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Shifting Gears Into Better Fleet Management (Part 2) · Speaking of Supply Chain

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You're listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a Meeboch podcast. This is a
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show for logistics professionals looking to learn more about the latest innovations in supply chain.
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Each episode will feature a conversation on topics such as mitigating supply chain disruption
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and reducing risk, current automation trends, sustainability initiatives, and more. Let's
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dive right in. Hello, and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where
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we explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting the logistics and supply chain
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industries. I'm your host, Ellen Wood. This is part two of my
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conversation with Aaron Gilchrist from Intellishift, and today we're going to be covering some
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things like risk, liability and protection from those types of things from accidents on
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the road, driverless vehicles, and some of the capabilities, and a little
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bit about public transit and some sustainability, the initiatives that are capable with the
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intelligence that can be gleaned from fleet management. Not only that when you're talking
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about the gentleman with only a few vehicles, and this is you know,
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potentially career ending possibilities, but you're talking about that giant company that has you
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know, hundreds thousands of vehicles, they also have millions of dollars at stake,
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and those are the ones that people who get into accidents. I okay,
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confession time. I doom scroll the traffic cam videos like on TikTok or
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on Facebook videos where you see all these drivers just pulling in front of semis
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and just doing terribly distracted or even road rage type things. And when you're
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a vehicle or when you're a company that has millions of dollars at stake,
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some of these people do that intentionally just to try to create or cause an
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actident where they can profit from it or attempt to well. And on that
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same note, I mean you think about likely if you have a fleet,
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you probably brand it with something, your name's on there, your company,
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and people target you. You know, there was a three car pile up,
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Let's blame the guy who has all the money. Yeah, it's the
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deepest pockets in the situation. Let's go for that one, right. You
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know, this tech allows for you to say, no, here's actually exactly
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what happened. Here's what we were doing beforehand, here's what happened during and
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here's what happened after so you know that tach allows for that, so I
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know it. You know, it seems like I'm saying, Okay, you
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can't survive without this. Yeah, that's totally what I'm saying. You can't
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survive without safety tech. Not for long, folks. You're just like you
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got a Rolllett wheel and you're tossing your ball in there, and yeah,
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good luck you're playing or lett if you're not thinking about this and at least
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starting to talk about it inside your organizations like how do we do this?
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And again, I think the biggest play is showing you people that you care
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about them, truly care about them enough to invest in them. So you
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mentioned that pest control and a tiny fleet of three vehicles. What's the minimum
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size vehicle or fleet I should say vehicle number that Intellershift can really drive value
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for because I mean there is a cost to, you know, having this
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type of software available, and there is an outlay of I assume when we're
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talking about gas powered vehicles and you don't have the immediate access to the data
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where you have to put in you know, a transponder or something to collect
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that data from the vehicle, there's there's going to be additional cost included there.
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At what point does it truly add value? Is that a vehicle's fleet
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size? Is that an amount of I love this question because I love like
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KPIs and metrics and ROI models exactly. There has to be an ROI for
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companies to get on board, because if it's only a cost, they're going
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to find a way to dismiss it or find a justification to pass. Okay,
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I think you know, if the roadways were really safe, this might
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be an argument. They're not. So it doesn't matter what size your fleet
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is. So intelligif we can serve fleets, we have fleets as smalls too,
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we have fleets with thousands and thousands of vehicles. So we're here for
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anyone who says we want to be safe and efficient. So that's what we
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do. And our ROI model helps fleets to find their suite spot based on
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what their challenges are. And that's like, again, we're not the only
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ones, but I'll just speak for myself. What we do is we show
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them the value. It's so easy to do out ahead of time because if
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you use statistics and vehicle operational costs and whatnot, and all these inputs go
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into our model and we can show them how much they could save on fuel
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if they're having idling issues, how much they can save on maintenance when things
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are maintained on time, increasing vehicle efficiency, reducing the number of stops,
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combining services. The list goes on so much fun I get. I'll geek
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out on that for about an hour sall stop. But as it relates to
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the safety aspect, that's the easiest part when we can show them if they
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avoid so if they're a smaller fleet, let's say they only have three or
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four accidents a year, If they only have one, the savings that they
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will achieve by reducing their accident rate typically will pay not only pay for the
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technology, but allow them additional cash to use to reinvest in their business.
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So the rois there. I can't think of a scenario where it wouldn't be
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because of the accident rates, not only inside the organizations that we're working with,
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but with what's happening out on the road WASE today. It's just as
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a scary place. And I say that as my sweet daughter is about to
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get her tempts in like a month, and I'm thinking, now I have
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three order kids, so been through this already, but it's been a minute,
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and so I think about her. You know, but the time my
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daughter, who's ten years older than this one, is going, you know,
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things were different. Then fast forward and Lydia is going to be getting
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her license, and wow, don't think for a second. Every possible technology
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that I can put in that vehicle will be in there to make sure that
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I can account for not only her own behavior and teaching her how to be
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a conscious and good and defensive driver, to helping reduce the chances of someone
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else not making good choices affecting her life and our lives. So that tech
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is going into Lydia's vehicle whatever she'll be driving, and a nine hundred percent
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no, they'll be pushback. I'm counting on it. I was going to
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say, I have a fifteen year old boy, so we are very very
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close to that as well. Yeah, so, and count on the pushback.
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But the pushback is good because that's a great opportunity to share what we
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know and to help our teams understand that it's not just about them. They
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can be as cautious and as careful and as diligent and consistent as they want
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to be. It's everyone else out on the roadways that can and will put
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them in harm's way, and to have a heads up on that is game
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changing and it's a lifesaver. I've done a lot on distracted driving on my
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podcast, and I've interviewed a couple people who've lost their kids this way,
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and man, if that isn't motivation enough for people like you and I with
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upcoming drivers and organizations to make the move, I can't imagine what is And
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I think about how underreported, like I shared, that these accidents are,
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and that us addressing the sort of addiction to devices is is another aspect of
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distracted driving and how to deal with that in orgs. It's not something we've
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talked about, but I'm excited it's a topic I want to talk about.
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I want to find somebody who's thinking about that cognitive stuff a little bit more
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inside of their organization and figuring out how to we know we need the device
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to send down work orders to report. You know, we talked about DOT
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regulations. How do I report my hours? How do I do my vehicle
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inspections? Heck yeah, I want a digital advice to do those. I
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want to make sure my vehicles fit every day. So the technology is really
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really good. It's about you know, how we socialize and train drivers to
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use it, the when, the how, the why that can make the
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device be a compliment to safety and not another distraction. So really great things
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coming and lots of great things going on in this arena. Laws are passing,
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advocacies happening. You know, you got the people that I interviewed doing
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easing work like the key for foundation. You know, so lots of great
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things happening. It just takes there's it's never going to be enough. We
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just need to continue down this path and just it's a journey. Well,
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and our technology is going to keep changing. So those distractions that didn't exist
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for your older children, that do exist for your current up and coming driver.
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You know, in ten years, who knows what we will have that
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will be a distraction to us. So one other question that I wanted to
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ask that came to mind, just because we're talking about you know, these
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drivers. What happens when we're talking about some of these driver less vehicles.
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I love this too. I love this conversation too. You know, I
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mean, again, not going to happen overnight, but I can tell you
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I just I ordered a vehicle recently. It's not in yet, it's coming
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in like ten days. When my new vehicle arrives, it's can drive it.
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So it can. I mean it has a level of autonomy. Vehicles
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have had levels of autono me for ages. Those levels of autonomy mean it
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can react to the roadways in a certain way. Indicators, signs, lines
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on the road, all kinds of things. We all know that that is
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grossly different. No matter where you are, not all roadways are fit for
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autonomous vehicles. Total autonomy. I think about. I'll speak for myself.
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I want to be in control of that asset that weighs. My new vehicle's
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going to weigh right around eighty five hundred pounds. And so I know for
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certain that I can do this in the vehicle that I have today, like
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I could not that I've ever done this, But if I drove down a
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road that was thirty five miles an hour and it's well marked, I could
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do this probably for thirty seconds. It keeps me in the lines, and
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then it tells me take control of the wheel, put your hands on the
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wheel. It knows that my hands aren't on the wheel right my new vehicle
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will allow for me to not have my hands on the wheel. Will I
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ever do that? No? No, And hopefully it would only be in
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a situation where maybe I have something's happened to me medically, physically, and
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the vehicle could safely come to a stop. I mean, that's amazing.
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So autonomy has its place, and it's coming in places where it probably doesn't
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have its place, right, it's coming anyway, it's coming. It's my
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vehicle. The in ten Days says things on it that you know are fascinating.
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However, I mean, you see the commercial where they're playing Queen's you
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Know we will Rock you in they're clapping. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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I just thought we thought of the exact same commercial, same time. But
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at the end of the day, autonomy serves a purpose in terms of safety
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to help recover from situations that could be catastrophic. But in my personal professional
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opinion, yes, it's coming. Will it be total autonomy everywhere? I
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don't know you and I won't be alive for that. Yeah. Well,
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But and also it's that doesn't mean that's the intended use of these autonomous features,
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Like that's it's not so that you can you know, play along with
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whatever's on the radio and get the air drums and guitar going. It's meant
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for those situations where you know you have a driver who's having a medical emergency,
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or you know you're in conditions that are low visibility and maybe those sensors
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are able to adapt and see better than the driver is, or you know
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you've got those those halogen headlights oncoming and it's very very difficult to see.
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In these situations, the car can help guide. But that's the intent.
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Is not to have a party while you're speeding down the road, right.
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I mean, if I need to get work done and I'm traveling and I
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am behind because I was at a conference, you know, I'm taking an
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uber, I have a chauffeur, right, and then I can pull up
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my laptop in that back seat and work away and count on someone else to
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get me there safely. Don't plan on doing that with my vehicle. Yeah,
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expecting the car to do it is unrealistic, right, And there's some
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you know, it's amazing. I love technology, like I'm a total geek
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when it comes to technology, but I also respect it. I respect the
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tech, I respect the roadways. You know, that level of respect really
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comes from, you know, managing a fleet that drives one hundreds of millions
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of miles every year and seeing what can happen and seeing what's possible, good
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and bad, and all the people that I've been interviewing and all the statistics
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that are out there. You know, I stay on the glass half full
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side of things and say that all of this tech is really great when used
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appropriately. Yeah, I love the tech. Trust me. Okay, I
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know I said my last question a minute ago, but you made me think
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of something else. We can also talk offline as well. You and I
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can talk for a long time. I haven't feeling it. I think we
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could. But so we're talking about fleets, and you're talking about essentially,
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you know, a show for public transit. What implications are there for public
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transit and optimizing these particular fleets that we depend on. I'm speaking from Indianapolis.
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So I'm in Indianapolis. It's snowy outside, it's very cold. We
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don't have a metro system. We only have buses. Now, these buses,
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we have a couple different lines of buses. We've got some you know,
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fast transit buses that have dedicated lanes we've got regular buses that go a
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little bit more everywhere. We've got e buses, we've got gas powered buses,
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you know. But the biggest i'd say objection the city and the citizenry
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as a whole has against these buses is that a lot of the times they're
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just running empty and you know, there's no one utilizing the transit. And
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I know that that's different logistical question all together, but when it comes to
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you know, this bus is out of service or this bus had an accident
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with another vehicle on the roadway, is public transit one of the sectors that
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Intelishift supports and what can be leaned there Again, we'll support, Yeah,
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we'll support anyone who's driving vehicles and once to do safe and efficient things.
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I guess with public transit, I love what they're doing. They're doing really
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really good things. They're doing pro pain, they're doing natural gas, they're
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doing electric So environmentally, cities are taking the leap and they can because public
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transit is on prescribed roots and so it's not easy, but it is.
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It's a good business case. So I work alongside of you know, cities,
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municipalities and government fleets all the time. And they're doing great things.
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They're taking advantage of the technology, they're taking advantage of alternative i'll say alternative
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fuels. They're lightweighting, they're they're doing a lot from a sustainability standpoint,
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which is fantastic, And they're also doing a lot around efficiency, meaning route
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optimization, And I think it's beautiful because they're reducing their miles driven, they're
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reducing their impact on the environment, they're filling there. You know, they're
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having more adoption, meaning I've got my capacities increasing on the assets that I
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am running. So I think cities are getting better and better and better at
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this one that they should and they have to. I mean, they owe
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it to they owe it to the people like me and you who live in
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that city to make sure that we have a sustainable place to live. But
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I think there's always going to be a place for public transit trains, certainly,
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and some cities are already doing really really cool things. But the ones
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that don't even have like the trains, are still doing a lot with the
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shuttles and the buses that they're running. So I think there'll always be a
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place for that because in society, there are always going to people be people
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who live and work in areas where it doesn't make sense for them to have
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a vehicle, and to be that's a good thing. The less vehicles the
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better, right, it reduces congestion, it reduces emissions, it's better for
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the environment. It's it's an optimal thing. It's just I think they've been
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ahead of the curve even a little bit on trying sort of everything in terms
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of alternative fuels. I'd love to see it. I in Columbus is a
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smart city, so we're doing a lot of cool things here. But I
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think for those listening out there, if you live in a city that isn't
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you know, it's your city, you know, talk about it, get
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involved in helping your city be more sustainable and having the kind of transit that
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people want to use, and reduce emissions and just reduce the overall need for
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every person to own a vehicle. Well, and I think part of that
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would become a function of it. If you're able to optimize on all these
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other levels, then maybe you're able to expand route options or expand coverage.
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You know, there's only so many places again, it's fixed routes. You
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know where it goes and where it doesn't go. So if it's not going
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to the places where it needs to go, it's if it's not going to
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the places where the people who would use it are or where they need to
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go, then it's not a beneficial public service. So how can you optimize
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what you're already doing in order to enable growth? I mean, that's the
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name of the game at the end of the day, yep. And and
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I see cities doing that. It's just so fun. I really see them
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doing that today, and it's really fun. It's such a different animal than
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even government fleets, you know, cities, municipalities, totally different animal than
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somebody running a national service fleet. But we all have a couple of things
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that are the same. Safety and efficiency is always going to be critical no
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matter what you do or where you do it. So I think that,
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you know, I think of some of the associations out there that kind of
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intersect all of us, like NAFA for example, that's government, it's private
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fleets, it's you know, all types of fleets coming together and sharing and
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collaborating on education and sourcing and technology and data sharing and benchmarking. So lots
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of great places to find that information out there, but again public sectors,
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they're on it. I think it's fun. Well, I think that brings
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us to the end of our episode. We have talked for nearly an hour
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about fleet management. You are a fantastic evangelist. Hey, thanks what You're
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easy to talk to, Aleen. So there's that. Thank you. I
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hope our listeners stayed with us for the whole episode. There. There was
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a lot that we covered today and it was a fantastic discussion. I've learned
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so much and I had a great time. Likewise, thank you so much
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for having me. It was so much fun. All right, listeners out
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there, if you have a suggestion for a topic or would like to be
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a guest on our show, I would love to hear from you. Please
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email me at podcast at meboch dot com. I will call out Aaron that
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that is how you and your marketing team reached out to me to become a
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guest on this podcast. And so for any of you who have heard me
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with this little spiel at the end of each episode, it does actually work.
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I check the email, I do look in there, and I do
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research to find out which ones our listeners might be interested in. So I
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hope you've enjoyed this and it does work. Please email me at podcast at
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meebok dot com. As always, thanks for listening to Speaking of Supply Chain.
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