Jefferies Mobility featured SafeMode

Welcome to this week’s Jefferies Mobility Technology newsletter. Please feel free to connect with us through any of our team members below with any questions or to discuss general industry trends.

Guest Feature:

It is Not Telematics. It is Not a Dashcam.

Drivers are the most significant challenge fleets are facing today, including their behavior and retention. The drivers shortage deepening year over year is putting fleet managers in an absurd situation, where they need to retain their drivers and keep a high standard of safety and efficiency. Less efficient drivers keep their job, taking advantage of the situation, while drivers that raise the bar on safety and efficiency are not being rewarded.

Fleet managers have access to almost unlimited data about their drivers' behavior. Still, with all that data and visibility, there are no effective or scalable tools that help form new driving habits. Fleet managers can't reward successful drivers or penalize other drivers.

SafeMode’s unique technology based on Behavioral AI. It provides actionable insights on driver behavior for the fleet managers and an engagement platform for drivers which rewards them in a personalized way. "Behavioral AI" understands the psychology behind the driver, making average drivers better, and good drivers exceptional.

Founded in 2017, SafeMode is fueled with Behavioral Economics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) coming from its two professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media lab, Tel Aviv University, and Israel Institute of Technology (The Technion). SafeMode leverages the combination of its professors and serial entrepreneurs to research the driver behavior modification for decades.

SafeMode "Behavioral AI" has a proven record of changing driver behavior. For fleets that already have telematics and in-cabin sensors, SafeMode provides an additional reduction of 30% in critical driving events and 3% in fuel consumption, all within less than 14 days of using "Behavioral AI". In addition, it increases driver satisfaction and retention.

Drivers in the Data Era

Over the past 15 years, the drivers shortage worsened. Currently, there is a need for 60,000 additional professional drivers in the U.S. with a 90% turnover of drivers between fleets. At the same time, fleet managers are being forced to increase efficiency or outsource to 3rd party logistics, this makes fleet managers be under pressure to manage their fleet costs.

Studies show that the total cost of ownership (TCO) is highly correlated to driver behavior. The average driver behavior linked to 20% of the TCO and it can reach up to 35%-40% for the below average driver. If adding the driver's recruiting cost which rates at $8K-$10K annually, due to the high turnover, it sums up for annual driver behavior cost of $20k-$30K per driver.

The wide deployment of telematics and dashcams, help fleets managers to gain good visibility and to discover new cost savings opportunities. After consolidating planning optimization (routing, empty miles, maintenance) at a good standard, fleets are shifting the focus to the critical part, the human factor. Although managers have a handful of dashboards and monitoring platform, they have no time, willingness or capabilities to deepen into the data neither to attain actionable insights.

Even though it's true that drivers are made, not born, it can perceive naive to assume that poor driver behavior and risky driving patterns arising because of lack of experience. The truth is that drivers just don't have the interest, incentive or discipline to drive safely and economically.

We are aware that punishment is not the right approach, but what about rewards?

Drivers Know How to Drive, SafeMode Makes the Magic Happen

SafeMode empowers drivers to improve their driving behavior without the intervention of a fleet manager. The future of driver engagement supports fleets to proactively manage driver behavior.

Drivers being rewarded based on their improvement regarding the fleet's efficiency, which is adjustable based on the fleet goals, and can combine several parameters- safety, efficiency, texting, fatigue and more. For the first time, drivers care and are being motivated for eco-safe driving. SafeMode technology combining state-of-the-art AI with proprietary Behavioral Economics models which profiles drivers for accurate assessment of the most effective feedback, personalized incentive, and positive user interaction and engagement.

Smart incentive algorithms determine the optimal cost-effective monetary and non-monetary incentive for a given driver in a presented time. Rewarding is not a new story, fleets are already using scorecards and bonuses to reward drivers. Without understanding how to do to it right, they are wasting money with no result.

With great science behind their technology and an excellent engineering team, SafeMode decodes the way to generate a behavioral modification engine.

For instance, competition, which seems as a useable tool, mostly affects 10% of participants, the rest drop from the race. Likewise, score-based rewards benefit the best drivers, but the low hanging fruit can be the below average drivers if they improve.

Fleet Manager Can Work Smarter Not Harder

After completing a trip or a shift, not while driving, the drivers receive their rewards, trip history, feedback, and insights to learn how they can gain more incentives and improve their next trip. The off-driving engagement attitude differentiates the system as proactive vs. reactive sensors. While live feedback can only nudge the driver from doing an action that has already taken place, SafeMode changes the driver's mindset in advance and prevent dangerous situations from happening.

With no need for hardware, the implementation is seamless and easy for fleet managers and user-friendly for drivers. The platform aggregates multi-sourced data from existing devices in the vehicles to create a comprehensive context of the trip, including normalizing routes, weather, and traffic which increase the driver's trustworthiness in the system.

All fleet managers have to do, is set up their fleet goals and start tracking the ROI, receive actionable insights and see the trends in their fleet. In addition, with a new set of features, SafeMode will release soon, it will also offer managers to automate the personal interactions with drivers, identifying when and where the manager needs to put his attention.

For best in class fleet managers, it's no secret, engaged drivers mean reliable operations and a successful business.

www.safemode.co

contact@safemode.co