What’s new in Geotab Drive — Version 9.0

Geotab Drive users: To verify your version on your Android phone, go to Settings > Apps > All Apps > Geotab Drive, and check the version number at the bottom of the screen, (e.g. Version 6.1.3).

Partners: Review this post for important changes affecting your Customers and note any recommendations.

For any questions, please email us at eld@geotab.com.

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What’s new in MyGeotab

Refer to 9.0 — What’s New in MyGeotab for information on additional new features for this release.

General improvements

In-app help menu

Keep your drivers on the road by enabling them to find supporting documents themselves!

Previously, when drivers had questions about using Geotab Drive, they had to interrupt their work day to either contact their fleet administrator or access the internet to get those answers. Drivers can now launch a self-help menu by pressing the question mark (?) icon at the top of the screen. Each screen has context-specific content (for example, the HOS screen displays common Hours of Service related content). Drivers can also search for other content.

New security identifiers for shipments

Shipments can now be removed from the Geotab Drive workflow just like trailers, as it adds extra steps and confusion for drivers who do not have to use shipments. To support this, we have introduced the following security identifiers:

• Administer Shipments – Create and edit shipments
• View Shipments – View shipments

These identifiers are enabled for drivers by default, but they both need to be disabled to remove shipments from the Geotab Drive workflow.

Hours of service (HOS)

Quick edit new RODS

Drivers are required to edit their records of duty status (RODS) for a number of reasons. Common reasons include adding an annotation or correcting the timestamp of the RODS (for example, if a driver starts working before they log in to the app and needs to backdate the first ON duty record). In Geotab Drive, there is a shortcut to bring drivers to the edit screen for their newly created RODS. This is located in the toast message that appears after selecting a new duty status, which is a more convenient shortcut than having to edit the RODS from the Logs page.

This feature previously existed as an Add annotation link in the toast message. We have updated the text to Change time or annotate to describe the most common reasons why someone would want to edit their RODS. We hope this brings additional clarity to this shortcut, which will help drivers save time and start their day a little sooner.

Manually specified locations

Locations typed manually into a records of duty status (RODS) will save the exact text that was specified.  Prior to this change, location text was sent to a map server to be translated into an address and then formatted to ELD conventions. This occasionally resulted in inconsistency between what text was entered and what location was actually stored in the RODS. Regulatory authorities have advised that saving the exact text entered by the driver is preferred, and it would be incumbent upon the driver to ensure that their entry can be understood as a location by any officer examining the record.

Canadian HOS: Support for 8 hour rest breaks

Due to the precise wording in Canadian regulations and guidance, our hours of service (HOS) calculator previously considered all periods of 8 consecutive off-duty hours to reset the driver’s shift (core rest). However, in a tiny fraction of cases, this could cause issues when daily off-duty requirements required an additional 2 hours of rest that could not be a part of any core rest period, even if a new shift was not intended.

This did seem to follow the spirit of the law and we reached out to regulatory authorities for clarification. We confirmed that the official guidance is incorrect. 8 consecutive hours can be used to fulfill the 2 hour rest requirement instead of used as a core rest period, so long as this would not result in a violation. As such, we’ve updated our HOS calculator with the new guidance and no longer mark these scenarios as violations.

Unidentified Driving page (Feature Preview)

Fixed several bugs on the Unidentified Driving screen (Feature Preview), including:

• Allowing annotations without an assigned driver
• Allowing global groups to filter unidentified driving
• Table alignment issues

These fixes have also been added to version 7.0.

Australian Work Diary

New ruleset for Australian Work Diary users

A new ruleset for Australian drivers using the Written Work Diary to log and calculate their daily working hours is now available in Geotab Drive. The name of the new ruleset is Australia Standard Hours Solo with Exemption Hours. Administrators can configure this ruleset for their users from the Ruleset dropdown on the HOS Settings page in MyGeotab. This is the only ruleset we currently have available for the Australian market, but we intend to develop additional rulesets for Australian drivers in future releases. Some highlights of this new ruleset are as follows:

• We are following the 15-minute rounding requirements for the creation of the Work and Rest logs as defined by the NHVR (National Heavy Vehicle Regulation)
• Geotab Drive is updated to show the required availability timers applicable to Australian drivers
• The HOS Logs and HOS Availability pages in MyGeotab are updated to cater to Australian fleet managers

Refer to the Driver’s Guide to the Work Diary for more information.

! IMPORTANT: This product is not a certified Electronic Work Diary, but can be used as a tool to assist Australian fleet managers and drivers who are currently using the Written Work Diary.

Geotab Drive Release Notes – Version 9.0

General improvements

• Added contextual help content to each screen, which can be accessed by pressing the question mark (?) icon near the top of the screen.
• The shipment workflow is now configurable. It can be removed from the Geotab Drive workflow (similar to trailers) to streamline the workflow for drivers that never use shipments.

Hours of service (HOS)

• Improved the workflow for editing records of duty status (RODS). A shortcut now appears in a toast message to edit a newly created RODS (drivers previously had to edit the RODS from the Logs page), and we’ve also updated the text to better describe the most common reasons why a driver would need to edit their log.
• Updated the records of duty status (RODS) to save the exact text of an address specified in the RODS instead of validating with a map server and reformatting the addresses, which would occasionally change the address from what the driver entered if a location could not be resolved by the map server.
• For Canadian HOS users, we’ve made an update to our HOS calculator that was, in rare cases, incorrectly flagging violations in a certain scenario. The scenario was when a driver took 8 consecutive off-duty hours, but still required an additional 2 hours of rest that could not be a part of a core rest period, even if a new shift was not intended at the end of the rest.
• Fixed bugs on the Unidentified Driving screen (currently in Feature Preview):
  • Fixed an issue where global group filters (such as Light duty) could not be applied to unidentified driving
  • Corrected some table alignment issues
  • Annotations can no longer be added to logs without an assigned driver
  • The three above bug fixes have also been retroactively applied to version 7.0

Australian Work Diary

• Added the Australia Standard Hours Solo with Exemption Hours ruleset to Geotab Drive. Administrators can configure this ruleset on the HOS settings page in MyGeotab.