Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/339482
Some fleets are measuring driver performance closer than ever to spot trends and dodge safety and retention problems. BY MAX HEINE Tom and Tina Evans, driving team for Load One, say they've had a good experience with the fleet's use of the Stay Metrics retention program. Carriers' crystal ball 38 | Overdrive | July 2014 L oad One expe- diter Tom Evans drives team with his wife, Tina, running a Class 8 straight truck fleet of three based in Mattoon, Ill. He's been impressed with Load One's use of a driver rewards program created by Stay Metrics. It starts with surveys of drivers during their first weeks with the carrier. The company uses those results to focus on shoring up weak relationships. Those relationships are strengthened further with a program that allows drivers to earn points redeemable for merchandise. "The biggest thing is simply getting rewards for doing something that's no more than what you're already supposed to be doing," such as turning in logs on time and completing surveys, Tom Evans says. What Stay Metrics offers is but one version of ways that data-managing vendors are helping fleets improve reten- tion and safety. Fleets for years have used performance data in driver scorecards to help identify and address problems. Now, with the help of companies that specialize in collecting and analyzing data, fleets are trying to go beyond identifying problems. They aim to head them off before they happen. The results have been impressive. Though more and more data is being gathered on drivers, and in some cases more questions being asked of them, no major complaints have emerged within the industry. However, broad- er worries over privacy or misapplication of data-based conclusions have been voiced elsewhere. Such concern was expressed by one major fleet using a pre- dictive analytics company. The fleet's media contact, declining an interview request, wrote that "it's a topic we aren't eager to talk publicly about due to its tendency to be used in litigation." An expert in the field says Predictive_Analytics_0714.indd 38 6/26/14 9:50 PM