Latest / Speaking of Supply Chain / Shifting Gears Into Better Fleet Management (Part 1)
Transcript
- 0:06You're listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a meboch podcast. This is a
- 0:10show for logistics professionals looking to learn more about the latest innovations in supply chain.
- 0:16Each episode will feature a conversation on topics such as mitigating supply chain disruption
- 0:20and reducing risk, current automation trends, sustainability initiatives, and more. Let's
- 0:26dive right in. Hello, and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where
- 0:33we explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting the logistics and supply chain
- 0:38industries. I'm your host, Ellen Wood. Today we are doing something a
- 0:42little bit different. So I recorded this podcast with Aaron Gilchrist of in Tellershift,
- 0:49and we had such a fantastic conversation and it went so long that we've
- 0:54decided to break this up into two different episodes. It was way too much
- 0:59to try to put to other for you listeners. As a single episode,
- 1:02you would have been here all day. So this episode with Aaron, we
- 1:07discuss vehicle fleets, safety, maintenance, electric vehicles versus gas vehicles, distracted
- 1:17driving. We get into some of the industries that are really easy and early
- 1:22adopters of some of this intelligence behind these fleet vehicles, and then in next
- 1:29episode, so in two weeks when that episode is ready, we're going to
- 1:33get a little bit more into some other topics like risk and liability protection,
- 1:40driverless vehicles and the capabilities that exist there, and a little bit into public
- 1:45transit and sustainability. Hello and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
- 1:53explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting the logistics and supply chain industries.
- 1:59I'm your host, Ellen Wood. Today I have with me Aaron Gilcrest
- 2:04and she is the VP of Fleet Evangelization at Intellishift. Hi erin, good
- 2:09morning, How are you. I'm cold, it is so cold outside,
- 2:16so I am glad that we are inside and get to have a fun conversation.
- 2:22Today we're going to be talking about fleet management. Obviously you are an
- 2:24evangelist for it. I can't wait to hear a little bit more about what
- 2:28that is all about. I'm looking forward to our topic, but first let's
- 2:31take a quick break from supply chain topics and just get to know you a
- 2:35little bit better. So our ice breaker question today is what is the best
- 2:42piece of advice you've ever been given? I have kind of two that go
- 2:46hand in hand. If you judge people, you have no time to love
- 2:50them. It just edges out the love the judgment. So that's a big
- 2:54thing. And the other one from the same person both mother Teresa, is
- 2:59that we can all do great things. So, like, you know this
- 3:01idea that we're confined to what we're capable of, well, I think if
- 3:07you even define it, then you're limiting your capabilities. So and just like
- 3:12seeing all the amazing things she did with her feeble, humble, little tiny
- 3:15self changed the world. So yeah, so those are the two things I
- 3:21love to share because yeah, if we just all thought that way, the
- 3:24world'd be a better place. Oh of course I love it. Well,
- 3:29mine is not quite as philanthropic as yours, but it is up there.
- 3:37So one of my professional mentors that he was a supervisor in a previous position
- 3:43at a previous company, but he did so much to help me in my
- 3:46professional advancement. And one of the things that he even he told me and
- 3:51he was like, and you have to call me on this. What you
- 3:53allow is what will continue. And that is absolutely critical I think when it
- 3:59comes to our personal lives, when it comes to our professional lives, is
- 4:01whatever behavior we allow other people to get away with is what they're going to
- 4:06continue doing. So when yeah, I've heard that said, it's what we
- 4:11permit, you know, it's kind of it's giving people permission to keep doing
- 4:15that, and you're telling them that's okay with me, when maybe it is
- 4:17inner shouldn't be exactly. And so like when he would when he would call
- 4:21me or email me and say I need this now, I'm like, sorry
- 4:25that you need to give me enough time to do it, enough notice to
- 4:29do these things, and he's like, dang it, I shouldn't have told
- 4:30you that advice. So I used it against him. He's like, I'm
- 4:38eating my words right now. Love it. But that's a good one.
- 4:42Thank you for sharing that. All right, So getting into our conversation today,
- 4:46tell me a little bit about being a fleet evangelist. What does that
- 4:51consist of? Yeah, I know, I it's so funny because when I
- 4:56say it out loud, it's so funny. But what preface is that is
- 5:00VP of fleet right, fleet evangelism, and so I am super passionate about
- 5:05fleet and more specifically fleet safety, fleet sustainability. So I think that you
- 5:13know, the evangelism part is just that I get to do this right.
- 5:15I get to talk about my passions. I get to share my knowledge and
- 5:20experience. I get to talk to people with lots of knowledge and experience and
- 5:25spread the love so that fleet and safety and operations leaders can think about how
- 5:30they could run the safest and most efficient fleets. At the very same time,
- 5:34those go hand in hand. So I just get to do this,
- 5:38I get to talk about it. And so in my role at Intel Shift,
- 5:41there's kind of three facets. The one is I get to talk about
- 5:44it right. So I host a podcast called straight Talk on Fleet, and
- 5:48I do some keynotes. I have guests just like you, and we talk
- 5:54about everything fleet management. And it's so great. We're building this community where
- 5:58we can all grow and learn to get other. And then the second part
- 6:00of my job is I'm an inside sort of consult in the voice of the
- 6:03customer and Tellershift, I get to serve as you know, our in house
- 6:09fleet manager. So I'm running a fleet. I'm a fleet manager without a
- 6:13fleet, which is like a lot less stressful. And I get to advise
- 6:16like you know, sales and product and product marketing and product development and say,
- 6:21okay, here's how fleet managers need to work with data. See data,
- 6:27look at analytics and reporting. What alerts do we need? What do
- 6:30we want our interface to be like so UX and UI and CX and all
- 6:34the things inside. And then I also get to do that within for our
- 6:41prospects and our customers as like a free consultant to them, to you know,
- 6:46sit and talk about all things fleet with them and help them bring some
- 6:49of their visions to life, whether those be safety or efficiency goals, whatever
- 6:55they are. I get to help them do blueprints and write policies and social
- 7:00new tools and technologies inside their orgs. So loads of fun. Again,
- 7:03fleet manager without a fleet, it's the bomb, my favorite job and my
- 7:08other favorite job, so very fun. So what exactly are we talking about
- 7:17in terms of fleet management? You mentioned safety? Oh yeah, So I
- 7:20mean if you think about what a fleet is, right, So, any
- 7:24organization that has vehicles or equipment that performs jobs for them and helps them be
- 7:30successful in any way, shape or form, that's a fleet, right,
- 7:32And so properly manage a fleet, you need to think about that entire life
- 7:38cycle of the equipment, the asset, the vehicle. So from the design
- 7:42elements of that asset and how it's going to work for your business all the
- 7:46way through until you're going to retire everything in between. So think safety,
- 7:49fuel maintenance. You know, how is that vehicle legal on the road,
- 7:54So registrations and tolls and all the fun things that it takes to operate a
- 8:01vehicle, well anywhere in the world, but certainly here in the US on
- 8:05our roadways. So big job. And some fleet managers are managing parts of
- 8:09that. Some are managing all of that with their team. Others are even
- 8:13in charge of managing the drivers or operators of those assets, which really really
- 8:20gets into the whole safety and ergonomic aspects of that job. So I have
- 8:24been lucky enough to do kind of all of that in my past for a
- 8:28long time with a large fleet, and just developed a real passion for this
- 8:33whole idea of fleet management. So I have a little bit of a unique
- 8:39perspective. My husband used to work for a utility company and drove a fleet
- 8:43vehicle, so I've seen this on the personal end, or I guess on
- 8:46the user end, on the driver end, of all of the things that
- 8:50he had to do to maintain his vehicle to make sure that it was in
- 8:54compliance with you know, tire pressure or anything involved. You know, they
- 9:00had ladders on top of the vehicle, so he has to make sure that
- 9:03all of the equipment, the add on equipment that is built into the vehicle
- 9:07for its functionality was maintained properly and working properly, you know, taking it
- 9:13in for oil changes when that was due, and a lot of that was
- 9:18left up to the individual drivers and it sure it happens and it gets done,
- 9:24and he was very diligent about making sure, you know, the oil
- 9:26light came on, I need to get an oil change or it's been so
- 9:28many thousands of miles that this needs to happen. But having that as an
- 9:35app or a functionality within the business that keeps track of it ahead of time
- 9:39means that they don't have to, you know, get surprised with that notification
- 9:41that morning of him saying, hey, my vehicle says it's due for this
- 9:46service. Pull me out of scheduling for today. I need to go take
- 9:50care of it. It's more proactive. That should never be the case,
- 9:54right, So, you know, I think I love you know a lot
- 9:56about Fleetmatch. You're selling yourself story here. I think, you know,
- 10:01especially with utility. There's so much focus around safety because of the nature of
- 10:05their work, and so you think about if we could just make that is
- 10:11intuitive or as innate on the vehicle operation side as it is for that operator
- 10:18on the vocational side, you know, So when that comes together, that's
- 10:22really where I think fleet managers and organizations excel is when they can make it
- 10:30so easy for the operator or driver to be compliant with all those mission critical
- 10:35vehicle fleet to dos because that means safety and efficiency for the driver and for
- 10:41the organization and reduce risk and there's a whole list. And then if they
- 10:46could make that so easy so that that becomes second nature to the operator,
- 10:50then they can really focus on their vocational work and do that service for the
- 10:56organization and the best way possible and then get there every day on time,
- 11:01safely, and more importantly, get home hopefully in better shape than they started
- 11:05the day. And so that, you know, you definitely get it.
- 11:09And I think that leaving it up to the driver, gosh, it's just
- 11:13that those are ways of old, is what I like to say. I
- 11:16think, you know, it's there's so much opportunity again to make that really
- 11:20easy and really successful for organizations, so that aspect of the fleet manager,
- 11:26that human element and how we socialize these things is critical to whether they'll be
- 11:31successful or not sure well, And I think to some extent, and this
- 11:33may just be me personally, because as professionals, we know how busy we
- 11:39are and how many things are on our to do list. If I had
- 11:41to keep track of, you know, every time my car needed an oil
- 11:46change or my company vehicle needed an oil change and all these other things,
- 11:50that's extra things on my to do list, extra things to keep track of,
- 11:52and so, and they might not get done on time exactly, they
- 11:56might not get done on time, and then that puts the company at risk,
- 12:03not just the individual and their employment, but the company at risk if
- 12:07the vehicle is not maintained properly. So I know that there are probably organizations
- 12:11where they're thinking, Okay, if we put this particular piece of software in
- 12:16place to track all this, everyone's going to feel like it's big brother watching
- 12:20or that we're micro managing this process. But truly it's I don't have to
- 12:24think about this anymore. It's the alert that's going to come automatically, and
- 12:28it's going to alert the supervisors or the management. You know, these are
- 12:31the vehicles that need service this month, and these are the vehicles, this
- 12:35is how long they're going to have to be out of service, So how
- 12:37are we going to adjust scheduling, how are we going to adjust the workload.
- 12:41It really allows for that more strategic planning of the maintenance that needs to
- 12:46take place. And I mean, so far we're only talking about utility vehicles.
- 12:50Really we haven't even gotten into like long haul vehicles, where you've got
- 12:56to keep track of how many hours they've been driving and whether you know that
- 13:00got eaten up because they were stuck in a traffic jam for two hours.
- 13:03So there's so much at stake here when it comes to the management of vehicles
- 13:09out on public roads. Technology and data play a critical role in all of
- 13:16that. And I think that this day in the life of anyone driving a
- 13:22vehicle, it doesn't matter what they're driving, what their vocation is, what
- 13:26type of asset. If you build for safety first and think about that as
- 13:31an organization, I mean overall, culturally and certainly with the vehicle fleet,
- 13:37then all of the other things that we're talking about fall into line. Because
- 13:41the technology that we use to develop better drivers to avoid accidents, to get
- 13:46exonerated for things that are not our fault. All those beautiful things that the
- 13:52safety technology does, it also generates amazing data, and with that data you
- 13:58can do everything well. You can make sure that drivers are fueling where and
- 14:03when you want them to fuel. You can make sure that they're going not
- 14:07just getting things maintained, but getting it maintained at the right time, maybe
- 14:13at a shop that you need or want them to go to at a price
- 14:16that was negotiated by you ahead of time. So if you think about how
- 14:20all of this data can play into your day to day operations as a fleeter,
- 14:26safety or OPS leader, it can be very prescribed, and I think
- 14:30for a lot of fleet leaders it feel so out of control because the data
- 14:35isn't consolidated in one place, right, And when it's in one place,
- 14:39it can all speak to each other and it can tell you all those three
- 14:43to five things you need to know at any given time, sort of from
- 14:48a reactive point of view, like maybe I need to go talk to Ellen
- 14:50because last night she was speeding excessively and today I want to talk to her
- 14:56about that. Or it can be as per dayive and proactive as that never
- 15:01happened, You've never done that. But it can also be that data can
- 15:07also be used to develop some really predictive analytics to say, Okay, so
- 15:11I've got a fleet of pickup trucks and we're seeing these trends happen. These
- 15:18vehicles are built, you know, to last, and I've got you know,
- 15:22x percent of them failing at sixty five thousand miles this particular thing.
- 15:26Okay, then you can be proactive. You can talk with your OEM and
- 15:31say here's what we're seeing, here's the data, and then have them help
- 15:33you get those vehicles in for service, do a fix, maybe replace the
- 15:37assets all together. You can recover warranty costs. So there's just we could
- 15:43talk about all the ways that data and analytics help, but I think the
- 15:46key is when fleet managers have an environment where the data is in one place
- 15:52and it talks to each other, and it provides this outlook of what's important,
- 15:58now, what's important, and then what do I need to focus on
- 16:02the long term to meet my sustainability goals? For example. So many fun
- 16:07things to think about as you think about how tech safety technology might totally transform
- 16:12the way that you manage your fleet. So what does the new popularity of
- 16:18hybrid and e vehicles, how is that playing into this? Because I mean,
- 16:22obviously we were talking about you know, maintenance and gas costs, but
- 16:26now we've got battery life and charging stations, and it's a different animal.
- 16:32It's the same animal, but slightly different because you're not going to find a
- 16:36charging station at a gas station or charging stations as frequently as you find gas
- 16:38stations, at least not in the US infrastructure. Yet we're not there are
- 16:44vehicles being evaluated or not evaluated? Are they being tracked? Are they being
- 16:48maintained with this fleet management as well? Is it able to keep up with
- 16:52the newer vehicle technology. It is and all of that is being built in
- 16:57the vehicle where some of us have run or today manage fleets where we have
- 17:03to add additional equipment to our assets to do certain things, maybe track the
- 17:07temperature because it's a refrigeration truck right for the speed, or someone wearing their
- 17:14seatbolt, or all the fun things you can do literally almost everything, or
- 17:18you know, as someone idling. These vehicles are coming with onboard technology that
- 17:22can help to track all the things, especially when you think about evs and
- 17:26hybrids. You know what drivers I'll say fear the most is range. Can
- 17:33I get to where I'm going throughout the course of my day, Can I
- 17:37get back home ultimately charge, or can I get back to my depot where
- 17:41I'm going to charge and then drive my own vehicle home. These things are
- 17:45just a couple considerations as fleet managers dive into this, and again I'll go
- 17:51back to data. Fleet managers are using data from telematics to build the case
- 17:56for or not evs in their fleet. They're looking at where am I operating,
- 18:02how many miles am I driving? Who is stopping and going so batteries
- 18:07depending on the type of technology, you know, how can I run this
- 18:11vehicle and be operable and efficient in the same way I could with a gas
- 18:17vehicle or some other type of vehicle, And how can I be as efficient?
- 18:21And can I make it to all my customers? And can I make
- 18:22it through the day and not just make it through the day, but do
- 18:26that efficiently and safely with this type of assets. So they're looking at all
- 18:30the data from their assets they have today. They're evaluating that data and saying,
- 18:33okay, they can really hand pick the assets that are best to start
- 18:40their EV journey with. Right, they can say, this driver operates in
- 18:45this area, and so that is going to allow for a successful EV integration.
- 18:51There's places where they can charge, or they can get around in the
- 18:55day and get back home where they're going to charge, whatever the case may
- 18:57be. So fleet managers are in their toe in the water by using data
- 19:03from telematics on their current fleet to find the assets that are best suited for
- 19:08those replacement to EV type of scenarios. And that's how they're getting started.
- 19:14And then they're partnering with people in their cities, smart cities like here in
- 19:18Columbus, Ohio. They're partnering organizations are partnering with smart cities. So we're
- 19:23kind of creating this environment where people can share and learn together on how to
- 19:29make this transition. And it's not going to be for everyone, and it's
- 19:32not going to be now for everyone. Right, It's going to take a
- 19:34long time. And so those who think that this switch can happen quick even
- 19:38with government mandates, are can I say delusional? I can? They're mistaken.
- 19:45They're mistaken. I can say that because I can back that up,
- 19:52So I think again, it takes time and effort, but it can be
- 19:55done. And there are certain applications probably within every fleet around there, around
- 20:00the nation doing different types of work where Evie has a place or has a
- 20:04part in them. So we've talked about a couple different industries. We've talked
- 20:07about utilities, We spoke briefly about you know, long haul and some of
- 20:11those things. Now we're talking about you know, inner city or urban,
- 20:15you know, maybe last mile delivery. Are there any particular industries that have
- 20:19Obviously there are some that are big adopters that I could see utilities being one
- 20:23of them that it makes perfect sense for this to be something that they need
- 20:27to be in control of. When it comes to three pls and transport companies,
- 20:33obviously they're doing some sort of you know, collection of data and maintaining
- 20:37these vehicles. But what are some holdout industries that you're trying to get into
- 20:42that makes perfect sense and you're just banging your head against a wall trying to
- 20:48convince them that this is necessary, it's going to be beneficial, and at
- 20:52some point you're going to lose money if you're not doing this, if you're
- 20:56not keeping track of what's going on with your vehicles. Yeah, that's a
- 21:00great question. There definitely were some early adopters, you know, service fleets
- 21:04and what we're calling last mile now with service fleets that have always been operating
- 21:11in a very specific area, kind of doing consistent and repeatable things all the
- 21:15time. That's kind of how last mild delivery works. But when you think
- 21:19about industries thinking about making transitions to EV and to safety technology, this has
- 21:26been going on for a really long time. And to say that there are
- 21:30some that are holding out, absolutely, but I think it's more about they
- 21:33they're worried about a few things. It's hard to hire people and these last
- 21:40I mean name it. It's been five or six years maybe plus really challenging
- 21:45times finding drivers and vocational workers. And so there are organizations and there are
- 21:52industries I won't name them specifically who are holding out because they believe they're going
- 21:59to lose people. I would argue that that is a myth. I've been
- 22:03there, I've done it. We had that same fear in the organization I
- 22:07work for. But I think my story then and it's the same now,
- 22:11and I think it always will be. It's all about positioning, right,
- 22:15If you're genuine about what you're doing, and that's really around safety. If
- 22:19you care about safety and safe operation and you say it in the right way,
- 22:26the people that work for you will believe you. They have to know
- 22:29what's in it for them, and so the organizations that are doing that the
- 22:33best. I just interviewed Sharon Etherington. She's from Roach Industries. She gets
- 22:38it. They socialize things with their community of drivers in a great way.
- 22:44They have town halls. They're getting on calls and talking to drivers. If
- 22:48they hand someone an EV, it's not like Okay, good luck, No,
- 22:52it's let's talk about the technology we're giving you. It's a vehicle.
- 22:55It is tech. The vehicle's the most dangerous tool you'll give any worker in
- 22:59the world world. I don't care what their job is. If you give
- 23:03them a vehicle that is the most dangerous tool, and it's becoming more and
- 23:06more dangerous because of distracted driving. So again, delusional if you think that
- 23:11safety technology is doing if your lack of adoption of safety technology is doing anything
- 23:18but hurting you, it's not about if. It's about when you're going to
- 23:22get railroaded by something that you should have expected, you know, I mean
- 23:27or been able to prevent been able to prevent. And it's like if you
- 23:32do the math, and the math's out there, but I can tell you
- 23:34that, Like, let's just talk distracted driving for a second. If you
- 23:37think about what's reported today, we believe that only about half of the accidents
- 23:42that are a result of distracted driving are actually being reported that way. So
- 23:48anyone who's listening, if you're like, I'm not sure we shef telematics or
- 23:52cameras, you need to talk about it. Another thing that's driving this Alan
- 23:56is insurance companies are going to their insured and saying we are not going to
- 24:02renew your fleet, or we're going to renew your fleet and at much higher
- 24:06cost because you don't have safety tech in your vehicles. So the hand is
- 24:11being forced because the writing has always been on the wall, and it continues
- 24:15to be a more and more dangerous place to do business is on the roadways.
- 24:19So you know there are holdout industries not for long. We work with
- 24:25a lot of industries that intellishift and we have seen some of our customers in
- 24:30construction, utility, electric, hvac, et cetera. They're coming to us
- 24:37and telling us so maybe they have telematics with us, and they're using fuel
- 24:41and maintenance and they're using our big data platform. They're coming to us and
- 24:45saying, my insurance company is asking me to put cameras in my vehicles.
- 24:49Can you help me write a policy? And I'm like, I can,
- 24:52I can help you with that. And then it's about taking this policy and
- 24:57saying, hold on, we do need to write a policy and people need
- 25:00to understand it and sign it. Okay, that's no brainer, but it's
- 25:04more about you need a communication strategy so that the people that work for you
- 25:10will know that you're doing this. Not because the insurance guy said so,
- 25:14it's because the insurance guys what do they know? They know what they're paying
- 25:18for, and they're paying for accidents that could have been avoided, so or
- 25:22crashes, don't call them crashes. I don't even use that word accident anymore.
- 25:26But so they know and they're coming to you because it's inevitable that someone
- 25:32in your fleet is going to get in an accident, and whether they're a
- 25:36fault or not, how do you know? You have that tools and tech
- 25:40that can prove that. But it's the organizations who take that tart and say
- 25:45why are we really doing this. It's because we care. We want not
- 25:48only do we want to keep the workforce that we have, it is we
- 25:52want to attract. I think people look at it the wrong way. I
- 25:57think they're like, I'm going to lose people, we're going to quit.
- 26:00No, actually, you're going to keep them longer term, and you're going
- 26:04to attract more people to come and work for your organization because they will know
- 26:10that what you're doing is top of the line, state of the art,
- 26:14to make sure that they are safe, and they are safe from all the
- 26:17other crazies out on the road who are putting on mass scara, curling their
- 26:22hair, shaving, reading a book. I mean, go up, get
- 26:26a passenger and drive and tell me what you see. My kids used to
- 26:30say we used to count the people. We'd say, who's on their phone?
- 26:33You know what we do now is we count the people who are not
- 26:37distracted by something. And they are very few. And it doesn't matter old
- 26:42or young, just anyone. Everyone is. When they get in their vehicle,
- 26:48they're not thinking I need to just drive, so I mean, yeah,
- 26:52usually it's a commute or you know, an expected trip and they're trying
- 26:56to figure out what can I do to entertain myself during the time that I
- 27:00have to be in the car or in the vehicle. How about just like
- 27:03not kill themselves or someone else. That's that's a good goal. Let's do
- 27:07that. It's true. And and to your point, you know, when
- 27:15these policies are coming into play, when this is something new, it's reasonable
- 27:19for the employees to think this is punitive. This is a punishment. I'm
- 27:25being tracked, I'm being babysit, I'm being micromanaged. Why don't you just
- 27:30trust me? And to your point, you know, it's not about trust.
- 27:36I could trust those employees implicitly. But if and when something goes wrong,
- 27:41whether it's that driver's fault or whether it's the fault of another person who
- 27:48crashed into them, having the ability to say with certainty, my driver was
- 27:55not at fault, this should not hurt their personal ability to get insurance.
- 28:00This should not hurt their ability to maintain employment. This should not be something
- 28:07that they are held personally liable for in the event of legal action. All
- 28:12of these things show that, you know, we're able to protect these employees
- 28:18from all of those outside potential influences. As you said, when it's inevitable
- 28:22when an accident happens. We'll have everything in place to show that we were
- 28:27doing exactly what we were supposed to do. We were not distracted drivers.
- 28:32We were you know, maintaining the speed limit. We were in an appropriately
- 28:36maintained vehicle, you know, for the driving conditions, and you know,
- 28:41the seat belt was in place, there was you know, they weren't playing
- 28:44on their phone, they were doing the driving. And so you've you've eliminated
- 28:49all possibility of you know, legal action or retribution because you can prove it.
- 28:56It's not a he said, she said anymore, right, And drivers,
- 29:00guess what. Fleet managers don't have time to watch videos. Ever,
- 29:03the AI and the technology only tells us what we need to know and only
- 29:08when we need to know. And what we're seeing with our client base is,
- 29:12I mean, people are from eighty five percent to thirty five percent plus
- 29:18is how they're reducing their percentages by which they're reducing accidents. So the big
- 29:22story here is for drivers is guess what, we're going to help you this
- 29:26many more times. We're going to exponentially impact your chances of getting in an
- 29:33accident in a positive way. So kind of like if and when that accident
- 29:37happens, you know't we're covered. But it's more about you know again,
- 29:41for some of our clients sixty percent, you know, we've reduced accidents by
- 29:47sixty percent. Who can say that? What? People who adopt tools and
- 29:51technology that help them do that. So again, it's a it's a shift,
- 29:53it's a mindset. It really starts with organizations thinking about safety culture the
- 29:59whole person, send vehicle fitness and driver and operator fitness. When they're thinking
- 30:03about it in that way, it will span every aspect of their organization,
- 30:07people sitting in chairs, people driving vehicles, name it. When you have
- 30:11a safety culture, you'll start a true safety culture. You start to really
- 30:15think about all those things collectively, more naturally and organically. And that's when
- 30:22drivers and employees start to trust you and count on you as a partner in
- 30:27their own safety and their own getting home from work safe every day. And
- 30:32that's just to me, it's like a no brainer. Is it easy?
- 30:36No? No, it's not. But is it a must right now?
- 30:40Yet? It was a must a long time ago, but more so now
- 30:44because the roadways are incredibly unsafe due to people who don't just get behind the
- 30:48wheel and focus on the one thing they need to do at that time,
- 30:52which is driving well. And another thing you had mentioned was that companies are
- 30:57afraid that they will lose employees or not be able to attract employees. But
- 31:03I think by having these protocols in place, it not only can attract employees
- 31:08to your point want to make it home at the end of the day safely
- 31:12and in one piece, but it attracts the right kind of employees. It
- 31:17attracts the employees who you want to have on your team, who are conscientious
- 31:22enough, who are able to focus on the job at hand, who are
- 31:25not easily distracted, who are able to get the work done in the time
- 31:30that they're supposed to get it done. It really is a matter of bringing
- 31:34in the people and cutting out the ones who were trying to just you know,
- 31:40have employment or get a job because of the paycheck. You want the
- 31:44best people on your team, so you need to again, what you allow
- 31:48is what will continue. That is the perfect advice that you shared earlier that
- 31:53applies to everything that we're talking about today, especially when you think about like
- 32:00organizational safety. It's like, you know, if you're not doing anything about
- 32:04it, then what you're saying to your workforces, It's okay, it's okay
- 32:07for you to drive like that too, it's okay for you to endanger yourself
- 32:13and then and company property. Yeah exactly. And then the organization is saying
- 32:17to themselves, we're like just throwing money, you know, if you want
- 32:22to think about it that way. They're just they have a big bonfire going
- 32:25all the time, and they're just tossing money into it, feeding the fire.
- 32:30So yeah, it's like for me again, not easy, necessary now,
- 32:36always has been. But I get excited. Of course. I know
- 32:38my passion is undeniable. You know. When I say things like people have
- 32:44their head in the sand and they're just delusional, I really mean that,
- 32:46because it's just a matter of time, you know. And it was cool
- 32:52I did. I was talking to a pest control person recently and this guy
- 32:57had a very tiny fleet. I think he had like two or three vehicles,
- 33:00and we were chatting about safety, and I loved his whole idea of
- 33:04like whether I have one vehicle or I have ten thousand. He totally got
- 33:07it. He was like, for me, the guy with three, I'm
- 33:10doing great. I'm making it to my customers whatever. But if I didn't
- 33:15have anything there to protect myself, I could have the kind of accident that
- 33:19could put me out of business. Absolutely, and organizations need to think that
- 33:22way as well. It's flip that. Now you get the guy with three
- 33:25trucks who has a bad one and he's done, he's done, he's filing
- 33:29for bankruptcy. Then you have the large fleet that is driving two hundred million
- 33:35miles a year, the fleet that I managed drove plus that, you know,
- 33:37hundreds of millions of miles a year, and then you just take that
- 33:42risk and you multiply it, multiply it. Yeah, so doesn't matter where
- 33:46you are, folks on your journey, now's the time I think for efficiency
- 33:51and safety tech in your vehicles. Thanks and tune in next time for the
- 34:00second half of our episode with Aaron and Intelishift, and we will be talking
- 34:06a little bit more about what this looks like in terms of the oversight from
- 34:10the driver's perspector. We're going to talk a little bit about risk and liability
- 34:15protection. We talk about driverless vehicles and some of the capabilities there, and
- 34:20public transit and sustainability and what information can be gleaned through all the data that's
- 34:24collected, so stay tuned and we'll see you next week. Meeboch Consulting is
- 34:34one of the largest and most globally recognized supply chain consulting, engineering, and
- 34:38advisory firms. For nearly fifty years, we've helped clients achieve supply chain excellence
- 34:44and sustainable competitive advantage across the entire spectrum of the supply chain by delivering improvements
- 34:51and innovation strategically, tactically, and digitally. To learn more, visit meeboch
- 34:55dot com. You've been listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a meboch podcast,
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- 35:13next time.