South Mill Mushrooms, a vertically integrated mushroom and produce operator in the eastern U.S., is using GreenRoad’s mobile application to improve driver safety in the company’s fleet vehicles. The company’s fleet consists primarily of tractor-trailers and refrigerated trucks but the company operates farm vehicles, dump trucks, and cars used for administrative and managerial purposes.

South Mill, and its growing division Kaolin Mushroom Farms, is one of the five largest mushroom growers/packers/distributors in the United States, according to the company.

The company decided to implement GreenRoad’s safety solution due to the fast-paced schedule its drivers are on due to the nature of the products the company ships.

“We need to get the produce to the consumer within a specific time window,” said Mark Moran, operations manager at South Mill. “It’s a fast-paced environment with a high percent of team drivers. Our drivers need to drive safely while operating under this time pressure.”

When piloting the program, South Mill achieved a base GreenRoad Safety Score of 38. After 30 days of using GreenRoad, the company’s average Safety Score dropped, which means it improved, and is now around 8-9 per month. GreenRoad considers any Safety Score below 20 safe.

South Mill tested the safety solution before rolling it out across its fleet.

“We installed GreenRoad in the cab of one of our long-term drivers who has over 2.3 million driving miles,” Moran said. “We were surprised to learn that he was an aggressive driver with harsh breaking and acceleration. He embraced GreenRoad and saw his Safety Score come down. He began experiencing better fuel economy and softer breaking results. This is a success and one of the reasons we rolled GreenRoad out to the broader fleet.”

South Mill also wanted to tackle idling and reduce fuel economy, and Moran said he discovered more of an idling issue with an unexpected segment of the company’s fleet.

“We thought idling was a problem with our over-the-road delivery trucks, but we found the real idling issues were with our local fleet,” Moran said. “The numbers don’t lie and that’s a good thing. It gives us the proof we need to work with drivers on improvements that translate to reduced idling and lower fuel costs.”