Driver scheduling: better daily decision-making

In a road transport company, planning is no longer limited to managing a schedule day after day. It plays a direct role in organizing transport operations, meeting delivery deadlines and controlling costs. The road haulage industry in France comprises over 37,000 companies (mainly SMEs) and 420,000 employees, accounting for almost 89% of the country's goods flows. And yet, over 1,000 road hauliers go out of business every year in France, a sign of a sector with tight margins where every decision counts for profitability. For an operator or transport manager in an SME, every decision taken on driver scheduling therefore affects the business, the resources available, the trucks mobilized and the quality of service delivered to the customer.

Between constraints linked to working hours, respect for driving and rest times, last-minute delivery requests and lack of visibility on the resources actually available, planning becomes a complex exercise. What's more, the current shortage of truck drivers (some 50,000 unfilled positions in France by 2025) accentuates this complexity. It's against this backdrop that specialized software has been developed to structure planning, improve visibility and help operators organize their activities more efficiently. The result: higher productivity and lower costs.

Why driver scheduling has become critical for small and medium-sized transport operators

In the road haulage sector, driver planning is at the heart of day-to-day operations. The transport operator acts like an orchestra conductor: he organizes tours and plans routes, chooses vehicles according to the merchandise, assigns drivers and sets departure and arrival times. He also coordinates loading and unloading operations, taking into account work and driving constraints.

Yet all too often, this planning is still based on generalist tools: Excel, shared diaries, paper tables or manual planning. As long as the volume of activity remains limited, this management method can work. But as soon as assignments multiply, routes change or customer demands increase, these tools show their limits.

A last-minute change, an unavailable driver, a late delivery or a route modification can disrupt the entire transport schedule. The operator then has to make urgent adjustments, without always having precise information on the resources actually available. This highly reactive management weakens the organization. In fact, "uncontrolled hours" is one of the key difficulties identified for small transport companies. In SMEs, the operator often has to manage the schedule, customer calls and unforeseen events in the field alone, which increases the mental workload and the risk of errors.

To avoid these pitfalls and increase productivity, schedule management software is an effective lever for reducing operating costs.

Driving time and planning: an inseparable part of management

In many transport companies, the monitoring of driving time is still managed separately from operational planning. Driving times and rest periods are checked a posteriori, without being seamlessly integrated into route planning. This separation creates a loss of coherence between the reality in the field and the decisions taken in operations.

For example, a driver may appear "available" on the schedule when his remaining service time is no longer sufficient to cover a complete mission or an additional round. Conversely, a driver who is genuinely available may be overlooked for lack of reliable, up-to-date information on his hours. This lack of global vision leads to cautious but ineffective decisions: for example, refusing an assignment for lack of certainty, when in reality a driver could have carried it out.

Integrating driving times directly into the planning process has a two-fold benefit: it makes planning more realistic, and it complies with current regulations, in particular the European Social Regulations. Respecting the legal obligations of the French Labor Code is not just an administrative constraint, it is also a guarantee of operational performance. Failure to do so exposes the company to risks: significantly exceeding driving times can result in a fine of up to €1,500, and falsifying tachograph data can result in a fine of up to €30,000 (accompanied by one year's imprisonment). Above all, neglecting rest periods jeopardizes safety: drowsiness at the wheel is a factor in 1 in 5 fatal freeway accidents in Europe.

Better planning for greater operational efficiency

How to optimize driver planning?

Optimizing driver planning is not a matter of filling in a table more quickly, but of planning with reliable information. For a transport operator, the priority is to have a clear vision of resources in real time: available employees, vehicles and trucks that can be mobilized, missions in progress, remaining working time for each driver, and route constraints.

Efficient planning takes operational reality into account: journey times, routes, loading and unloading conditions, delivery times expected by the customer. This approach makes it possible to build coherent routes, limit schedule overloads and avoid permanent adjustments. In small and medium-sized businesses, optimizing planning means avoiding discovering too late that a driver is no longer available... when the customer is already waiting for a response.

In concrete terms, using a good planning tool helps to make organization more reliable. For example, automating certain tasks can save 1 to 2 hours a day in route planning. This freed-up time can be reinvested in managing unforeseen events, customer communication or continuous business improvement, rather than wasted on last-minute adjustments.

What are the best planning practices?

The most effective transport companies rely on a few simple principles to improve their planning:

• Centralize key information: Gather all operating data (driver availability, planned missions, scheduled tours, constraints and last-minute changes) in a single point. Without this global visibility, planning remains approximate and reactive rather than proactive.
• Build a realistic schedule from the outset: Avoid constantly reworking the schedule. An overly unstable organization increases errors and tires teams. By taking constraints into account from the outset (service hours, delivery windows, vehicle capacities, etc.), you'll be much better able to absorb unforeseen events without upsetting everything.
• Clear planning: Clear schedules, well-defined missions and anticipated routes all contribute to a better quality of working life for drivers. A clear, stable schedule reduces stress, improves driver satisfaction, and leads to smoother, more reliable operations.

Structuring planning with tools adapted to operations

How do you keep track of drivers' working hours?

Keeping track of drivers' working hours is essential for effective planning. Without accurate, up-to-date records, it's difficult to know what resources are really available, and under what conditions a job can be accepted. However, in many SMEs, this monitoring remains manual or partial. This method makes it difficult to take account of driving times, rest periods and regulatory constraints in the schedule. The operator finds himself planning with incomplete information.

The good news is that this follow-up can be structured and automated. For example, connecting tachograph data directly to the scheduling software provides an instant view of each driver's hours. For the operator, this is a major advantage: he can check at a glance the actual availability of each driver and avoid time overruns. For the driver, it's a simple way of tracking his day, anticipating breaks and reporting any inconsistencies. Structured tracking enables working times to be linked directly to drivers' schedules. Activity data can then be used to organize routes, adjust assignments and secure operational decisions, all in compliance with the law.

Which solutions for transport planning?

General solutions such as Excel or a shared diary quickly reach their limits as activity increases. They can neither consolidate all transport-related information, nor ensure reliable decision-making in the event of unforeseen circumstances. On the other hand, transport planning software provides an adapted response to needs in the field. They centralize key data (driver schedules, missions, rounds, driving times, work constraints, etc.) in a single interface. The aim is not to complicate organization, but to improve visibility and efficiency.

With this in mind, Sinari Optim enables time management to be structured and integrated directly into operational planning. The operator thus has a reliable information base for planning, adjusting and responding to customer requests, while securing activity and keeping an eye on employees' actual times. In practice, this means fewer blind decisions and greater responsiveness: the tool alerts the operator to any conflicts (overtime, unavailability, overlapping missions) and helps to build a realistic schedule rather than a theoretical plan that quickly becomes obsolete.

Conclusion

For an SME in the road haulage sector, planning has become a key management tool. By taking into account driving times, routes and constraints in the field, controlled planning enables more reliable decisions to be made, reducing costs and improving operational efficiency. The benefits of optimized planning are tangible and measurable: activity is optimized, productivity is increased and customer satisfaction is improved.

Structured planning, based on accurate, shared information, secures deliveries, improves organization and strengthens the reliability of the carrier. Transforming driver planning into a decision-making tool is now an essential condition for sustainable management of a transport business. By equipping themselves with the right tools and adopting best practices, small and medium-sized businesses can absorb unforeseen events with greater serenity, meet their customer commitments and generate margins in a highly competitive environment. In short, better driver planning means greater performance and peace of mind on the road.