LeFleur Transportation, a provider of non-emergency medical transportation, has added the GreenRoad Safety Center to its entire fleet of more than 300 vehicles after a successful four-month pilot test.

The Ridgeland, Miss.-based company first tested the Safety Center in February 2008. Its goal: find a solution to cost-effectively gain greater visibility of driver behavior, provide feedback and training, and reduce crash occurrences.

Because LeFleur’s fleet of specially equipped vehicles performs more than 750,000 trips annually for state agencies, individuals, nursing homes, medical facilities, and Workers’ Compensation firms, its mission to provide clients safe, quality, and cost-effective services is crucial to the company’s success.

“We wanted to reduce accidents, improve fuel efficiency, and give our employees some good tools to work with,” said John Kubala, CDS, CHRM, director of safety and human resources at LeFleur. “The results were desirable to the company bottom line.”

Over the course of the pilot test, 75 percent of LeFleur’s operators demonstrated improvement, reducing the total fleet risk by 77 percent — all while reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Prior to testing GreenRoad’s Safety Center, LeFleur was making significant annual investments to provide extensive on-the-job training and performing multiple field audits to ensure safety. However, the company needed a more cost-effective way to gain greater visibility of driver behavior and provide feedback and training while reducing accidents. LeFleur turned to GreenRoad for help.

During the pilot test, 49 of GreenRoad’s units were installed and tested.

“We had achieved a 67-percent reduction in accident involvement measure,” Kubala said. “The pilot had taken a good fleet, by anyone’s standard, and made it an exemplary fleet. There was little need for further discussion about completing the installation fleet-wide once the hard numbers were out.”

[PAGEBREAK]

According to Pete Allen, vice president of sales, North America for GreenRoad, Safety Center provides management the visibility to proactively prevent the effects of poor driving behavior before a crash occurs.

“By capturing and improving the total picture of employee driving skill and actual behavior behind the wheel, Safety Center allows managers to anticipate and manage risk more effectively,” he said. “Safety Center is deployed in a comprehensive, all-inclusive manner by GreenRoad staff.”
The Safety Center is a technology-based solution to improve driver safety that combines in-vehicle coaching with Web analytical reporting. An in-vehicle sensor collects information on up to 120 different driving maneuvers. Each maneuver is evaluated in five categories: acceleration, braking, lane changing, cornering, and speed handling.

Using proprietary algorithms, maneuvers are analyzed to give drivers continuous in-vehicle feedback about areas that require improvement, as well as build their driver profiles. Driver safety levels are displayed using a color classification system: a green light indicates safe driving, yellow needs attention, and red is high risk.

Drivers and managers can review detailed reports by fleet, driver, department, maneuver type, trip, etc., to identify high-risk drivers and problem areas. Feedback is also available in real-time using SMS, e-mails, and Safety Center’s password-protected Web site. 

The Safety Center complements LeFleur’s comprehensive safety policy, which includes MVR and criminal background checks, pre-employment drug screening, a minimum seven years of driving experience, and a strict point system.

Employees must stay under a two-point system to remain qualified drivers.

Any moving violations or preventable accidents are one point, and non-preventable accidents are a half-point. Driving employees must not have more than two points in any 24-month period to remain qualified.

“Keeping our company morale and standards high has allowed us to attract some very professional people; this, in turn, has given us some highly respectable retention rates,” said Kubala.

He also pointed out that LeFleur drivers were surprisingly accepting of the addition of Safety Center.

“Most employees don’t like change, and especially something that constantly monitors their activity,” he said. “Our drivers are curious about their scores, and their overall interest has made the program successful.”
According to Allen, the Safety Center focuses on improving how people drive, not where they drive.

“Drivers are provided with real-time in-vehicle coaching and weekly performance reporting,” he said.

Drivers have instant access to their individual current and historical driving data, as well as personalized improvement recommendations. Every maneuver is analyzed, and improvements are continually reinforced for every trip.

In addition to positive driver acceptance, early results of the Safety Center’s implementation into the entire LeFleur fleet are promising.

“Early results have been similar to the pilot test. We are seeing red and yellow drivers being converted to green drivers,” Kubala said. “I do believe the entire fleet will be able to achieve the same levels of exemplary safety as the pilot fleet.”

GreenRoad clients have reduced accidents by an average of 54 percent and lowered accident costs by an average of 49 percent, according to Allen.