Building a Safety-Driven Culture to Reduce Losses

5,852 Drivers | LTL | Global Distribution

TForce Freight is a global leader in less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments with over 200 North American facilities, over 22,000 trailers, and 6,700 tractors. They are dedicated to providing better results for their customers every day while offering regional, interregional, and long-haul transportation of palletized and heavy LTL shipments.

“When we looked back at our recent accidents and compared them to the Watch List, it was sitting right there telling us that these drivers were going to get into an accident. Now having that knowledge is extremely powerful.”

– Scott Reagan, Director of Health & Safety

Challenge

  • Stabilize or reduce Total Cost of Risk (TCoR) 
  • Need to increase driver coaching effectiveness and improve driver satisfaction 

Solution 

  • Normalize event types from telematics providers: Lytx, Omnitracs XRS & Geotab
  • Introduce a comprehensive Driver Watch List to managers, enabling preventative coaching and mentoring

Results

  • Reduced preventable accidents by 45.3%
  • Watch List scores dropped by 18.5% in the first 3 months using PDPs 
  • Most at-risk drivers (top 10% of the Watch List) realized a 29% decrease in scores

Before: Incomplete Driver Data Slowed Training Effectiveness and Accident Reduction  

TForce Freight’s health & safety team uses three telematics systems: Lytx, Omnitracs XRS, and Geotab. Because each system contains unique events and alerts, it was difficult for managers to compare drivers’ performance against one another.

Alerts from system to system varied so widely, the health & safety regional managers questioned the Driver Watch List Scores in Safety Suite®. Omnitracs XRS generates more alerts than Geotab, so only Omnitracs XRS drivers were appearing at the top of the Watch List, making it challenging for managers to identify the most at-risk drivers. Without an effective way to synthesize telematics data and prioritize training for the riskiest drivers, TForce continued to incur preventable accidents and additional losses. “Although we had the data, it was difficult to trust when you couldn’t truly compare every driver on the same playing field,” said Reagan. 

After: A Comprehensive View of Driver Behaviors to Predict and Prevent Accidents 

Idelic’s data science team partnered with TForce Freight to normalize the telematics alerts from the three systems and ensure the Watch List could accurately compare all drivers despite having different/more prevalent alerts. Afterward, managers could reliably compare driver performance and pinpoint which drivers needed intervention using the Watch List Scores. Drivers appearing at the top of the Watch List were recognized as the riskiest and the health & safety team could assign training proactively to prevent crashes. 

TForce Freight built out custom plans and launched Idelic’s Professional Development Plans (PDPs) in July of 2022. Idelic’s PDPs provide fleets with detailed coaching plans, talking points, and recommended tasks for both managers and drivers to complete together. 

With the Idelic Program, the TForce team now monitors their at-risk drivers and they understand how effectively driver trainers are administering coaching by comparing drivers’ Watch List Scores at the terminal and regional levels. 

“After we normalized their data, the health and safety team developed a high confidence level in the Watch List.” Said Tyler Pasky, TForce Freight’s dedicated Idelic Senior Customer Success Manager. “After that, the team dove headfirst in and quickly discovered success in both opening lines of communication with their drivers as well as coaching them. It’s personally rewarding to hear the success stories directly from their team on our weekly calls.”

Results: Accident Reduction and Organizational Visibility 

In the first 3 months after Safety Suite’s PDP implementation (July of 2022), TForce Freight saw an average decrease in Driver Watch List scores by 18.5%. Drivers on PDPs realized an average drop of 29% in the 90 days following their plan. As driver behavior improved, the risk of accidents declined.

From the spring of 2022, before using Safety Suite, to February of 2023, TForce Freight saw a 45.3% reduction in preventable accidents as a result of their emphasis on safety culture and leveraging Safety Suite and PDPs to drive safer behaviors behind the wheel. 

By reporting their Watch List Scores in a heatmap format, TForce Freight and their health & safety team have received recognition from the CEO of their parent company, TFI Industries, for their innovative safety program leveraging Safety Suite.