Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/319866
COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | JUNE 2014 55 C O V E R S T O R Y : P R E D I C T I V E A N A L Y T I C S MARKETED AS: Driver feedback and rewards program EMPHASIS: Retention DATA USED: Driver feedback: engagement in rewards program, satisfaction surveys and exit interviews TARGET CUSTOMERS: Fleets of 100 to 1,000 trucks F ocused on retention, Stay Metrics offers a driver rewards program that helps carriers predict which drivers are at risk of leaving. "We already know, across the board, that drivers who don't engage their employees' recognition programs are twice as likely to leave," says Tim Hindes, Stay Metrics CEO. Usually 44 percent of turnover occurs in the first 90 days of employment. Interviews are done after a week on the job and again at day 45. The first is mostly about recruiting and buy-in to the Athena's primary focus is safety, though its website says it offers "about 30 highly customizable dashboards for effectively managing safety, operations, sales, maintenance, fuel purchasing and driver recruiting and retention, among others." While retention is on Athena's menu, it's a target that remains a challenge, says Bryan. "What data do you look at? There's a lot of room for driver retention improvement that doesn't have to do with a lot of scientific analytics." Namely the basics, he says: higher pay, more home time and better treatment. It's reasonable to expect that some thorny issues will develop as carriers apply more predictive models to their recruiting and retention, especially in the pre-hire stage, Bryan says, but such problems are well understood by HR departments. "This is where the world's going – to a more data-driven decision-mak- ing process." Athena's pricing is based on a per-truck subscription and the desired channels. For a fleet of 100 trucks, the Athena platform would cost $35 per month without the Vigillo CSA channel or $88 for the full package. CASE STUDY: John Christner Trucking Though John Christner Trucking only recently employed Vigillo's Athena, it appears to be "a pretty incredible prod- uct," says Shannon Crowley, vice president of risk management for the all-owner-operator fleet based in Sapulpa, Okla. "The possibilities are endless because of how easy it is to customize, to take slivers of information and put them in reports, or even design your own dashboard, your launch site, and see what you specifically want to see," says Crowley. One of the biggest uses for JCT might be the ability to educate its customers about the inevitable problems with CSA alerts. Athena can help the fleet craft a peri- odic report about points dropping off or coming on, and "help alleviate some of the concerns a customer does have," says Crowley. "To make sure they under- stand that even though a percentage may not fall back below a threshold in a month or two, they can see that progress is being made." Having more detailed and current violation data should be able to help with retention, he says. "If you start to see that, and if you can be proactive and inter- vene with folks before there are patterns of violations you can't ignore and have to terminate leases over, that's a retention tool." Athena's data should prove effective in various operations areas, Crowley says. Lanes that have more inspection stations experience prolonged delivery times, so the fleet might adjust pricing accordingly. JCT expanded its data-crunching in late 2013 when it began using a FleetRisk retention module, says Crowley, who sees that as more of a pure predictive analytics tool. "What Athena is about is less about modeling and more about putting data in a format and comparing the data and analyzing the data any way you want," he says. John Christner Trucking can use Vigillo's Athena product to educate its customers about the inevitable problems with CSA alerts. STAY METRICS Load One saw retention improve 27 percent with the introduction of Stay Metrics nearly two years ago.