How telematics informs driver coaching for field service fleets

Chances are you’ve cooked a couple of meals in your life, whether it’s instant ramen or your family’s favorite barbecue ribs recipe.

But what if all of a sudden you were thrown into a five-star kitchen? Sure, you know how to boil water and set a timer, but would you be able to grasp the nuances that come with making a smooth, velvety sauce, plating a dish with expert precision or working in a high-stress, fast-paced kitchen environment?

The answer, for most of us, is no. Let’s apply this same method of thinking to driving – we all do it, but can we do it at an expert level?

Expecting your workers, especially in the field services industry, to be an expert driver right off the bat is a losing game. Drivers need coaching, support and follow-through, even though we might feel like driving is second-nature. Let’s talk a little bit about the importance of driver coaching and how to find a method that fits best with your fleet.

Why is driver coaching important?

Coaching should always be considered an integral part of owning and operating a fleet, even with a fleet of light-duty vehicles. It might be easy to have a “let’s see what happens” kind of approach to coaching – test out the drivers first and then see what needs correcting. However, having a proactive approach to coaching can help save you time and money in the long run.

In 2022, 5,930,496 motor vehicle accidents were reported to the police in the United States. On top of that, motor vehicle accidents were the second leading cause of deaths resulting from unintentional injury. One of the riskiest driver behaviors is distracted driving, which claimed 3,308 lives in 2022 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Risky driving impacts not only the safety of drivers, but also a fleet’s yearly budget. In 2019, distracted and impaired driving cost companies over $72.2 billion in medical care, liability, lost productivity and property damage. When you take into account that these accidents also impact your insurance rate – the average rate increase is 45% after an accident with property damage and 47% for causing an accident that results in injuries – risky driving becomes a very expensive issue.

Driver coaching helps rectify risky driving behaviors. By identifying a driver’s needs and working with them to practice safer, more efficient driving, you’re decreasing downtime, saving on fuel, reducing your chances of a nuclear verdict and increasing your driver retention in one fell swoop.

How does telematics influence driver coaching?

Let’s consider two fleet scenarios – one without telematics, and one with.

Without telematics

If a fleet is not using a telematics solution to report on their driver behavior, chances are they are relying on three things to inform their need for driver coaching – motor vehicle reports (MVRs), accident reports and relayed accounts from drivers. Hearing about incidents directly from drivers can be extremely subjective and not very reliable, even if the driver is trying to be as honest as possible. As for accident reports, they also rely on secondhand accounts from divers or witnesses. MVRs are typically conducted on drivers when they are first hired, so they don’t give an accurate account of how a driver acts day-to-day. 

A MVR check provides information related to a driver's driving history, including:

• Accident reports, both at-fault and not-at-fault
• Traffic violations
• License suspensions, including DUIs/DWIs
• Vehicular crimes
• Lost driving record points

These tools aren’t based on data and lack the indicators needed to create a comprehensive driver coaching program for drivers as a group or individually. They make it hard to be proactive about the challenges within your fleet because you can’t use them to get ahead of the problem. Unfortunately, you’re stuck knowing the end result, but you don’t know the context of how you ended up there. Without getting continuous data from your drivers and their vehicles, it can be hard to pinpoint their needs and offer them support in order to create a safer, more stable group of drivers.

With telematics

Telematics, on the other hand, provides you with rich, information-laden data that you can use to build a bigger picture of how your drivers are behaving on the road.

Driver coaching can address your important fleet goals – fewer preventable collisions, reduced fuel costs, less driver and vehicle downtime, and altogether safer drivers. The only way to accomplish this is to have driving behavior data. There is no way to change behavior long-term if you don’t know what the behaviors are.

With telematics, you can glean tons of information that was unavailable to you before, such as:

• Where are collisions happening?
• What environment are collisions happening in?
• Which drivers are causing the most collisions?
• Which drivers are doing the most harsh braking, cornering, tailgating and spontaneous accelerating?

Telematics can also connect with other systems that support your driver training programs. Integrating a dash cam solution into your telematics setup can give you even deeper insight into what is happening on the road or in the car with the driver. Unsure what happened during a collision? Need proof that your driver made the right decision in the case of a lawsuit? Dash cams are a great addition. Combined with telematics, you can also set up alerts in order to be more proactive about collisions – if information from the dash cam and the telematics solution sees a driver strays from their lane or is following the car too closely, they’ll get an in-cab audio alert so they can correct their behavior.

You can also connect telematics data to safety training vendors that will be able to give you precise feedback on how a driver is behaving and how to correct their actions in order to provide a safer driving experience. Built-in Geotab applications like Driver Safety Scorecards are also a good way to identify specific drivers that need more training.

What does a driver coaching program look like?

Once you receive data on driver behavior, there are multiple ways you can offer feedback to your drivers. Let’s take a look at several ways to communicate with drivers about their behavior.

• Vehicle familiarization training: Typically a driver will start with vehicle familiarization when they are first hired onto the team. This includes introduction training and the new driver policy review – this ensures that drivers know the rules and policies of your fleet before they head out on the road.
• Virtual Coaching: Virtual coaching is a great tool, especially with fleets that are spread out over a wide area. Virtual coaching can be one-on-one over a video call, or it can include instructional videos and courses that drivers need to complete after an infraction.
• In-cab audio alerts: Setting up your telematics system to sound an audible alert any time an infraction is committed is a good way of implementing hands-off training that can produce results immediately.
• Refresher training: In some cases it might be necessary to go back to the basics of your fleet rules and offer refresher training to drivers. This can happen after a certain amount of infractions, or a mandatory training that happens every six months to a year.
• Remedial training: This type of training focuses on a very specific need of a driver. If a driver has consistently been speeding, remedial training will focus solely on fixing that particular issue.
• Manager one-on-one: If virtual coursework isn’t fixing a driver’s issue, one-on-one conversations with their fleet manager can be a more effective, personal way of getting through to them. Most likely it will start with a virtual chat and then move into an in-person conversation if the driver still isn’t improving.

What are some driver coaching roadblocks?

In many cases, implementing driver coaching initiatives will come with a little bit of pushback. There are, fortunately, ways for you to quell driver concerns about privacy and reprimanding.

• Open, honest communication: A lot of the time, driver pushback comes from not understanding the full picture. Whether you are implementing telematics or dash cams, explaining how these systems work to your drivers is a good way of making sure that they feel comfortable with these new additions.
• Finding a driver coaching advocate: Getting a senior member of your staff on board with new implementations is a good way to offer drivers someone to go to when they have questions about anything related to driver coaching.

Conclusion

Expecting field service drivers to excel without guidance is unrealistic. Comprehensive driver coaching, informed by telematics data, bridges the gap between recognizing issues and understanding their causes. Telematics provides real-time data, enabling targeted coaching that enhances safety, reduces costs and improves efficiency. Overcoming common challenges, like driver pushback and data integration, involves clear communication and advocacy. A robust coaching program includes various training levels, ensuring drivers receive the support needed to improve.

Ultimately, prioritizing driver coaching cultivates a culture of safety and efficiency, benefiting both the fleet and its drivers. 

Download our handy guide to learn how to talk to your drivers about their coaching needs!