CINCINATTI, OH – Cintas Corp., a company that specializes in providing a range of services to businesses, is using telematics to reduce the number of vehicle incidents its drivers experience and shrink its carbon footprint. 

Cintas has safety policies and driver training programs in place, but it wanted to further improve its safety metrics.

“Cintas has dedicated considerable resources to ensure its employees return home safely each and every day,” said Josh Moore, six sigma black belt at Cintas.

The company installed telematics technology from inthinc in 1,200 vehicles in its Uniform Rental division.

Although the company ranked highly in driving safety categories, according to inthinc, Cintas was able to reduce the number of speeding events it experienced by 85%, and increase seat belt use by 89%, within one year of implementation. These specific improvements resulted in a 46% decrease in the number of vehicle incidents the company experienced in its Northeast division during a six-month period, for example.

The system itself uses real-time updates to inform company drivers about their driving behavior.

“We color code each driver score as a way to signal which drivers should be recognized for safe driving and which are posing the biggest threat to safety,” Moore said. “High scores are reflected with a green color to let us, and the driver, know their driving performance is in good standing. Drivers operating recklessly on the roads and have violations are coded yellow and multiple violations are coded red to indicate they need additional training.”

As well as improving overall driver safety, Cintas focused on using the technology to reduce vehicle idling. The telematics technology notifies drivers when a vehicle is idling for too long, and if the driver doesn’t respond, sends a notification to the fleet manager.

“Cintas is making a strong conscious effort to reduce its footprint on the environment,” Moore said. “By setting up these alerts, our drivers are aware of how long their vehicle has been running idle and are reminded to turn the key, allowing us to not only save on gas, but substantially reduce carbon emissions as well.”

The system’s web-based Management Portal also allows the company to gauge driver performance, for example to identify high-risk drivers, and spot trends in order to improve driving behavior. Rick Gerlach, director of safety at Cintas, noted that the system also allows the company to recognize and reward drivers who focus on safety.

The company is planning a more widespread rollout, according to inthinc.