traffic congestion, rollover warnings and steep declines. Each alert aims to help drivers stay safe on the road.

The alerts will show up through each truck’s Omnitracks device and will stay up for 10 seconds so drivers have time to see the alert. Prime rolled out the new alert system in February after spending four months testing it out on a group of fleet drivers.

Like anything new, it took some time for drivers to adjust to the new alerts. “The first thing everyone thinks is will the sound alerts and messages be distracting,” says Shaun Ryker, Director of Driver Payroll at Prime. “But once they tried it, they changed their minds. And at the root of it, safety is our highest calling, and this helps alert drivers to what they are about to drive up on.”

The new feature is a View Documents button that you can find on each load in your list. This allows you to view documents that have been entered for that trip— meaning teams, trainers, instructors and students can view documents tied to a trip.

The trick is to scan documents under the correct trip numbers. We are seeing more and more documents coming in under incorrect trips, which causes delays in getting drivers paid.

The easiest way to verify you are scanning under the correct load number is to scan directly from the load using the blue “Trip Documents” button. Each load in your load list allows you to see the customer information and load details to ensure you are on the right trip.

You can also use View Trip Docs to verify electronic lumpers, view document from split trips and verify the quality of scans you have submitted.