Construction materials distributor Richards Building Supply saw a 40% improvement in safe driving across its fleet drivers in the first 60 days of using Geotab Vitality—a joint venture launched a year ago that combined Geotab’s telematics and AI-powered predictive analytics with Vitality’s behavioral science expertise and technology.
“The Geotab Vitality app has changed the safety conversation from a negative situation to a positive one, and it fosters ownership right from the drivers,” a Richards Building Supply representative said during a video that premiered at Geotab’s recent Connect conference. “It's really changed the safety culture.”
A year later, the app, which launched with a goal to improve driver safety and therefore reduce collisions, is expanding. The platform rolled out two new areas of focus this month—fuel savings and compliance—at a time when diesel fuel has skyrocketed and compliance is under greater scrutiny.
Just as the platform uses data directly from Geotab’s GO device to score driver safety, it is now using that data to identify idling metrics.
For safety, the platform identified speeding, harsh braking, harsh acceleration, harsh cornering, and more to determine a driver’s score based on their performance compared to a similar peer cohort. These cohorts are grouped together based on vehicle type, driving style (long-haul, middle-mile, or local delivery), and the contextual area risk of a driver’s location, which considers weather, traffic, road type, etc.
Similarly, Geotab data will determine if a driver has improved idling. Drivers can earn “streaks,” or a continued period of sustained reduction in idling.
“The highest actionable fuel cost that fleets have in North America is idling, and even a small improvement can lead to material savings,” said Geotab Vitality President and CEO Steve Lockington.
Drivers will also be able to earn streaks for compliance with hours-of-service regulations and driver vehicle inspection reports.
“Streaks are really powerful from a behavioral science perspective,” Lockington said.
Drivers can earn additional rewards for those streaks. For safety, the app works similarly to an activity ring in the fitness app of an iPhone. If a driver closes their ring by the end of the day by meeting their personalized safety goals, they earn rewards they can redeem in the app at major retailers like Starbucks, Walmart, or Amazon—available to use immediately or to build over time for a greater sum.
Their earning potential is expanded with the addition of fuel savings and compliance, and “we're going to continue to expand from there,” Lockington said.
One opportunity, he said, is integrating inward-facing camera data to identify driver distraction, road sign violations, and more; the platform currently only monitors for tailgating. He added that there are more options on the fuel side as well.
“As we extend beyond that, we can think about maintenance. We can think about productivity,” he said. “We can also think about things that fleets care about that aren't currently connected—that we don't get the data from a Geotab device.”
Fuel and compliance are natural next steps, as safety is already inherently entangled with both.
As a result of using Geotab Vitality to improve driver safety, Richards Building Supply also saw a 3% reduction in fuel costs, Lockington said. It also led to an unexpected outcome: an 11.2% improvement in driver retention.
“It's just becoming harder and harder to be a driver. The expectations are only going up, and it feels stressful,” Lockington said. “You've got all of the telematics, and the cameras, and everything, so we've tried to flip the switch from ‘Are you waiting for me to screw up?’ to ‘No, we're actually going to reward and recognize you for your good behavior.’”
