February 22, 2024 • 35 mins
It takes a lot of moving parts and careful maintenance for a vehicle to effectively run—and it takes as many moving parts and as much maintenance for a company to effectively manage a fleet of vehicles.
This week’s episode is the first of a two-part conversation with Erin Gilchrist, VP of Fleet Management at IntelliShift. For Erin, ensuring the safety, compliance, and efficiency of a company’s vehicles isn’t just her business, it’s her passion, because she knows what’s at stake—not only for the company and the driver, but the people they share the road with. Erin makes a compelling case for why companies of all sizes should buy in to today’s fleet management strategies and adopt the many measures available to them.
Join us as we discuss:
This week’s episode is the first of a two-part conversation with Erin Gilchrist, VP of Fleet Management at IntelliShift. For Erin, ensuring the safety, compliance, and efficiency of a company’s vehicles isn’t just her business, it’s her passion, because she knows what’s at stake—not only for the company and the driver, but the people they share the road with. Erin makes a compelling case for why companies of all sizes should buy in to today’s fleet management strategies and adopt the many measures available to them.
Join us as we discuss:
- How automated software aids in efficient vehicle maintenance
- Key considerations for fleet managers when transitioning to electric vehicles
- Which industries are being heavily targeted by fleet management evangelists
- The value of a company’s commitment to road safety culture
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
You're listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a meboch podcast. This is a
show for logistics professionals looking to learnmore about the latest innovations in supply chain.
Each episode will feature a conversation ontopics such as mitigating supply chain disruption
and reducing risk, current automation trends, sustainability initiatives, and more. Let's
(00:26):
dive right in. Hello, andwelcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where
we explore trends, current events,and innovations impacting the logistics and supply chain
industries. I'm your host, EllenWood. Today we are doing something a
little bit different. So I recordedthis podcast with Aaron Gilchrist of in Tellershift,
(00:49):
and we had such a fantastic conversationand it went so long that we've
decided to break this up into twodifferent episodes. It was way too much
to try to put to other foryou listeners. As a single episode,
you would have been here all day. So this episode with Aaron, we
discuss vehicle fleets, safety, maintenance, electric vehicles versus gas vehicles, distracted
(01:17):
driving. We get into some ofthe industries that are really easy and early
adopters of some of this intelligence behindthese fleet vehicles, and then in next
episode, so in two weeks whenthat episode is ready, we're going to
get a little bit more into someother topics like risk and liability protection,
(01:40):
driverless vehicles and the capabilities that existthere, and a little bit into public
transit and sustainability. Hello and welcometo Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
explore trends, current events, andinnovations impacting the logistics and supply chain industries.
I'm your host, Ellen Wood.Today I have with me Aaron Gilcrest
(02:04):
and she is the VP of FleetEvangelization at Intellishift. Hi erin, good
morning, How are you. I'mcold, it is so cold outside,
so I am glad that we areinside and get to have a fun conversation.
Today we're going to be talking aboutfleet management. Obviously you are an
(02:24):
evangelist for it. I can't waitto hear a little bit more about what
that is all about. I'm lookingforward to our topic, but first let's
take a quick break from supply chaintopics and just get to know you a
little bit better. So our icebreaker question today is what is the best
piece of advice you've ever been given? I have kind of two that go
(02:46):
hand in hand. If you judgepeople, you have no time to love
them. It just edges out thelove the judgment. So that's a big
thing. And the other one fromthe same person both mother Teresa, is
that we can all do great things. So, like, you know this
idea that we're confined to what we'recapable of, well, I think if
(03:07):
you even define it, then you'relimiting your capabilities. So and just like
seeing all the amazing things she didwith her feeble, humble, little tiny
self changed the world. So yeah, so those are the two things I
love to share because yeah, ifwe just all thought that way, the
world'd be a better place. Ohof course I love it. Well,
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mine is not quite as philanthropic asyours, but it is up there.
So one of my professional mentors thathe was a supervisor in a previous position
at a previous company, but hedid so much to help me in my
professional advancement. And one of thethings that he even he told me and
(03:51):
he was like, and you haveto call me on this. What you
allow is what will continue. Andthat is absolutely critical I think when it
comes to our personal lives, whenit comes to our professional lives, is
whatever behavior we allow other people toget away with is what they're going to
continue doing. So when yeah,I've heard that said, it's what we
permit, you know, it's kindof it's giving people permission to keep doing
(04:15):
that, and you're telling them that'sokay with me, when maybe it is
inner shouldn't be exactly. And solike when he would when he would call
me or email me and say Ineed this now, I'm like, sorry
that you need to give me enoughtime to do it, enough notice to
do these things, and he's like, dang it, I shouldn't have told
you that advice. So I usedit against him. He's like, I'm
(04:38):
eating my words right now. Loveit. But that's a good one.
Thank you for sharing that. Allright, So getting into our conversation today,
tell me a little bit about beinga fleet evangelist. What does that
consist of? Yeah, I know, I it's so funny because when I
say it out loud, it's sofunny. But what preface is that is
(05:00):
VP of fleet right, fleet evangelism, and so I am super passionate about
fleet and more specifically fleet safety,fleet sustainability. So I think that you
know, the evangelism part is justthat I get to do this right.
I get to talk about my passions. I get to share my knowledge and
(05:20):
experience. I get to talk topeople with lots of knowledge and experience and
spread the love so that fleet andsafety and operations leaders can think about how
they could run the safest and mostefficient fleets. At the very same time,
those go hand in hand. SoI just get to do this,
I get to talk about it.And so in my role at Intel Shift,
(05:41):
there's kind of three facets. Theone is I get to talk about
it right. So I host apodcast called straight Talk on Fleet, and
I do some keynotes. I haveguests just like you, and we talk
about everything fleet management. And it'sso great. We're building this community where
we can all grow and learn toget other. And then the second part
of my job is I'm an insidesort of consult in the voice of the
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customer and Tellershift, I get toserve as you know, our in house
fleet manager. So I'm running afleet. I'm a fleet manager without a
fleet, which is like a lotless stressful. And I get to advise
like you know, sales and productand product marketing and product development and say,
okay, here's how fleet managers needto work with data. See data,
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look at analytics and reporting. Whatalerts do we need? What do
we want our interface to be likeso UX and UI and CX and all
the things inside. And then Ialso get to do that within for our
prospects and our customers as like afree consultant to them, to you know,
sit and talk about all things fleetwith them and help them bring some
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of their visions to life, whetherthose be safety or efficiency goals, whatever
they are. I get to helpthem do blueprints and write policies and social
new tools and technologies inside their orgs. So loads of fun. Again,
fleet manager without a fleet, it'sthe bomb, my favorite job and my
other favorite job, so very fun. So what exactly are we talking about
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in terms of fleet management? Youmentioned safety? Oh yeah, So I
mean if you think about what afleet is, right, So, any
organization that has vehicles or equipment thatperforms jobs for them and helps them be
successful in any way, shape orform, that's a fleet, right,
And so properly manage a fleet,you need to think about that entire life
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cycle of the equipment, the asset, the vehicle. So from the design
elements of that asset and how it'sgoing to work for your business all the
way through until you're going to retireeverything in between. So think safety,
fuel maintenance. You know, howis that vehicle legal on the road,
So registrations and tolls and all thefun things that it takes to operate a
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vehicle, well anywhere in the world, but certainly here in the US on
our roadways. So big job.And some fleet managers are managing parts of
that. Some are managing all ofthat with their team. Others are even
in charge of managing the drivers oroperators of those assets, which really really
gets into the whole safety and ergonomicaspects of that job. So I have
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been lucky enough to do kind ofall of that in my past for a
long time with a large fleet,and just developed a real passion for this
whole idea of fleet management. SoI have a little bit of a unique
perspective. My husband used to workfor a utility company and drove a fleet
vehicle, so I've seen this onthe personal end, or I guess on
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the user end, on the driverend, of all of the things that
he had to do to maintain hisvehicle to make sure that it was in
compliance with you know, tire pressureor anything involved. You know, they
had ladders on top of the vehicle, so he has to make sure that
all of the equipment, the addon equipment that is built into the vehicle
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for its functionality was maintained properly andworking properly, you know, taking it
in for oil changes when that wasdue, and a lot of that was
left up to the individual drivers andit sure it happens and it gets done,
and he was very diligent about makingsure, you know, the oil
light came on, I need toget an oil change or it's been so
(09:28):
many thousands of miles that this needsto happen. But having that as an
app or a functionality within the businessthat keeps track of it ahead of time
means that they don't have to,you know, get surprised with that notification
that morning of him saying, hey, my vehicle says it's due for this
service. Pull me out of schedulingfor today. I need to go take
(09:50):
care of it. It's more proactive. That should never be the case,
right, So, you know,I think I love you know a lot
about Fleetmatch. You're selling yourself storyhere. I think, you know,
especially with utility. There's so muchfocus around safety because of the nature of
their work, and so you thinkabout if we could just make that is
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intuitive or as innate on the vehicleoperation side as it is for that operator
on the vocational side, you know, So when that comes together, that's
really where I think fleet managers andorganizations excel is when they can make it
so easy for the operator or driverto be compliant with all those mission critical
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vehicle fleet to dos because that meanssafety and efficiency for the driver and for
the organization and reduce risk and there'sa whole list. And then if they
could make that so easy so thatthat becomes second nature to the operator,
then they can really focus on theirvocational work and do that service for the
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organization and the best way possible andthen get there every day on time,
safely, and more importantly, gethome hopefully in better shape than they started
the day. And so that,you know, you definitely get it.
And I think that leaving it upto the driver, gosh, it's just
that those are ways of old,is what I like to say. I
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think, you know, it's there'sso much opportunity again to make that really
easy and really successful for organizations,so that aspect of the fleet manager,
that human element and how we socializethese things is critical to whether they'll be
successful or not sure well, AndI think to some extent, and this
may just be me personally, becauseas professionals, we know how busy we
(11:39):
are and how many things are onour to do list. If I had
to keep track of, you know, every time my car needed an oil
change or my company vehicle needed anoil change and all these other things,
that's extra things on my to dolist, extra things to keep track of,
and so, and they might notget done on time exactly, they
might not get done on time,and then that puts the company at risk,
(12:03):
not just the individual and their employment, but the company at risk if
the vehicle is not maintained properly.So I know that there are probably organizations
where they're thinking, Okay, ifwe put this particular piece of software in
place to track all this, everyone'sgoing to feel like it's big brother watching
or that we're micro managing this process. But truly it's I don't have to
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think about this anymore. It's thealert that's going to come automatically, and
it's going to alert the supervisors orthe management. You know, these are
the vehicles that need service this month, and these are the vehicles, this
is how long they're going to haveto be out of service, So how
are we going to adjust scheduling,how are we going to adjust the workload.
It really allows for that more strategicplanning of the maintenance that needs to
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take place. And I mean,so far we're only talking about utility vehicles.
Really we haven't even gotten into likelong haul vehicles, where you've got
to keep track of how many hoursthey've been driving and whether you know that
got eaten up because they were stuckin a traffic jam for two hours.
So there's so much at stake herewhen it comes to the management of vehicles
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out on public roads. Technology anddata play a critical role in all of
that. And I think that thisday in the life of anyone driving a
vehicle, it doesn't matter what they'redriving, what their vocation is, what
type of asset. If you buildfor safety first and think about that as
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an organization, I mean overall,culturally and certainly with the vehicle fleet,
then all of the other things thatwe're talking about fall into line. Because
the technology that we use to developbetter drivers to avoid accidents, to get
exonerated for things that are not ourfault. All those beautiful things that the
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safety technology does, it also generatesamazing data, and with that data you
can do everything well. You canmake sure that drivers are fueling where and
when you want them to fuel.You can make sure that they're going not
just getting things maintained, but gettingit maintained at the right time, maybe
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at a shop that you need orwant them to go to at a price
that was negotiated by you ahead oftime. So if you think about how
all of this data can play intoyour day to day operations as a fleeter,
safety or OPS leader, it canbe very prescribed, and I think
for a lot of fleet leaders itfeel so out of control because the data
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isn't consolidated in one place, right, And when it's in one place,
it can all speak to each otherand it can tell you all those three
to five things you need to knowat any given time, sort of from
a reactive point of view, likemaybe I need to go talk to Ellen
because last night she was speeding excessivelyand today I want to talk to her
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about that. Or it can beas per dayive and proactive as that never
happened, You've never done that.But it can also be that data can
also be used to develop some reallypredictive analytics to say, Okay, so
I've got a fleet of pickup trucksand we're seeing these trends happen. These
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vehicles are built, you know,to last, and I've got you know,
x percent of them failing at sixtyfive thousand miles this particular thing.
Okay, then you can be proactive. You can talk with your OEM and
say here's what we're seeing, here'sthe data, and then have them help
you get those vehicles in for service, do a fix, maybe replace the
assets all together. You can recoverwarranty costs. So there's just we could
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talk about all the ways that dataand analytics help, but I think the
key is when fleet managers have anenvironment where the data is in one place
and it talks to each other,and it provides this outlook of what's important,
now, what's important, and thenwhat do I need to focus on
the long term to meet my sustainabilitygoals? For example. So many fun
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things to think about as you thinkabout how tech safety technology might totally transform
the way that you manage your fleet. So what does the new popularity of
hybrid and e vehicles, how isthat playing into this? Because I mean,
obviously we were talking about you know, maintenance and gas costs, but
now we've got battery life and chargingstations, and it's a different animal.
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It's the same animal, but slightlydifferent because you're not going to find a
charging station at a gas station orcharging stations as frequently as you find gas
stations, at least not in theUS infrastructure. Yet we're not there are
vehicles being evaluated or not evaluated?Are they being tracked? Are they being
maintained with this fleet management as well? Is it able to keep up with
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the newer vehicle technology. It isand all of that is being built in
the vehicle where some of us haverun or today manage fleets where we have
to add additional equipment to our assetsto do certain things, maybe track the
temperature because it's a refrigeration truck rightfor the speed, or someone wearing their
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seatbolt, or all the fun thingsyou can do literally almost everything, or
you know, as someone idling.These vehicles are coming with onboard technology that
can help to track all the things, especially when you think about evs and
hybrids. You know what drivers I'llsay fear the most is range. Can
I get to where I'm going throughoutthe course of my day, Can I
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get back home ultimately charge, orcan I get back to my depot where
I'm going to charge and then drivemy own vehicle home. These things are
just a couple considerations as fleet managersdive into this, and again I'll go
back to data. Fleet managers areusing data from telematics to build the case
for or not evs in their fleet. They're looking at where am I operating,
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how many miles am I driving?Who is stopping and going so batteries
depending on the type of technology,you know, how can I run this
vehicle and be operable and efficient inthe same way I could with a gas
vehicle or some other type of vehicle, And how can I be as efficient?
And can I make it to allmy customers? And can I make
it through the day and not justmake it through the day, but do
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that efficiently and safely with this typeof assets. So they're looking at all
the data from their assets they havetoday. They're evaluating that data and saying,
okay, they can really hand pickthe assets that are best to start
their EV journey with. Right,they can say, this driver operates in
this area, and so that isgoing to allow for a successful EV integration.
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There's places where they can charge,or they can get around in the
day and get back home where they'regoing to charge, whatever the case may
be. So fleet managers are intheir toe in the water by using data
from telematics on their current fleet tofind the assets that are best suited for
those replacement to EV type of scenarios. And that's how they're getting started.
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And then they're partnering with people intheir cities, smart cities like here in
Columbus, Ohio. They're partnering organizationsare partnering with smart cities. So we're
kind of creating this environment where peoplecan share and learn together on how to
make this transition. And it's notgoing to be for everyone, and it's
not going to be now for everyone. Right, It's going to take a
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long time. And so those whothink that this switch can happen quick even
with government mandates, are can Isay delusional? I can? They're mistaken.
They're mistaken. I can say thatbecause I can back that up,
So I think again, it takestime and effort, but it can be
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done. And there are certain applicationsprobably within every fleet around there, around
the nation doing different types of workwhere Evie has a place or has a
part in them. So we've talkedabout a couple different industries. We've talked
about utilities, We spoke briefly aboutyou know, long haul and some of
those things. Now we're talking aboutyou know, inner city or urban,
you know, maybe last mile delivery. Are there any particular industries that have
(20:19):
Obviously there are some that are bigadopters that I could see utilities being one
of them that it makes perfect sensefor this to be something that they need
to be in control of. Whenit comes to three pls and transport companies,
obviously they're doing some sort of youknow, collection of data and maintaining
these vehicles. But what are someholdout industries that you're trying to get into
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that makes perfect sense and you're justbanging your head against a wall trying to
convince them that this is necessary,it's going to be beneficial, and at
some point you're going to lose moneyif you're not doing this, if you're
not keeping track of what's going onwith your vehicles. Yeah, that's a
great question. There definitely were someearly adopters, you know, service fleets
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and what we're calling last mile nowwith service fleets that have always been operating
in a very specific area, kindof doing consistent and repeatable things all the
time. That's kind of how lastmild delivery works. But when you think
about industries thinking about making transitions toEV and to safety technology, this has
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been going on for a really longtime. And to say that there are
some that are holding out, absolutely, but I think it's more about they
they're worried about a few things.It's hard to hire people and these last
I mean name it. It's beenfive or six years maybe plus really challenging
times finding drivers and vocational workers.And so there are organizations and there are
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industries I won't name them specifically whoare holding out because they believe they're going
to lose people. I would arguethat that is a myth. I've been
there, I've done it. Wehad that same fear in the organization I
work for. But I think mystory then and it's the same now,
and I think it always will be. It's all about positioning, right,
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If you're genuine about what you're doing, and that's really around safety. If
you care about safety and safe operationand you say it in the right way,
the people that work for you willbelieve you. They have to know
what's in it for them, andso the organizations that are doing that the
best. I just interviewed Sharon Etherington. She's from Roach Industries. She gets
(22:38):
it. They socialize things with theircommunity of drivers in a great way.
They have town halls. They're gettingon calls and talking to drivers. If
they hand someone an EV, it'snot like Okay, good luck, No,
it's let's talk about the technology we'regiving you. It's a vehicle.
It is tech. The vehicle's themost dangerous tool you'll give any worker in
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the world world. I don't carewhat their job is. If you give
them a vehicle that is the mostdangerous tool, and it's becoming more and
more dangerous because of distracted driving.So again, delusional if you think that
safety technology is doing if your lackof adoption of safety technology is doing anything
but hurting you, it's not aboutif. It's about when you're going to
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get railroaded by something that you shouldhave expected, you know, I mean
or been able to prevent been ableto prevent. And it's like if you
do the math, and the math'sout there, but I can tell you
that, Like, let's just talkdistracted driving for a second. If you
think about what's reported today, webelieve that only about half of the accidents
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that are a result of distracted drivingare actually being reported that way. So
anyone who's listening, if you're like, I'm not sure we shef telematics or
cameras, you need to talk aboutit. Another thing that's driving this Alan
is insurance companies are going to theirinsured and saying we are not going to
renew your fleet, or we're goingto renew your fleet and at much higher
(24:06):
cost because you don't have safety techin your vehicles. So the hand is
being forced because the writing has alwaysbeen on the wall, and it continues
to be a more and more dangerousplace to do business is on the roadways.
So you know there are holdout industriesnot for long. We work with
a lot of industries that intellishift andwe have seen some of our customers in
(24:30):
construction, utility, electric, hvac, et cetera. They're coming to us
and telling us so maybe they havetelematics with us, and they're using fuel
and maintenance and they're using our bigdata platform. They're coming to us and
saying, my insurance company is askingme to put cameras in my vehicles.
Can you help me write a policy? And I'm like, I can,
(24:52):
I can help you with that.And then it's about taking this policy and
saying, hold on, we doneed to write a policy and people need
to understand it and sign it.Okay, that's no brainer, but it's
more about you need a communication strategyso that the people that work for you
will know that you're doing this.Not because the insurance guy said so,
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it's because the insurance guys what dothey know? They know what they're paying
for, and they're paying for accidentsthat could have been avoided, so or
crashes, don't call them crashes.I don't even use that word accident anymore.
But so they know and they're comingto you because it's inevitable that someone
in your fleet is going to getin an accident, and whether they're a
(25:36):
fault or not, how do youknow? You have that tools and tech
that can prove that. But it'sthe organizations who take that tart and say
why are we really doing this.It's because we care. We want not
only do we want to keep theworkforce that we have, it is we
want to attract. I think peoplelook at it the wrong way. I
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think they're like, I'm going tolose people, we're going to quit.
No, actually, you're going tokeep them longer term, and you're going
to attract more people to come andwork for your organization because they will know
that what you're doing is top ofthe line, state of the art,
to make sure that they are safe, and they are safe from all the
(26:17):
other crazies out on the road whoare putting on mass scara, curling their
hair, shaving, reading a book. I mean, go up, get
a passenger and drive and tell mewhat you see. My kids used to
say we used to count the people. We'd say, who's on their phone?
You know what we do now iswe count the people who are not
(26:37):
distracted by something. And they arevery few. And it doesn't matter old
or young, just anyone. Everyoneis. When they get in their vehicle,
they're not thinking I need to justdrive, so I mean, yeah,
usually it's a commute or you know, an expected trip and they're trying
to figure out what can I doto entertain myself during the time that I
(27:00):
have to be in the car orin the vehicle. How about just like
not kill themselves or someone else.That's that's a good goal. Let's do
that. It's true. And andto your point, you know, when
these policies are coming into play,when this is something new, it's reasonable
for the employees to think this ispunitive. This is a punishment. I'm
(27:25):
being tracked, I'm being babysit,I'm being micromanaged. Why don't you just
trust me? And to your point, you know, it's not about trust.
I could trust those employees implicitly.But if and when something goes wrong,
whether it's that driver's fault or whetherit's the fault of another person who
(27:48):
crashed into them, having the abilityto say with certainty, my driver was
not at fault, this should nothurt their personal ability to get insurance.
This should not hurt their ability tomaintain employment. This should not be something
that they are held personally liable forin the event of legal action. All
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of these things show that, youknow, we're able to protect these employees
from all of those outside potential influences. As you said, when it's inevitable
when an accident happens. We'll haveeverything in place to show that we were
doing exactly what we were supposed todo. We were not distracted drivers.
(28:32):
We were you know, maintaining thespeed limit. We were in an appropriately
maintained vehicle, you know, forthe driving conditions, and you know,
the seat belt was in place,there was you know, they weren't playing
on their phone, they were doingthe driving. And so you've you've eliminated
all possibility of you know, legalaction or retribution because you can prove it.
(28:56):
It's not a he said, shesaid anymore, right, And drivers,
guess what. Fleet managers don't havetime to watch videos. Ever,
the AI and the technology only tellsus what we need to know and only
when we need to know. Andwhat we're seeing with our client base is,
I mean, people are from eightyfive percent to thirty five percent plus
(29:18):
is how they're reducing their percentages bywhich they're reducing accidents. So the big
story here is for drivers is guesswhat, we're going to help you this
many more times. We're going toexponentially impact your chances of getting in an
accident in a positive way. Sokind of like if and when that accident
happens, you know't we're covered.But it's more about you know again,
(29:41):
for some of our clients sixty percent, you know, we've reduced accidents by
sixty percent. Who can say that? What? People who adopt tools and
technology that help them do that.So again, it's a it's a shift,
it's a mindset. It really startswith organizations thinking about safety culture the
whole person, send vehicle fitness anddriver and operator fitness. When they're thinking
(30:03):
about it in that way, itwill span every aspect of their organization,
people sitting in chairs, people drivingvehicles, name it. When you have
a safety culture, you'll start atrue safety culture. You start to really
think about all those things collectively,more naturally and organically. And that's when
drivers and employees start to trust youand count on you as a partner in
(30:27):
their own safety and their own gettinghome from work safe every day. And
that's just to me, it's likea no brainer. Is it easy?
No? No, it's not.But is it a must right now?
Yet? It was a must along time ago, but more so now
because the roadways are incredibly unsafe dueto people who don't just get behind the
(30:48):
wheel and focus on the one thingthey need to do at that time,
which is driving well. And anotherthing you had mentioned was that companies are
afraid that they will lose employees ornot be able to attract employees. But
I think by having these protocols inplace, it not only can attract employees
(31:08):
to your point want to make ithome at the end of the day safely
and in one piece, but itattracts the right kind of employees. It
attracts the employees who you want tohave on your team, who are conscientious
enough, who are able to focuson the job at hand, who are
not easily distracted, who are ableto get the work done in the time
(31:30):
that they're supposed to get it done. It really is a matter of bringing
in the people and cutting out theones who were trying to just you know,
have employment or get a job becauseof the paycheck. You want the
best people on your team, soyou need to again, what you allow
is what will continue. That isthe perfect advice that you shared earlier that
(31:53):
applies to everything that we're talking abouttoday, especially when you think about like
organizational safety. It's like, youknow, if you're not doing anything about
it, then what you're saying toyour workforces, It's okay, it's okay
for you to drive like that too, it's okay for you to endanger yourself
and then and company property. Yeahexactly. And then the organization is saying
(32:17):
to themselves, we're like just throwingmoney, you know, if you want
to think about it that way.They're just they have a big bonfire going
all the time, and they're justtossing money into it, feeding the fire.
So yeah, it's like for meagain, not easy, necessary now,
always has been. But I getexcited. Of course. I know
(32:38):
my passion is undeniable. You know. When I say things like people have
their head in the sand and they'rejust delusional, I really mean that,
because it's just a matter of time, you know. And it was cool
I did. I was talking toa pest control person recently and this guy
had a very tiny fleet. Ithink he had like two or three vehicles,
(33:00):
and we were chatting about safety,and I loved his whole idea of
like whether I have one vehicle orI have ten thousand. He totally got
it. He was like, forme, the guy with three, I'm
doing great. I'm making it tomy customers whatever. But if I didn't
have anything there to protect myself,I could have the kind of accident that
could put me out of business.Absolutely, and organizations need to think that
(33:22):
way as well. It's flip that. Now you get the guy with three
trucks who has a bad one andhe's done, he's done, he's filing
for bankruptcy. Then you have thelarge fleet that is driving two hundred million
miles a year, the fleet thatI managed drove plus that, you know,
hundreds of millions of miles a year, and then you just take that
(33:42):
risk and you multiply it, multiplyit. Yeah, so doesn't matter where
you are, folks on your journey, now's the time I think for efficiency
and safety tech in your vehicles.Thanks and tune in next time for the
second half of our episode with Aaronand Intelishift, and we will be talking
(34:06):
a little bit more about what thislooks like in terms of the oversight from
the driver's perspector. We're going totalk a little bit about risk and liability
protection. We talk about driverless vehiclesand some of the capabilities there, and
public transit and sustainability and what informationcan be gleaned through all the data that's
collected, so stay tuned and we'llsee you next week. Meeboch Consulting is
(34:34):
one of the largest and most globallyrecognized supply chain consulting, engineering, and
advisory firms. For nearly fifty years, we've helped clients achieve supply chain excellence
and sustainable competitive advantage across the entirespectrum of the supply chain by delivering improvements
and innovation strategically, tactically, anddigitally. To learn more, visit meeboch
(34:55):
dot com. You've been listening toSpeaking of Supply Chain, a meboch podcast,
keep connected with us by subscribing tothe show in your favorite podcast player.
If you like what you've heard,please rate the show that helps us
to keep delivering the latest in supplychain information. Thanks for listening. Until
next time.
You're listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a meboch podcast. This is a
show for logistics professionals looking to learnmore about the latest innovations in supply chain.
Each episode will feature a conversation ontopics such as mitigating supply chain disruption
and reducing risk, current automation trends, sustainability initiatives, and more. Let's
(00:26):
dive right in. Hello, andwelcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where
we explore trends, current events,and innovations impacting the logistics and supply chain
industries. I'm your host, EllenWood. Today we are doing something a
little bit different. So I recordedthis podcast with Aaron Gilchrist of in Tellershift,
(00:49):
and we had such a fantastic conversationand it went so long that we've
decided to break this up into twodifferent episodes. It was way too much
to try to put to other foryou listeners. As a single episode,
you would have been here all day. So this episode with Aaron, we
discuss vehicle fleets, safety, maintenance, electric vehicles versus gas vehicles, distracted
(01:17):
driving. We get into some ofthe industries that are really easy and early
adopters of some of this intelligence behindthese fleet vehicles, and then in next
episode, so in two weeks whenthat episode is ready, we're going to
get a little bit more into someother topics like risk and liability protection,
(01:40):
driverless vehicles and the capabilities that existthere, and a little bit into public
transit and sustainability. Hello and welcometo Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
explore trends, current events, andinnovations impacting the logistics and supply chain industries.
I'm your host, Ellen Wood.Today I have with me Aaron Gilcrest
(02:04):
and she is the VP of FleetEvangelization at Intellishift. Hi erin, good
morning, How are you. I'mcold, it is so cold outside,
so I am glad that we areinside and get to have a fun conversation.
Today we're going to be talking aboutfleet management. Obviously you are an
(02:24):
evangelist for it. I can't waitto hear a little bit more about what
that is all about. I'm lookingforward to our topic, but first let's
take a quick break from supply chaintopics and just get to know you a
little bit better. So our icebreaker question today is what is the best
piece of advice you've ever been given? I have kind of two that go
(02:46):
hand in hand. If you judgepeople, you have no time to love
them. It just edges out thelove the judgment. So that's a big
thing. And the other one fromthe same person both mother Teresa, is
that we can all do great things. So, like, you know this
idea that we're confined to what we'recapable of, well, I think if
(03:07):
you even define it, then you'relimiting your capabilities. So and just like
seeing all the amazing things she didwith her feeble, humble, little tiny
self changed the world. So yeah, so those are the two things I
love to share because yeah, ifwe just all thought that way, the
world'd be a better place. Ohof course I love it. Well,
(03:29):
mine is not quite as philanthropic asyours, but it is up there.
So one of my professional mentors thathe was a supervisor in a previous position
at a previous company, but hedid so much to help me in my
professional advancement. And one of thethings that he even he told me and
(03:51):
he was like, and you haveto call me on this. What you
allow is what will continue. Andthat is absolutely critical I think when it
comes to our personal lives, whenit comes to our professional lives, is
whatever behavior we allow other people toget away with is what they're going to
continue doing. So when yeah,I've heard that said, it's what we
permit, you know, it's kindof it's giving people permission to keep doing
(04:15):
that, and you're telling them that'sokay with me, when maybe it is
inner shouldn't be exactly. And solike when he would when he would call
me or email me and say Ineed this now, I'm like, sorry
that you need to give me enoughtime to do it, enough notice to
do these things, and he's like, dang it, I shouldn't have told
you that advice. So I usedit against him. He's like, I'm
(04:38):
eating my words right now. Loveit. But that's a good one.
Thank you for sharing that. Allright, So getting into our conversation today,
tell me a little bit about beinga fleet evangelist. What does that
consist of? Yeah, I know, I it's so funny because when I
say it out loud, it's sofunny. But what preface is that is
(05:00):
VP of fleet right, fleet evangelism, and so I am super passionate about
fleet and more specifically fleet safety,fleet sustainability. So I think that you
know, the evangelism part is justthat I get to do this right.
I get to talk about my passions. I get to share my knowledge and
(05:20):
experience. I get to talk topeople with lots of knowledge and experience and
spread the love so that fleet andsafety and operations leaders can think about how
they could run the safest and mostefficient fleets. At the very same time,
those go hand in hand. SoI just get to do this,
I get to talk about it.And so in my role at Intel Shift,
(05:41):
there's kind of three facets. Theone is I get to talk about
it right. So I host apodcast called straight Talk on Fleet, and
I do some keynotes. I haveguests just like you, and we talk
about everything fleet management. And it'sso great. We're building this community where
we can all grow and learn toget other. And then the second part
of my job is I'm an insidesort of consult in the voice of the
(06:03):
customer and Tellershift, I get toserve as you know, our in house
fleet manager. So I'm running afleet. I'm a fleet manager without a
fleet, which is like a lotless stressful. And I get to advise
like you know, sales and productand product marketing and product development and say,
okay, here's how fleet managers needto work with data. See data,
(06:27):
look at analytics and reporting. Whatalerts do we need? What do
we want our interface to be likeso UX and UI and CX and all
the things inside. And then Ialso get to do that within for our
prospects and our customers as like afree consultant to them, to you know,
sit and talk about all things fleetwith them and help them bring some
(06:49):
of their visions to life, whetherthose be safety or efficiency goals, whatever
they are. I get to helpthem do blueprints and write policies and social
new tools and technologies inside their orgs. So loads of fun. Again,
fleet manager without a fleet, it'sthe bomb, my favorite job and my
other favorite job, so very fun. So what exactly are we talking about
(07:17):
in terms of fleet management? Youmentioned safety? Oh yeah, So I
mean if you think about what afleet is, right, So, any
organization that has vehicles or equipment thatperforms jobs for them and helps them be
successful in any way, shape orform, that's a fleet, right,
And so properly manage a fleet,you need to think about that entire life
(07:38):
cycle of the equipment, the asset, the vehicle. So from the design
elements of that asset and how it'sgoing to work for your business all the
way through until you're going to retireeverything in between. So think safety,
fuel maintenance. You know, howis that vehicle legal on the road,
So registrations and tolls and all thefun things that it takes to operate a
(08:01):
vehicle, well anywhere in the world, but certainly here in the US on
our roadways. So big job.And some fleet managers are managing parts of
that. Some are managing all ofthat with their team. Others are even
in charge of managing the drivers oroperators of those assets, which really really
gets into the whole safety and ergonomicaspects of that job. So I have
(08:24):
been lucky enough to do kind ofall of that in my past for a
long time with a large fleet,and just developed a real passion for this
whole idea of fleet management. SoI have a little bit of a unique
perspective. My husband used to workfor a utility company and drove a fleet
vehicle, so I've seen this onthe personal end, or I guess on
(08:46):
the user end, on the driverend, of all of the things that
he had to do to maintain hisvehicle to make sure that it was in
compliance with you know, tire pressureor anything involved. You know, they
had ladders on top of the vehicle, so he has to make sure that
all of the equipment, the addon equipment that is built into the vehicle
(09:07):
for its functionality was maintained properly andworking properly, you know, taking it
in for oil changes when that wasdue, and a lot of that was
left up to the individual drivers andit sure it happens and it gets done,
and he was very diligent about makingsure, you know, the oil
light came on, I need toget an oil change or it's been so
(09:28):
many thousands of miles that this needsto happen. But having that as an
app or a functionality within the businessthat keeps track of it ahead of time
means that they don't have to,you know, get surprised with that notification
that morning of him saying, hey, my vehicle says it's due for this
service. Pull me out of schedulingfor today. I need to go take
(09:50):
care of it. It's more proactive. That should never be the case,
right, So, you know,I think I love you know a lot
about Fleetmatch. You're selling yourself storyhere. I think, you know,
especially with utility. There's so muchfocus around safety because of the nature of
their work, and so you thinkabout if we could just make that is
(10:11):
intuitive or as innate on the vehicleoperation side as it is for that operator
on the vocational side, you know, So when that comes together, that's
really where I think fleet managers andorganizations excel is when they can make it
so easy for the operator or driverto be compliant with all those mission critical
(10:35):
vehicle fleet to dos because that meanssafety and efficiency for the driver and for
the organization and reduce risk and there'sa whole list. And then if they
could make that so easy so thatthat becomes second nature to the operator,
then they can really focus on theirvocational work and do that service for the
(10:56):
organization and the best way possible andthen get there every day on time,
safely, and more importantly, gethome hopefully in better shape than they started
the day. And so that,you know, you definitely get it.
And I think that leaving it upto the driver, gosh, it's just
that those are ways of old,is what I like to say. I
(11:16):
think, you know, it's there'sso much opportunity again to make that really
easy and really successful for organizations,so that aspect of the fleet manager,
that human element and how we socializethese things is critical to whether they'll be
successful or not sure well, AndI think to some extent, and this
may just be me personally, becauseas professionals, we know how busy we
(11:39):
are and how many things are onour to do list. If I had
to keep track of, you know, every time my car needed an oil
change or my company vehicle needed anoil change and all these other things,
that's extra things on my to dolist, extra things to keep track of,
and so, and they might notget done on time exactly, they
might not get done on time,and then that puts the company at risk,
(12:03):
not just the individual and their employment, but the company at risk if
the vehicle is not maintained properly.So I know that there are probably organizations
where they're thinking, Okay, ifwe put this particular piece of software in
place to track all this, everyone'sgoing to feel like it's big brother watching
or that we're micro managing this process. But truly it's I don't have to
(12:24):
think about this anymore. It's thealert that's going to come automatically, and
it's going to alert the supervisors orthe management. You know, these are
the vehicles that need service this month, and these are the vehicles, this
is how long they're going to haveto be out of service, So how
are we going to adjust scheduling,how are we going to adjust the workload.
It really allows for that more strategicplanning of the maintenance that needs to
(12:46):
take place. And I mean,so far we're only talking about utility vehicles.
Really we haven't even gotten into likelong haul vehicles, where you've got
to keep track of how many hoursthey've been driving and whether you know that
got eaten up because they were stuckin a traffic jam for two hours.
So there's so much at stake herewhen it comes to the management of vehicles
(13:09):
out on public roads. Technology anddata play a critical role in all of
that. And I think that thisday in the life of anyone driving a
vehicle, it doesn't matter what they'redriving, what their vocation is, what
type of asset. If you buildfor safety first and think about that as
(13:31):
an organization, I mean overall,culturally and certainly with the vehicle fleet,
then all of the other things thatwe're talking about fall into line. Because
the technology that we use to developbetter drivers to avoid accidents, to get
exonerated for things that are not ourfault. All those beautiful things that the
(13:52):
safety technology does, it also generatesamazing data, and with that data you
can do everything well. You canmake sure that drivers are fueling where and
when you want them to fuel.You can make sure that they're going not
just getting things maintained, but gettingit maintained at the right time, maybe
(14:13):
at a shop that you need orwant them to go to at a price
that was negotiated by you ahead oftime. So if you think about how
all of this data can play intoyour day to day operations as a fleeter,
safety or OPS leader, it canbe very prescribed, and I think
for a lot of fleet leaders itfeel so out of control because the data
(14:35):
isn't consolidated in one place, right, And when it's in one place,
it can all speak to each otherand it can tell you all those three
to five things you need to knowat any given time, sort of from
a reactive point of view, likemaybe I need to go talk to Ellen
because last night she was speeding excessivelyand today I want to talk to her
(14:56):
about that. Or it can beas per dayive and proactive as that never
happened, You've never done that.But it can also be that data can
also be used to develop some reallypredictive analytics to say, Okay, so
I've got a fleet of pickup trucksand we're seeing these trends happen. These
(15:18):
vehicles are built, you know,to last, and I've got you know,
x percent of them failing at sixtyfive thousand miles this particular thing.
Okay, then you can be proactive. You can talk with your OEM and
say here's what we're seeing, here'sthe data, and then have them help
you get those vehicles in for service, do a fix, maybe replace the
assets all together. You can recoverwarranty costs. So there's just we could
(15:43):
talk about all the ways that dataand analytics help, but I think the
key is when fleet managers have anenvironment where the data is in one place
and it talks to each other,and it provides this outlook of what's important,
now, what's important, and thenwhat do I need to focus on
the long term to meet my sustainabilitygoals? For example. So many fun
(16:07):
things to think about as you thinkabout how tech safety technology might totally transform
the way that you manage your fleet. So what does the new popularity of
hybrid and e vehicles, how isthat playing into this? Because I mean,
obviously we were talking about you know, maintenance and gas costs, but
now we've got battery life and chargingstations, and it's a different animal.
(16:32):
It's the same animal, but slightlydifferent because you're not going to find a
charging station at a gas station orcharging stations as frequently as you find gas
stations, at least not in theUS infrastructure. Yet we're not there are
vehicles being evaluated or not evaluated?Are they being tracked? Are they being
maintained with this fleet management as well? Is it able to keep up with
(16:52):
the newer vehicle technology. It isand all of that is being built in
the vehicle where some of us haverun or today manage fleets where we have
to add additional equipment to our assetsto do certain things, maybe track the
temperature because it's a refrigeration truck rightfor the speed, or someone wearing their
(17:14):
seatbolt, or all the fun thingsyou can do literally almost everything, or
you know, as someone idling.These vehicles are coming with onboard technology that
can help to track all the things, especially when you think about evs and
hybrids. You know what drivers I'llsay fear the most is range. Can
I get to where I'm going throughoutthe course of my day, Can I
(17:37):
get back home ultimately charge, orcan I get back to my depot where
I'm going to charge and then drivemy own vehicle home. These things are
just a couple considerations as fleet managersdive into this, and again I'll go
back to data. Fleet managers areusing data from telematics to build the case
for or not evs in their fleet. They're looking at where am I operating,
(18:02):
how many miles am I driving?Who is stopping and going so batteries
depending on the type of technology,you know, how can I run this
vehicle and be operable and efficient inthe same way I could with a gas
vehicle or some other type of vehicle, And how can I be as efficient?
And can I make it to allmy customers? And can I make
it through the day and not justmake it through the day, but do
(18:26):
that efficiently and safely with this typeof assets. So they're looking at all
the data from their assets they havetoday. They're evaluating that data and saying,
okay, they can really hand pickthe assets that are best to start
their EV journey with. Right,they can say, this driver operates in
this area, and so that isgoing to allow for a successful EV integration.
(18:51):
There's places where they can charge,or they can get around in the
day and get back home where they'regoing to charge, whatever the case may
be. So fleet managers are intheir toe in the water by using data
from telematics on their current fleet tofind the assets that are best suited for
those replacement to EV type of scenarios. And that's how they're getting started.
(19:14):
And then they're partnering with people intheir cities, smart cities like here in
Columbus, Ohio. They're partnering organizationsare partnering with smart cities. So we're
kind of creating this environment where peoplecan share and learn together on how to
make this transition. And it's notgoing to be for everyone, and it's
not going to be now for everyone. Right, It's going to take a
(19:34):
long time. And so those whothink that this switch can happen quick even
with government mandates, are can Isay delusional? I can? They're mistaken.
They're mistaken. I can say thatbecause I can back that up,
So I think again, it takestime and effort, but it can be
(19:55):
done. And there are certain applicationsprobably within every fleet around there, around
the nation doing different types of workwhere Evie has a place or has a
part in them. So we've talkedabout a couple different industries. We've talked
about utilities, We spoke briefly aboutyou know, long haul and some of
those things. Now we're talking aboutyou know, inner city or urban,
you know, maybe last mile delivery. Are there any particular industries that have
(20:19):
Obviously there are some that are bigadopters that I could see utilities being one
of them that it makes perfect sensefor this to be something that they need
to be in control of. Whenit comes to three pls and transport companies,
obviously they're doing some sort of youknow, collection of data and maintaining
these vehicles. But what are someholdout industries that you're trying to get into
(20:42):
that makes perfect sense and you're justbanging your head against a wall trying to
convince them that this is necessary,it's going to be beneficial, and at
some point you're going to lose moneyif you're not doing this, if you're
not keeping track of what's going onwith your vehicles. Yeah, that's a
great question. There definitely were someearly adopters, you know, service fleets
(21:04):
and what we're calling last mile nowwith service fleets that have always been operating
in a very specific area, kindof doing consistent and repeatable things all the
time. That's kind of how lastmild delivery works. But when you think
about industries thinking about making transitions toEV and to safety technology, this has
(21:26):
been going on for a really longtime. And to say that there are
some that are holding out, absolutely, but I think it's more about they
they're worried about a few things.It's hard to hire people and these last
I mean name it. It's beenfive or six years maybe plus really challenging
times finding drivers and vocational workers.And so there are organizations and there are
(21:52):
industries I won't name them specifically whoare holding out because they believe they're going
to lose people. I would arguethat that is a myth. I've been
there, I've done it. Wehad that same fear in the organization I
work for. But I think mystory then and it's the same now,
and I think it always will be. It's all about positioning, right,
(22:15):
If you're genuine about what you're doing, and that's really around safety. If
you care about safety and safe operationand you say it in the right way,
the people that work for you willbelieve you. They have to know
what's in it for them, andso the organizations that are doing that the
best. I just interviewed Sharon Etherington. She's from Roach Industries. She gets
(22:38):
it. They socialize things with theircommunity of drivers in a great way.
They have town halls. They're gettingon calls and talking to drivers. If
they hand someone an EV, it'snot like Okay, good luck, No,
it's let's talk about the technology we'regiving you. It's a vehicle.
It is tech. The vehicle's themost dangerous tool you'll give any worker in
(22:59):
the world world. I don't carewhat their job is. If you give
them a vehicle that is the mostdangerous tool, and it's becoming more and
more dangerous because of distracted driving.So again, delusional if you think that
safety technology is doing if your lackof adoption of safety technology is doing anything
but hurting you, it's not aboutif. It's about when you're going to
(23:22):
get railroaded by something that you shouldhave expected, you know, I mean
or been able to prevent been ableto prevent. And it's like if you
do the math, and the math'sout there, but I can tell you
that, Like, let's just talkdistracted driving for a second. If you
think about what's reported today, webelieve that only about half of the accidents
(23:42):
that are a result of distracted drivingare actually being reported that way. So
anyone who's listening, if you're like, I'm not sure we shef telematics or
cameras, you need to talk aboutit. Another thing that's driving this Alan
is insurance companies are going to theirinsured and saying we are not going to
renew your fleet, or we're goingto renew your fleet and at much higher
(24:06):
cost because you don't have safety techin your vehicles. So the hand is
being forced because the writing has alwaysbeen on the wall, and it continues
to be a more and more dangerousplace to do business is on the roadways.
So you know there are holdout industriesnot for long. We work with
a lot of industries that intellishift andwe have seen some of our customers in
(24:30):
construction, utility, electric, hvac, et cetera. They're coming to us
and telling us so maybe they havetelematics with us, and they're using fuel
and maintenance and they're using our bigdata platform. They're coming to us and
saying, my insurance company is askingme to put cameras in my vehicles.
Can you help me write a policy? And I'm like, I can,
(24:52):
I can help you with that.And then it's about taking this policy and
saying, hold on, we doneed to write a policy and people need
to understand it and sign it.Okay, that's no brainer, but it's
more about you need a communication strategyso that the people that work for you
will know that you're doing this.Not because the insurance guy said so,
(25:14):
it's because the insurance guys what dothey know? They know what they're paying
for, and they're paying for accidentsthat could have been avoided, so or
crashes, don't call them crashes.I don't even use that word accident anymore.
But so they know and they're comingto you because it's inevitable that someone
in your fleet is going to getin an accident, and whether they're a
(25:36):
fault or not, how do youknow? You have that tools and tech
that can prove that. But it'sthe organizations who take that tart and say
why are we really doing this.It's because we care. We want not
only do we want to keep theworkforce that we have, it is we
want to attract. I think peoplelook at it the wrong way. I
(25:57):
think they're like, I'm going tolose people, we're going to quit.
No, actually, you're going tokeep them longer term, and you're going
to attract more people to come andwork for your organization because they will know
that what you're doing is top ofthe line, state of the art,
to make sure that they are safe, and they are safe from all the
(26:17):
other crazies out on the road whoare putting on mass scara, curling their
hair, shaving, reading a book. I mean, go up, get
a passenger and drive and tell mewhat you see. My kids used to
say we used to count the people. We'd say, who's on their phone?
You know what we do now iswe count the people who are not
(26:37):
distracted by something. And they arevery few. And it doesn't matter old
or young, just anyone. Everyoneis. When they get in their vehicle,
they're not thinking I need to justdrive, so I mean, yeah,
usually it's a commute or you know, an expected trip and they're trying
to figure out what can I doto entertain myself during the time that I
(27:00):
have to be in the car orin the vehicle. How about just like
not kill themselves or someone else.That's that's a good goal. Let's do
that. It's true. And andto your point, you know, when
these policies are coming into play,when this is something new, it's reasonable
for the employees to think this ispunitive. This is a punishment. I'm
(27:25):
being tracked, I'm being babysit,I'm being micromanaged. Why don't you just
trust me? And to your point, you know, it's not about trust.
I could trust those employees implicitly.But if and when something goes wrong,
whether it's that driver's fault or whetherit's the fault of another person who
(27:48):
crashed into them, having the abilityto say with certainty, my driver was
not at fault, this should nothurt their personal ability to get insurance.
This should not hurt their ability tomaintain employment. This should not be something
that they are held personally liable forin the event of legal action. All
(28:12):
of these things show that, youknow, we're able to protect these employees
from all of those outside potential influences. As you said, when it's inevitable
when an accident happens. We'll haveeverything in place to show that we were
doing exactly what we were supposed todo. We were not distracted drivers.
(28:32):
We were you know, maintaining thespeed limit. We were in an appropriately
maintained vehicle, you know, forthe driving conditions, and you know,
the seat belt was in place,there was you know, they weren't playing
on their phone, they were doingthe driving. And so you've you've eliminated
all possibility of you know, legalaction or retribution because you can prove it.
(28:56):
It's not a he said, shesaid anymore, right, And drivers,
guess what. Fleet managers don't havetime to watch videos. Ever,
the AI and the technology only tellsus what we need to know and only
when we need to know. Andwhat we're seeing with our client base is,
I mean, people are from eightyfive percent to thirty five percent plus
(29:18):
is how they're reducing their percentages bywhich they're reducing accidents. So the big
story here is for drivers is guesswhat, we're going to help you this
many more times. We're going toexponentially impact your chances of getting in an
accident in a positive way. Sokind of like if and when that accident
happens, you know't we're covered.But it's more about you know again,
(29:41):
for some of our clients sixty percent, you know, we've reduced accidents by
sixty percent. Who can say that? What? People who adopt tools and
technology that help them do that.So again, it's a it's a shift,
it's a mindset. It really startswith organizations thinking about safety culture the
whole person, send vehicle fitness anddriver and operator fitness. When they're thinking
(30:03):
about it in that way, itwill span every aspect of their organization,
people sitting in chairs, people drivingvehicles, name it. When you have
a safety culture, you'll start atrue safety culture. You start to really
think about all those things collectively,more naturally and organically. And that's when
drivers and employees start to trust youand count on you as a partner in
(30:27):
their own safety and their own gettinghome from work safe every day. And
that's just to me, it's likea no brainer. Is it easy?
No? No, it's not.But is it a must right now?
Yet? It was a must along time ago, but more so now
because the roadways are incredibly unsafe dueto people who don't just get behind the
(30:48):
wheel and focus on the one thingthey need to do at that time,
which is driving well. And anotherthing you had mentioned was that companies are
afraid that they will lose employees ornot be able to attract employees. But
I think by having these protocols inplace, it not only can attract employees
(31:08):
to your point want to make ithome at the end of the day safely
and in one piece, but itattracts the right kind of employees. It
attracts the employees who you want tohave on your team, who are conscientious
enough, who are able to focuson the job at hand, who are
not easily distracted, who are ableto get the work done in the time
(31:30):
that they're supposed to get it done. It really is a matter of bringing
in the people and cutting out theones who were trying to just you know,
have employment or get a job becauseof the paycheck. You want the
best people on your team, soyou need to again, what you allow
is what will continue. That isthe perfect advice that you shared earlier that
(31:53):
applies to everything that we're talking abouttoday, especially when you think about like
organizational safety. It's like, youknow, if you're not doing anything about
it, then what you're saying toyour workforces, It's okay, it's okay
for you to drive like that too, it's okay for you to endanger yourself
and then and company property. Yeahexactly. And then the organization is saying
(32:17):
to themselves, we're like just throwingmoney, you know, if you want
to think about it that way.They're just they have a big bonfire going
all the time, and they're justtossing money into it, feeding the fire.
So yeah, it's like for meagain, not easy, necessary now,
always has been. But I getexcited. Of course. I know
(32:38):
my passion is undeniable. You know. When I say things like people have
their head in the sand and they'rejust delusional, I really mean that,
because it's just a matter of time, you know. And it was cool
I did. I was talking toa pest control person recently and this guy
had a very tiny fleet. Ithink he had like two or three vehicles,
(33:00):
and we were chatting about safety,and I loved his whole idea of
like whether I have one vehicle orI have ten thousand. He totally got
it. He was like, forme, the guy with three, I'm
doing great. I'm making it tomy customers whatever. But if I didn't
have anything there to protect myself,I could have the kind of accident that
could put me out of business.Absolutely, and organizations need to think that
(33:22):
way as well. It's flip that. Now you get the guy with three
trucks who has a bad one andhe's done, he's done, he's filing
for bankruptcy. Then you have thelarge fleet that is driving two hundred million
miles a year, the fleet thatI managed drove plus that, you know,
hundreds of millions of miles a year, and then you just take that
(33:42):
risk and you multiply it, multiplyit. Yeah, so doesn't matter where
you are, folks on your journey, now's the time I think for efficiency
and safety tech in your vehicles.Thanks and tune in next time for the
second half of our episode with Aaronand Intelishift, and we will be talking
(34:06):
a little bit more about what thislooks like in terms of the oversight from
the driver's perspector. We're going totalk a little bit about risk and liability
protection. We talk about driverless vehiclesand some of the capabilities there, and
public transit and sustainability and what informationcan be gleaned through all the data that's
collected, so stay tuned and we'llsee you next week. Meeboch Consulting is
(34:34):
one of the largest and most globallyrecognized supply chain consulting, engineering, and
advisory firms. For nearly fifty years, we've helped clients achieve supply chain excellence
and sustainable competitive advantage across the entirespectrum of the supply chain by delivering improvements
and innovation strategically, tactically, anddigitally. To learn more, visit meeboch
(34:55):
dot com. You've been listening toSpeaking of Supply Chain, a meboch podcast,
keep connected with us by subscribing tothe show in your favorite podcast player.
If you like what you've heard,please rate the show that helps us
to keep delivering the latest in supplychain information. Thanks for listening. Until
next time.
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