Transportation Exchange presented by Rush Truck Centres of Canada
If you’re in the transportation industry, the Transportation Exchange podcast is for you. Listen in for insightful conversations with industry leaders covering what keeps us moving, from equipment and maintenance for fleets to new and upcoming regulations and opinions on the industry as it stands today and the road ahead.
Transportation Exchange presented by Rush Truck Centres of Canada
Data-Driven Fleet Management with Geotab
In this episode, we're joined by Emily Williams, Manager of Business Development – Transportation at Geotab, to explore how telematics and data are transforming fleet management. Emily breaks down Geotab’s powerful tools for emissions tracking, driver compliance, route optimization, and ELD integration. We also dive into how fleets can use benchmarking and real-time data to improve driver safety and efficiency.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Transportation Exchange Podcast presented by Rush Truck Centres of Canada. I'm your host, Jason Cuddy, and with us today is Emily Williams, the Manager of Business Development and Transportation at Geotab. Emily, welcome to the podcast.
Emily Williams:Thank you so much, Jason. Glad to be here.
Jason Cuddy:Yes, we wanted to have you on. I think a lot of people are very familiar with your company and what you guys do as a solution for the industry. But I thought it always helps to do a deep dive and really understand kind of the segments of the industry you guys touch and you know there's lots of other items. I think, going back in the day, everyone just thinks Geotab almost like GPS, right, you know tracking where vehicles are and clearly that's what you guys offer. But today I thought you know sharing dig a little bit deeper into all the different solutions you guys do provide. So maybe maybe let's start with kind of an overview of Geotab and the solutions in general.
Emily Williams:Yeah, absolutely Well. Thank you all first for the opportunity and to be here, so we're so excited to talk to the audience today. But a little bit about Geotab. We have been around now for 25 years it's kind of unbelievable and our company was founded by a gentleman named Neil Cause, and Neil is still the owner of the company. He actually developed the solution that we have and we have grown significantly. We have 4.7 million active subscribers on our platform today and we are processing a huge amount of data. We are really a data and engineering company at heart and what we're doing is we are pulling data from the ECM of vehicles and then we take that data and then we transform it so it can actually be actionable for our customers, so they can do things like measure their safety performance and understand how their drivers are doing, understand how their bottom line is being impacted by the fleet and the maintenance and all of the things that incorporate into that. So very excited to talk a little bit more about it.
Jason Cuddy:Excellent and what you're saying. I think that's a big thing. There's so much data, I think, thrown at everybody today. You know especially what people can do. You know, when you talked with transportation, people, logistics and fleet management, just trying to figure out how do you manage the data coming in, and obviously that's kind of where you guys play a key role. So maybe let's go through some of the things that you guys are managing. I think one of the key things that you know people think of are fuel consumption, but even now I guess we're at a point where we're, you know, emissions tracking, emissions in the US specifically. You know California.
Emily Williams:We're specifically, you know, california, we're talking car. Maybe walk us through how you guys kind of support that. So, yes, geotab is really focused on sustainability and really improving metrics for drivers. So one of the things that we're doing, you know, you mentioned EV, you mentioned sustainability, you mentioned carb, jason. So those are really important things for fleets and I think when we're talking to heavy trucking customers, we have to kind of switch that language just a little bit. So instead of saying you know emissions and things like that, let's think about sustainability for efficiency right, how can I run more effectively? And then I think, sustainability will follow after that.
Emily Williams:So there's a lot of factors that all play into the puzzle piece of sustainability, and so we've done a lot of testing on our side. We've done a lot of benchmarking and run a lot of different tests with our customers, and one of the things that we did several years ago is we actually looked at different trucks, all makes and models, and then we said, okay, we want to understand how we can improve the emissions for this fleet. And so the first time we did it on this particular fleet, the emissions standard was not so great. It was 4.5 miles per gallon and by the end of the test. We did several things like we optimized the engine performance, we added some aerodynamics, the different gearing speeds, monitoring the driver behavior really closely. We were actually able to increase the efficiency to 10.1 miles per gallon.
Emily Williams:So I think it's really possible with fleets that they do this, but they have to really dig in. And you mentioned measuring how important that is. You can't manage what you can't measure. We say that all the time. So you really do have to measure your fleet and where you're at, and that's very important.
Jason Cuddy:It's interesting because, again, we go back to, I always think, just where the vehicle is right, With all the data coming in it's. Now you're into a lot of things that you're talking about. You know, like, driver compliance, and you know the company is trying to get to a certain measurable number of whatever it is, whether it's, you know, safe incidents there's so many different things they can measure on but obviously that ties into it too. There, right, Like, the drivers can be monitored and incentivized and, you know, rewarded, but also, you know, talked to if it's in the wrong direction. But it allows the fleet manager at a company to track and kind of get a better idea of what's happening with the vehicles outside of just fuel, yeah, which is neat. So, yeah, so you've got some driver compliance.
Jason Cuddy:The ability to track your fleet and manage the fleet, I think is kind of the key part you mentioned there, right, it's kind of an all-encompassing tool as far as being able to take this data that is thrown at us and be able to intelligently decipher it into a way to help you actually manage your vehicle. Other integrations, I think you know that I thought was interesting too is like something like ELD integration, right, which is not a big thing for everybody, obviously for both sides of the border. But you know how does that work with the GeoDev? How is it tracking with the integration?
Emily Williams:Yeah, and so you know, obviously, for customers that are in the US, they've been used to this and doing this for quite some time, but it's something that we really really focus in on, and Geotab has, I think, 1.2 million active subscribers just in North America for ELD, and so, again, we really want to simplify it. I think so many people can get overwhelmed by all of that data and especially with compliance, like I want to make sure I'm I'm compliant with all the regulations. But how do I do that? And then how do I take that to the next level, Right? So what we do is we really try to focus on the driver experience, make it really really simple for the driver to use, so that way, the workflow is very simple. They're not adding a bunch of buttons that they don't need to. They can go in there, they can do their DVIRs.
Emily Williams:Then we have different measures too, so that we can see it on the back end of okay, obviously, my folks that are managing this, they don't want to have to go in there all the time. They want the system to really be able to produce this efficiently and so they're able to see okay, here's all the driver's logs, who's compliant, who's not compliant, have those coaching opportunities. If they need to, they're able to edit logs. We know we all make mistakes driver's fat finger things sometimes so they can go in there they can easily correct that. But again, the more we do this, the better we're getting. We're so excited because we have some new improvements that we're going to be launching later this year with our hours of service platform, and you know it just keeps getting better, so it's exciting.
Jason Cuddy:Nice. So for the fleet manager, the person kind of looking at the data, obviously you have the ability then to like where it's going to curate a report based on what they're looking for for all different, I guess, aspects of things you guys are measuring.
Emily Williams:Yes, push to them for the most part yeah, exactly, and I think another important piece of this too is so many fleets, you know, operate differently. So I might have one fleet that says, hey, I'm going to operate, because I have all these different terminals and I have all my different fleet managers. I want to see certain things and so they can go in there and they can customize it with different groups and different permission levels and so forth. So that's another really key benefit here is you want to be able to really customize the solution to your fleet's individual needs and then, you know, customize your reporting, especially if you're, you know, trying to take it to the next level and okay, where's my unidentified logs and how can I do this? So you can actually take the Geotab standard solution and then actually customize it to your specific needs that you have.
Jason Cuddy:Nice and I guess with the other things it's monitoring as well, you can put some benchmark indicators on to be able to measure right, because you talked about earlier, if you're not measuring it you can't fix it right or you manage it. So, benchmark, obviously, depending on what you're looking for, can you do it by different segments? Are you doing it by like vehicle type or like how? I guess you can kind of go to whatever you want really.
Emily Williams:Yeah, you can, and I love talking about benchmarking, jason, I could, I could really dive super deep into this. But really, with benchmarking, I think your audience has to know you have to start with quality data first, right, if you don't start with quality data, it's really kind of hard to benchmark where you're at. I've, you know, I talked to a lot of customers and a lot of prospects and so forth, and I was talking with one and I asked them how frequently are you getting the data? And I was really surprised because they told me well, we get this data every 15 minutes. Oh my gosh, what can happen in 15 minutes? What can happen in a split second to your fleet, right? So you really do have to begin with that quality of data and then you take it to the next step of okay, now we can really start benchmarking and you might use different tools, like you might use a Power BI tool, you might use Tableau, you might use, if you're a Geotab customer, you might use our data connector, and so what that does is to really allow us to kind of harness all of that data efficiently. And so when you have the right tools in your fleets, then you can begin to really pinpoint different patterns.
Emily Williams:So let's say, for example, you, you see, in your fleet you have certain drivers that have a 60% harsh braking rate, while other drivers have a 40% harsh braking rate. Well, now I know I need to focus on this driver, I need to do some coaching to better improve it. And also you can with the Geotap solution. You can not only compare your fleet, how you guys are doing, how you guys are doing, how those drivers are doing against each other, but then we can actually benchmark that against other fleets and that are like like-minded, right. So you can see okay, well, how am I doing as an industry standard versus other fleets? And then, if you know, okay, I see some gaps and where we're we're struggling, you know where you're you can focus at. So, again, I think it's starting with that quality of data and then leveraging data to make sure it's specific for your fleet.
Jason Cuddy:Yeah, that's. I mean that's interesting to be able to benchmark against other you know similar issues. I mean you know it's a tight knit community for the most part, but you know people do like to keep some things kind of near and dear to their heart. They don't want to share their you know their secrets and make them what makes them profitable and efficient and all those things basically ahead of the veg, for lack of better words. But the ability I guess to and honestly you know, compare yourself against similar fleets in certain regions I guess that's a nice part is, you know, with with the data you can really hone into geographic, uh, vehicle type, you know route analysis where you know roughly the same area. So then you can get really true, I'll say competitive data.
Jason Cuddy:But comparative data, I guess, uh, it's just you know, if you sit on a panel someone says we're getting this much miles per gallon versus that, well you're running different loads, different areas, different ways. Like you don't have, you don't have visibility to the data. I guess it's being used to to compare this where what you guys provide obviously it's, it's a lot more. You know visibility to the data. I guess that's being used to compare this where what you guys provide. Obviously it's a lot more you know, to the point and direct to what the customer using it is actually involved with on a day-to-day basis 100%, 100%, jason.
Emily Williams:Yeah, and it's really changing fleets just in general, right, they are. I think we're all used to getting GPS. It's been around for a long time Now that all these fleets have ELD, they're forced to use telematics, right, and so now all these fleets are really taking it to the next level. And I'm really proud of the transportation industry because typically we are kind of the last ones to adapt new technologies and things like that, and I've seen such a transformation. I've been in the industry now for 12 years and from where I started to where we are now, I mean we weren't talking about cameras 12 years ago. I mean it was just starting to like roll out and now, if you don't have a camera in your fleet, people are like what's going on, right? So, yeah, I think it's, I think it's really important and I think transportation companies are really taking it to the next level. So I'm proud of them.
Jason Cuddy:Yeah, no, I agree it's. They've adapted well, I think, to emerging technology and I think what's nice about you know, especially your platform, is you can grow with the technology Right. So, as you is, you can grow with the technology right. So, as you know, initially it was just gps, whereas my truck, you know, put it, maybe put a geofence so you can let the, you know, let them know you're close or you've left the yard, or something like that, and that's kind of all it was at that point.
Jason Cuddy:Um to to where it is now, where you can track everything on the engine, you know if it's a refrigerated vehicle, track you know the research stuff, um, but down to the safety piece, like it's, yeah, they've absorbed a lot and I think you know, having a one area where you can kind of stay and have that just build on top of each other, I think it's, it's huge for them. I think it's probably what makes it easy as well, right is it's the ease of interacting with the data, because there is so much so the easier you can make it for them to like make sense of it. I think. It think it's where the win is 100%, totally agree.
Jason Cuddy:So the other thing I was interested on the site and you know, familiar obviously with the company but you know the Geotab marketplace I thought was kind of interesting. I guess there's for lack of you know, add-ons or other integrations within what you guys do to help the end user. Maybe if you can walk us through kind of some of that, yeah yeah.
Emily Williams:So our marketplace is really unique. It's something that makes Geotab stand out, and I'll give you an example with cameras, because that's something I think we all know and love, right. But let's say, I'm looking for a camera technology and maybe I already have an existing camera or I want to replace that existing camera, maybe I want to use multiple camera systems. You can actually do that with Geotab. So we have over 25 different camera partners with different levels of integration.
Emily Williams:Some are, you know, really really integrated very deeply. Others are just a very simplified integration where it's just kind of pulling in that data but not necessarily pushing it out. And so different levels of integration, different ways that we can really help our customers. So if they need something hey, I just want a forward-facing camera only, no problem, we've got that for you. Maybe I want something that is forward and driver-facing and AI and has gamification, and I want all the bells and whistles. We have that for you too. So it really is a way again, to customize your fleet. We know every single fleet is different, so the marketplace allows you to start with something basic and then add on what you need, so that way you have that complete solution. So I think I mentioned like puzzle pieces earlier. Geotab is like that. We're kind of like that basic, you have our basic puzzle piece and then we keep adding on to make that complete solution and it's unique to each and every customer.
Jason Cuddy:Right, and I guess having a marketplace is nice because then that way if you're out procuring certain items for the vehicle, like say cameras or whatever it is, at least you're aware it'll fully integrate or at least you have visibility of how much integration you're going to get with each different product line, so you can make a conscious decision of how much information you need kind of funneling back into with each type of product you add to the vehicle.
Emily Williams:Exactly, and that's part of what our team does. You know, we have subject matter experts when it comes to all of these different partners. So I may not be the expert on camera, but if we're going to have a conversation, I'm going to pull in my expert, who knows all of these different camera solutions. We're going to ask you a lot of questions. We're going to think of us as really the consultants here at Geotab. So that's what my team does, is we help to ask those questions to make sure that we can guide you on that journey of what solution is going to be best for you.
Jason Cuddy:Nice, yeah, and I think part of that is as we talk about driver compliance, and that's usually where I think everyone goes. When you're tracking where the truck is, you're putting cameras on and I get it. You know you get some pushback sometimes because it's going to be uncomfortable to have that much eyes on you, but a large piece of it also is you guys help improve driver safety. Yes, a big chunk of the data helps make the vehicles safer or the driver's experience safer as well.
Emily Williams:Yeah, absolutely. And again, going back to what we said earlier, you can't manage but you can't measure. And when it comes to safety, again, I could talk about this for a long time, jason, so you may have to cut me off here, but I think the first step is measure right. Use technology to your advantage. So there's all sorts of things that are available to really measure those drivers. It might be driver scorecards, it might be gamifications Like I know, there's a lot of different tools like our friends at Netrodyn have a great gamification tool, and they always say you know, we lead with a carrot and not a stick, so they want to recognize and reward safe driving behavior.
Emily Williams:So I think that's really helping to improve driver safety. And I think, ultimately, though, you want to give just real time in cab feedback. A quiet cab is always going to be a safe cab, so the faster that we can notify someone hey, there's a problem, let's work on this, let's correct this Then it's really going to help, which again goes back into you have the measure part and then you have the manage part. So, and then, I think, the manage part you got to get a plan, you got to stick to that plan and then make sure that you're holding your teams accountable, right, because nothing's worse if you get a safety program in place and then you don't actually follow it. And then let's say that you know there's an accident that occurs in your fleet. Well, now you have a probably a potential, really potential problem in a litigation perspective, because then you can say, well, why didn't you use the technology that you had available? Why didn't you put a game plan in place? And so I think that's also really important.
Emily Williams:And then, lastly, when we're talking about just improving driver safety and overall communication, having open communication with your drivers is so critical. One of the things so I work with a large customer, prime Trucking, and one of the things that they do that I love is they have a safety meeting with all of their drivers. They have like 13,000 drivers and obviously they can't bring them all into one room and into all their different terminals, but they do a YouTube live channel and they have a weekly meeting every Friday, and they talk about hey, here's, we're going to recognize some of these drivers, and and they give shout outs and then they talk about hey, these are the issues that we're struggling with and we need your help with this and they really are transparent with their drivers to to make them feel a part of their process, and I think that's really critical and key to increasing that driver safety.
Jason Cuddy:It's interesting way to do it, right, because you're taking the data that the guys aren't always thrilled that they're being measured on, but then you're turning it back and helping them Right and to your point, rewarding them when there's when there's good behavior. But also, I mean the whole point of the safety piece is to help identify and resolve anything before it's an accident. Right, that's really what you're trying to do. So, instead of you know, probably 20 years we didn't talk about. Here's the instance this week we had this crash, this, this, this, this. Now you can talk about. Here's a near miss, here was a hard braking, here's certain things we found out. Nothing happened, which is great, um, but you can talk and help and educate and work the guys through, because you know everyone's going to learn.
Jason Cuddy:And now we're going on uh, you know, a ride and drive with some safety equipment, where they're, you know, testing that, you know the cameras and the braking system, and the whole point of it was so that you get to feel what this is like when it engages, because, hopefully, that's the whole point you never want to use this equipment ideally, but that's what it feels like when it kicks in. So almost the same idea is like you know, you can share the videos of there's cameras, of stuff that has happened on the road. Uh, you can share the data from the vehicle. Hopefully, in 99.9 of the guys will never experience any of that on the road, but at least they can see what happened, what was the reaction.
Jason Cuddy:This was good, this was bad. Learn from it. Um, but it's great data to be able to be able to share. Right, and that's. I think it's a huge piece that you know. I know. For me, even you would think, when you talk about your product line is usually just where's the vehicle, right, so it's. It's nice, like how much more you can pull out of the vehicle, how you can use it to help the drivers be comfortably safe on the road. It's a huge thing.
Emily Williams:Absolutely. And the drivers that I talk to, they love the technology. It's so funny because when we're rolling things out, a lot of them are very hesitant I don't want you monitoring me and I'm not okay with this. And then after a couple months of using it, they're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I said that, why did we wait so long to adapt this technology? And it's really funny.
Emily Williams:We had a customer. They were testing a few different solutions and we you know cameras is a hot topic and they were doing driver facing cameras again very frustrated, no-transcript, and it wasn't his fault. And we were able to prove that it wasn't his fault through the technology, right Through the geotab device and the camera solution that they were using. Because of that, it literally saved his job and he was like I would have been fired if not for this technology. So then he started to like literally share the story with all of his colleagues and to and you know, I think that's important You've got to get them involved in the process. They have to be able to. Drivers have to communicate to each other and when there are issues, let's address it, let's address it quickly, let's make sure, like that technology is performing the way it should and it's reliable. That's very important and it's reliable.
Jason Cuddy:That's very important. Yeah, that's a good point, I think. Yeah, getting the drivers to buy in and recognize it's, you know big picture, it's to their benefit. But I agree, it can be intrusive. You know it feels like someone's always watching you and in theory they are.
Jason Cuddy:But that's not the intention of the technology, right, it's. The intention is what you just said. It's there to support them and back them up when they haven't done anything wrong and find themselves in a situation where you know usually it's something like that where you know they've got involved and they've hit something. They're the biggest vehicle, the longest to slow down, they inflict usually the most, most, most damage, unfortunately. But if you have the data to say, look, it wasn't me, this is what actually happened with the cameras and everything, then it's like, okay, you know it was a situation that you know physics is physics, they just couldn't avoid any kind of thing. So it happens, yeah, yeah, um, I guess the one last thing I wanted to chat with you on because it's it's emerging and still kind of, you know, in the newly states being obviously ev is a big, it's a big of the industry now and a lot of that is technology driven too. What, what kind of things is? Is geotab kind of measure and share?
Emily Williams:with yeah, yeah. So I'm really proud of our sustainability team. We have a massive team and they're they're hyper focused on this and we you know geotab knew like this was coming down the road, so we really started to prepare ourselves for it. We have over 400 make and models that we're supporting right now, so we are really the industry leader when it comes to EV. Now, heavy truck, obviously, we all know there's some barriers there. We've, you know, with infrastructure, with the cost of the vehicles, battery limitations, range, you name it. There's a lot of different things that we have to, you name it. There's a lot of different things that we have to overcome.
Emily Williams:So, really, when I'm talking about with EVs and sustainability, we do shift that conversation to emissions for those customers. How can what we talked about earlier on in our discussion, jason, how can we really make that emissions more effective for your fleet? And how can we, can we measure those different metrics? So, but if you are ready to kind of take the plunge and EV is a good fit for you, we actually have what we call our EV suitability assessment and what that does is it asks you several questions of like okay, which vehicles are you looking to transform? And here's some different makes and models that we would recommend, based upon the range where your charging infrastructure is going to be. So it allows you to kind of see an overall of your fleet like what would be better and what you can actually move to.
Emily Williams:I know a lot of fleets, obviously, and truckload carriers. It's harder, right, but in the less than truckload, the final mile, those folks are really starting to adapt and especially in some of the regulations that we're seeing coming out of California and things like that in the States, you know it's something I think we can't ignore. Possibly for the next, you know, four years we might be able to quiet the discussion. I don't know, at least in the States, how that's going to progress, but it is something we do need to prepare for because it's coming. So let's make sure that you have the tools when you're ready.
Jason Cuddy:Yeah, that's a good point and I know we've had some conversations with customers where we've done sort of just general data on you can track some of the mileage.
Jason Cuddy:Like it's nowhere in depth, it's what you guys offer.
Jason Cuddy:But if we do a quick deep dive and say, okay, look from your fleet that we can see, you know of, say, 100 trucks, 20 of them don't go more than 200 kilometers a day, so they could be a good candidate for EV. But that's just you're taking one little snapshot of something that's not a full picture of. Where are they, what are they doing to your point, what's the infrastructure around, what is the load they're carrying, what is the actual vehicle Like it's, you know? So, having all that information, so you know we're, we're starting to scratch the surface, which is good and it gets the conversation going. But having that you know amount of data where you can actually pinpoint to, like you know, yes, of your fleet, there's three vehicles here that you know are great candidates for EV and here's the reasons why. Right, you know it'll, probably from an ROI point makes sense because you know you click all these different boxes, right. But it you go in a little bit more informed and just saying well, let's, let's get a couple and see what happens.
Emily Williams:Exactly, exactly, you have, and even that it's like let's get a couple, well, how much do they cost? They cost quite a bit, right? So what you said just said, you have to kind of balance. Okay, what is the cost of this? What's our total cost of ownership and over the lifespan of this vehicle, does it make sense? Most situations, yeah, it might make sense, especially for that final mile delivery. So, yeah, every fleet is unique and has its own challenges, so, but we're prepared for it.
Jason Cuddy:Excellent. No wait, I appreciate all the information today. It's a good you know initial deep dive into what you guys offer to different segments in industry support and you know how it helps kind of fleets manage and keep their vehicles safe and running well. So I appreciate you joining us today and giving us that information.
Emily Williams:Absolutely, Jason. Thanks so much for having me.
Jason Cuddy:Excellent, Thank you. Well, that concludes today's episode. We do want to thank Emily for joining us and to catch up on past episodes check out Transportationexchangepodcast. ca. Until next time. Thanks for watching.