Credit: Compass Group Canada.
Compass Group Canada is on a mission to make every mile travelled a safe one and is committed to investing in the technology needed to see that mission through.
That’s why last year, the food service and hospitality company partnered with telematics provider Geotab to outfit its entire fleet with technology that allows it to monitor every vehicle’s GPS location, speed and driving behaviours.
Fernanda Caceres, director of process optimization and fleet safety, credits the telematics technology with giving the company a better understanding of the dynamics in its operations across a variety of sectors, including business and industry, healthcare, education, senior living, sports and leisure, and remote sites.
If, for example, drivers serving a university are doing a lot of harsh braking because students are crossing in front of their vehicles, there’s an opportunity to coach those drivers on safer strategies to handle the situation. However, Caceres says identifying the trend can also invite other solutions. “Maybe we get another route and we don’t go through campus. Maybe we do some of the deliveries on off hours to eliminate having to put a driver in that situation where a student will run in front of him.”
The needs of a driver serving this route will be very different from those of a driver serving a remote camp three hours north of Thunder Bay, Ont. With telematics, Compass Group Canada can develop solutions to help drivers operate more safely in both scenarios.
The data collected through Geotab has allowed the company to implement new programs to make every driver’s time on the road safer. The company’s speeding policy is one example of turning data into action.
“When a speeding event occurs, it triggers an audible alert in the vehicle to notify the driver, and records it so the company can take action,” Caceres says. “We would have a coaching session where we sit down and talk to the driver. We then proceed to progressive discipline. If the behaviour is not changed as directed, it could lead to the extreme circumstances of suspension and termination.”
But the data doesn’t just initiate punitive actions. Caceres recalls one instance where the telematics tracked a driver abruptly going from travelling about 100 km/h on an Ontario highway to being stopped dead. A manager was immediately alerted to the change and called the driver to check-in. When the manager noticed the driver’s voice sounded funny, they dispatched 911 to the vehicle’s exact location – the site of a crash that occurred as the driver was having a heart attack. The quick emergency response likely saved that driver’s life.
Caceres says there were “a good six months” of visiting sites to explain that drivers would be monitored during business hours and reinforce the purpose of the new technology. But with time, the initial resistance to Geotab has waned.
“Getting boots on the ground and speaking to your employees is the best advice I can give,” she adds. “Employees are not going to be mindful of email notifications. What they want is to sit down, look at somebody at a higher level of leadership, and ask questions so they can get answers one-on-one. We found that being on-site talking directly to the drivers gave us that buy-in.”
Technology is constantly evolving, and so is Compass Group Canada’s safety program.
The company is outfitting selected vehicles with Mobileye – a sensor-based technology that integrates seamlessly with Geotab. Mobileye helps identify risky behaviours, such as lane departures without signalling, tailgating, and collision warnings and sends notifications about their behaviour to drivers. At press time, the introduction of lane departure warnings had resulted in an 82 per cent decrease in occurrences of drivers changing lanes without signalling their intentions.
The company is also piloting dash cams in its regulated vehicles. If all goes well, they’ll be rolled out fleet-wide.
Then there are the multitude of apps that integrate with Mobileye to consider: route optimization, driver training, accident reconstruction – the list goes on and on.
But Compass Group Canada hasn’t shied away from low-tech solutions either.
“We now have safety talks. I have a fleet safety manager who visits sites now—it’s been well received,” Caceres says. “If anything, they continue to ask us to grow and continue to support them.”
