Mike Driggers, president of Arnold Transportation, says that safety statistics have improved significantly as a result of the company’s new technology and programs.The management team holds periodic performance review meetings. Safety is always the first topic discussed as they review preventable and non-preventable accidents from the previous week and the trending for accident frequency and severity on a per-million-mile basis, among other data points.
“This directs us towards what we need to train differently in orientation,” Driggers says.
Going forward, the company is working to develop a comprehensive driver scorecard from multiple data sources that include SmartDrive, the PeopleNet mobile communications and telematics platform, on-line compliance tools, Safety, Accountability scores and more.
“At a glance, we will be able to tell who is operating at their best and those who need more coaching,” Nelson says.
Nelson would like the scorecard to be accessible by drivers at any time and tied to additional rewards and incentive programs.
Overall, the ongoing changes and improvements to safety have resulted in a reduction of Arnold’s accident severity and frequency rates, year over year, Driggers says. This has enabled the company to reduce its insurance cost significantly for 2017.
Quantifying the return on investment for safety technologies can be difficult since the number of “accidents prevented” is not a reportable metric. Even so, all of the proof Nelson needed to justify the investment in the video-based safety system came on May 2016.
“That one clip is worth having the system,” he says.
