Company:
Verst Group Logistics, Walton, KY
Operation:
3PL that provides fully integrated transportation, warehousing and logistics services to a range of consumer-goods and manufacturing companies
Problem: Strategically situated in the manufacturing center of Northern Kentucky/ Cincinnati, Verst Group Logistics transports everything from beverages to auto parts throughout a six-state operating area. According to Verst, it focuses on “streamlining logistics.” As a result, the third-party logistics (3PL) firm says it “consistently gets products to market faster, more efficiently and more cost-effectively than national, regional and in-house supply chain management (SCM) providers. Our true turnkey services shorten dock-to-stock time.”
But streamlining apparently is not the watchword when it comes to risk management at Verst, which prides itself on promoting a safety-conscious corporate culture. The safety-first emphasis led the firm to seek ways to improve behind-the-wheel performance to prevent a collision that could have catastrophic repercussions. “The reality of what we’re concerned about is the risk associated with what is essentially an 80,000-lb. missile going down the highway,” says vice president of transportation Chris Cusick, putting it starkly.
As Verst looked for a solution, it realized it wanted a system that featured an onboard video system to gain real visibility on the road and one that would generate data managers could then act upon when they followed up with drivers about their actions.
Solution: Verst opted to go with the SmartDrive Safety camera-based system as the company found it offered the event-triggered video setup the fleet sought. “It gave us the ability to actually capture behavior changes in the cab,” Cusick says, and was the only solution that met all the concerns. “In terms of why we made the decision to go with SmartDrive,” he explains, “it was these three things: risk avoidance, risk prevention and risk management.”
While the system captures the in-vehicle video data needed, it also generates management insights, easy-to-use reports and real-world metrics that Cusick says are crucial to risk management at Verst.
Cusick reports that the SmartDrive interface has customizable reporting and gives Verst’s managers “a way to focus on driving behaviors that need attention.”
The tallying process scores driving observations after reviewing video clips and then generates data that Verst’s team of driver managers can act on.
“I can’t stress how important SmartDrive has been to supplementing our safety culture,” relates operations manager Shawn Hisle. “For our driver managers, it’s easy to use. The daily reports point us in the right direction for driver training.”
The reports enable driver coaches to zero in on specific areas of improvement, which Hisle says makes coaching more timely and effective. “If a driver has a near miss, or if they’re driving too close, those are the things I want to know about, so I have email alerts automatically sent to me by SmartDrive,” he adds. “I view them in a couple of minutes, and I pick out several that need coaching.”
Since Verst has deployed SmartDrive and gained a deeper understanding of risky driver behavior, Cusick reports that several drivers who had accidents have been exonerated of fault.
“Five drivers were exonerated last year with the help of SmartDrive videos for an approximate cost avoidance of $20,000 to $30,000,” he relates. “And we’ve seen a downward trend in claims as well.” Cusick contends those exonerations “went a long way towards convincing drivers that this [video] tool is here to protect them.”
On top of that, in 2012 Verst achieved a zero DOT reportable-accident rate (the number of DOT reportable incidents—tow, injury or fatality—divided by the miles driven). “The zero DOT accident rate is an enormous achievement, one we hadn’t accomplished in the seven prior years,” Cusick points out.
