Kentucky Transportation Cabinet improves efficiency and employee perception of telematics devices

The Challenge: Reduce human error and change employee perception around telematics devices

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is a state-funded agency tasked with building and maintaining both state and federal highways in the State of Kentucky, while managing additional transportation related activities. They manage 60,000 lane miles ensuring roadways are safe, well maintained and running smoothly each and every day.

The team at KYTC had been collecting telematics data for almost five years using Geotab devices installed in their fleet vehicles. But with little time and not enough resources to fully utilize that data, they were unable to realize the full potential of telematics to improve operations.

To add to this, it seemed that when telematics devices were first installed in fleet vehicles, there was uncertainty among the employees as to the purpose of the devices. Some employees began to question whether the devices were being used to monitor their daily movements to support disciplinary action against them. The KYTC team knew they needed to take the initiative to educate employees about what the devices were actually being used for.

When Randi Feltner joined the KYTC team as their transportation engineer specialist, she was tasked with drawing the insights provided by the telematics data to help improve operations. The team was looking for insights that could help them monitor data relating to the health of their vehicles, including: engine diagnostics, vehicle health, engine data, engine hours, and mileage. With Randi now in the driver’s seat, she was able to derive insights that could be used to help show the full potential of the data coming in from the Geotab devices.

The Solution: Eliminate manual entry

With data from Geotab GO devices installed in their fleet vehicles, they’re able to track mileage and vehicle information to run a true maintenance program. This allows them to service vehicles when they need to, and monitor the health of their vehicles to ensure they’re operating efficiently and properly. As an added benefit, employees no longer have to keep up with manual paperwork to track mileage and ensure vehicles are serviced when needed – that can now be done from the management level allowing drivers to focus solely on completing their daily tasks.

The management team at KYTC is also able to use data from Geotab to monitor and locate equipment, making it much easier to ensure fleet vehicles are being used efficiently and effectively.

Winter operations:

When it comes to the winter operations side of their business, KYTC is using data from Geotab to limit human error that comes with manual data entry, and ultimately increase accuracy around material usage.

They’re working alongside an inventory management vendor to pull information from the application programming interface (API) to create daily work cards for material usage. “Just doing that, even if we don’t change operations a lot, that will increase our accuracy a great deal, especially with where our material goes,” explains Feltner.

Feltner goes on to say, “Before Geotab, we weren’t doing much record keeping around how much material goes to a certain route. When we loaded the trucks, we were measuring with scoops, which are different depending on who you ask, so this will help with accuracy.”

The snow routes KYTC manages are mixed – they service different priority roadways on single routes – which means a truck could hit part of the interstate and then turn onto a different road, making it difficult to properly track the material usage, without a solution like Geotab Public Works.

The Results: Realize the full potential of the Geotab solution

With Randi leading the charge, the team at KYTC is now able to lead its customers in realizing the full potential and competitive benefit of the telematics data they collect using their Geotab GO devices installed in their fleet vehicles. They’ve had positive feedback from employees with eliminating manual entry. But the positive change in perception of the in-vehicle devices doesn’t end there.

There have been several cases in which KYTC received complaints of driver’s speeding, or being somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. In these instances, the management team at KYTC used data from Geotab to prove their employees were not doing anything wrong.

In one instance, the sheriff pulled a fleet truck over for driving 30 miles over the speed limit. The KYTC team provided the driver with actual data records from their Geotab dashboard to dispute the allegation, and the charge was dismissed in court. As might be expected, this incident went a long way in helping change employee perception around the Geotab solution.

Government agencies all across the U.S. are no strangers to strict maintenance budgets set by legislators, and the KYTC is no different. Maintenance budgets in the State of Kentucky have stayed the same for years, but as government agencies know, the cost of everything they need to do business has done nothing but rise. With accurate, real-time data from Geotab, KYTC has been able to show that while costs have increased, they’ve implemented all the right measures along the way to ensure they’re operating at their most efficient. Having this type of data has been instrumental in demonstrating they’re doing all the right things to increase their chances of boosting budgets.

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