Domino's Pizza: Driving over 100,000 USD in savings with a fleet powered by Geotab

It is not uncommon for businesses that pay mileage reimbursements to get served with hefty lawsuits by delivery drivers. Despite doing all the right things to protect their drivers and their business, Christian and Stephanie Reisch found themselves caught in this very situation.

The duo operates 14 Domino's Pizza stores in and around Lexington, KY under the business entity Team Goliath, Inc. When a mileage reimbursement lawsuit hit the Reisches directly, they were determined to find a better way forward.

They found the answer in fleet vehicles equipped with Geotab advanced telematics technology.
 

Results at a glance:

• Saving 30% on every mile

• Reduced annual insurance costs by over 100,000 USD (£79,665)

• Mileage theft is a thing of the past

• Better work-life balance

"We're excited about what's coming next. It just keeps getting better and better, working with their technology and continuing to evolve. It's been great." – Christian Reisch, Co-owner, Team Goliath Inc. d/b/a Domino's Pizza

Fleet profile

Company:

Team Goliath Inc., doing business as Domino's Pizza

Industry:

Restaurant/food & beverage

Based in:

Lexington, KY, USA and surrounding area

Types of vehicles:

Sedans

Fleet size:

100+ cars

Geotab products/features:

• Geotab GO

• MyGeotab

• Driver Safety Scorecard

• Surfsight Cameras

The challenge: Get off the mileage reimbursement treadmill

Team Goliath ran the business like most Domino's Pizza franchisees, with drivers using their own cars to deliver customer orders. Despite reimbursing their drivers at a rate higher than the Motus-recommended amount, Team Goliath was served with a 4.5 million USD (£3,584,925) class-action lawsuit. Fighting the lawsuit would take years and cost millions more in lawyer fees so, just like most franchisees, they settled out of court to preserve business continuity.

For Team Goliath, settling the lawsuit didn't mean settling for the status quo. One way to protect their business from future frivolous lawsuits was to pay an even higher amount to drivers, but it didn't make financial sense. After consulting with Domino's Pizza corporate, the Reisches decided to partner with Enterprise Fleet Management, a Geotab partner, to invest in company cars equipped with Geotab technology. It's a decision that has paid off in spades.

"We took the money we would normally be paying to reimburse mileage and applied it to our fleet programme instead. When we crunched the numbers, we could see that we were going to come out ahead in the first year. We rolled out an entire fleet of new Nissan Sentras and we were paying less." – Christian Reisch, Co-owner, Team Goliath Inc. d/b/a Domino's Pizza

The solution: Stay in control with a fleet plus powerful telematics

The Reisches didn't want to blindly send a fleet of over 100 new cars onto the roads without the ability to keep tabs on them. So, they equipped their fleet with Geotab GO devices and in-car cameras. Team Goliath requires drivers to achieve a minimum score of 80 on their Geotab-generated driver scorecard every week. They keep the rules around what constitutes safe driving tight, so drivers need to make a conscious effort to practise good behaviours that help them earn an acceptable score week after week. Drivers who fail to hit the benchmark have a set amount of time to improve their score before they're pulled off the road. A zero-tolerance policy for reckless driving also means that any person recorded going 25 miles an hour over the speed limit in a company car is no longer permitted to drive for the company.

The cameras in the cars can capture both the drive (road-facing) and driver behaviours (cabin-facing) in near real-time. The Reisches opted to turn the sound-recording feature off to respect driver privacy and the cabin-facing camera will only be activated if a driver gets less than 80 on their scorecard. Cameras have been instrumental in providing evidence when it comes to accidents involving their fleet cars. While some employees were initially sceptical about having cameras in the cars they drive, they're now all in on the technology. Knowing there's a recording of what's actually happening out on the road provides peace of mind that they're safe and will never have to defend themselves against someone else's version of the truth if an incident occurs.

"We love Geotab! When I talk to other Domino's Pizza franchisees and they ask me how it's going with our fleet, I tell them I cannot imagine having these cars without the technology installed. It's an if-then statement for me. If you get a fleet of cars, then you need to have Geotab." – Stephanie Reisch, Co-owner, Team Goliath Inc. d/b/a Domino's Pizza

Impact: Big savings and priceless peace of mind

Investing in fleet cars equipped with Geotab technology has led to huge dollar savings for Team Goliath. Plus, having the technology and data to enforce a proactive safety programme lets them quickly address driving behaviours that could easily balloon into serious liabilities.

Here are some of the specific benefits Team Goliath is enjoying:

• Saved 30% per mile: The estimated per-mile cost associated with running Team Goliath's fleet of cars is at least 20 cents less than the IRS-recommended rate for mileage reimbursement. Bonus: They also wrote off the 1.8 million USD (£1,433,970) paid for the fleet as a tax expense — something they could never do when paying mileage reimbursements directly to drivers.

• Reduced annual insurance costs by over 100,000 USD: When they were reimbursing drivers for their mileage, Team Goliath held a non-owned car policy that cost upwards of 120,000 USD per year. While they still carry a non-owned policy, the cost has plummeted to just 10,000 USD per year. The in-car cameras also make it simple to prove who is at fault if a fleet car is involved in an accident, so their 1000 USD deductible doesn't get slowed down by investigative red tape.

"I'm hearing of other franchisees who bought fleet cars but didn't put in the right technology and their insurance rates are astronomical. Moving to a fleet with Geotab plugged in would significantly lower those insurance costs." – Christian Reisch, Co-owner, Team Goliath Inc. d/b/a Domino's Pizza

• Mileage theft is a thing of the past: Before Geotab, drivers could dispute how many miles they drove for deliveries. Team Goliath's mileage payouts were averaging 15% higher than reports said they should be, but Stephanie and Christian had no way of verifying the data. After the first month with Geotab installed in their fleet, the traditional reporting system indicated that drivers should have covered 28,200 miles. The actual number of miles Geotab reported on the cars was 27,900. "Basically, having the fleet cars equipped with Geotab means people can no longer steal mileage," says Christian.

• Better work-life balance: One other benefit that the Reisches didn't anticipate is the impact the technology is having on their personal lives. Before investing in the fleet equipped with Geotab they spent long days at various store locations, seven days a week. The technology-generated reporting has freed up precious hours that this husband-and-wife team now channels into spending more non-business quality time together.

“What gets measured gets done. Working with Geotab’s technology allowed us to get that ruler out and track what’s important to our business.” – Stephanie Reisch, Co-owner, Team Goliath Inc. d/b/a Domino’s Pizza

The next steps: Smart integrations fuel faster service

As the Reisches look to the future, they have plenty of smart ideas brewing about how to make their investment in tech work even harder for them — like integrating Geotab with a delivery app to connect routes and drivers more efficiently. Geotab's open architecture and customisable features allow them to make the solution work best for their unique business. They continue to partner closely with Enterprise Fleet Management and Geotab to bring those ideas to life.