b'ing, harsh braking, as well as making sure pre-tripKeep Your Fleet Safety Plans Simple and Accessibleinspections were done daily. [We just made] sure theyre doing what they were supposed to be doing, and werewarded them for it, says Godwin. The construction industry is no stranger to safety policies,At BCR, Godwin leveraged driver behavior, maintenance especially when it comes to fleet management, but manyand other fleet data to help monitor safety practices. One policies can be difficult to read and out of touch with thing he focused on was finding issues when they were daily processes. To help increase safety in your operation,small and manageable, before they became full-blown incorporate employee feedback in your safety policy andproblems. Whether [it was finding] unsafe stuff with ensure your employees have the proper tools and equipment thats going out [when its] not ready to go, [or equipment they need. Throughout his jobs in distributionits] not being loaded properly, or its not being operated and construction, Brent Godwindirector of inventoryproperlythose are huge, Godwin says. So I built out maintenance and procurement at Keolishas done justdashboards and incentivized safety programs before to that.promote safe driving, one: It helps out CSA; two: It really allowed us to coach up the poor performers before they DIGITIZING FOR SIMPLICITY AND SAFETYgot cited for anything. It also allowed us to kind of reward During his nearly nine-year stint as fleet operations man- our top drivers, you know, because good drivers are hard ager at Builders FirstSource in the 2010s, Godwin man- to find; theyre even harder to retain. aged a complex web of fleet platforms. Afterward, he went on to manage vehicles and equipment for BighornSTANDARDIZING EXPECTATIONS ACROSS THE Construction and Reclamation for a time, where he soughtFLEET a more unified system that integrated with the companysBecause BCR is a nationwide company, Godwin stressed existing telematics provider. We want[ed] to keep itthat standardizing safety was a must in keeping equip-easy, he explains. We [didnt] want multiple logins forment and operators safe. It [was] really taking those en-multiple different systems. You shouldnt have to go hereterprise-wide protocols and making sure everybody [was] to find your fuel spend, go here to look at your mainte- following it the same across the board, so that if you [got] nance spend, go here to find your vehicles, you know? Itinto any piece of equipment, no matter where you [were], just makes it a lot more cumbersome for [users]. I alwaysit should be in the exact same condition, he explains. try to find some simplicity in things. A digital fleet As with most fleets, pencil whipping was often a concern optimization platform allowed him to consolidate when it came to inspections and it was something Godwin maintenance records, improving both safety visibility andsaw a good amount of when BCRs inspections wereefficiency.paper-based. To alleviate those concerns, he requiredAlong with a team of five technicians, Godwin managedpictures be submitted with inspections for any failed item. both fleet and equipment for BCR, including trailers,He speculates that part of the issue when it comes topower units and heavy equipment, totaling around 300pencil-whipping is that drivers may feel theyll get in assets with an acquisition of roughly 300 more. While hetrouble for failing an inspection item. You basically tell knew that maximizing uptime for these assets was crucialthese guys, Hey, youre not going to get in trouble if you to the companys productivity, the safety of his teamasfault something out. We want to know so we can get it well as that of asset operatorsalways remained a topfixed. Its not big brother looking at you. priority. With the availability of consolidated fleet data recorded in real-time, Godwin could effectively manageMAKING SAFETY POLICIES USABLE ANDfleet safety better than ever.SCALABLE A safety policy is only effective if people understand it MONITORING SAFETY THROUGH DATAand can act on it. Godwin advocates for simplicity and Godwin has always been a big proponent of safety in clarity, saying: You have to put it in laymans terms. [At general: My goal is to make sure that all of our BCR, we didnt] put safety policies with, you employees go home the same way they come in. But theknow, Article 693.1. You make it scalable [] make it hard thing with safety is monitoring it, he says. Theeasy. The way I see it is, I write policy so that I could best way Ive found to do that is to incentivize it. In ahand it to my mother and she would understand what Im previous position, Godwin found that applying safetysaying. And my mother knows nothing about corporate score cards proved successful as a way to incentivizesafety. Understand your audience and work towards that safety among his team. Every month that you had anaudience. That means avoiding jargon, ensuringincident-free month, you got put into drawings, you gotmaterials are bilingual and making sure any required tech gift cards, he says. The more you can get people to buyis actually accessible to users. in on things, in my opinion, the better off you are. So its not just a big mandate from one person going down to all these people; its everybody looking out for everybodys interest.(continued on page 20) The safety score cards dealt with incident-free driving, including tracking behaviors like speeding, harsh corner-16'