TZC Services saves with Motive’s AI Dashcam.

Searching for a better way to protect drivers

Crystal Kimbrell’s job as an HR manager is to oversee her company’s field operators and contract workers as well as implement policies that support the company. Kimbrell, who is seasoned in human resources and safety, has worked the last several years at West Texas-based hydro excavation, oil and gas business, TZC Services.

She emphasized that West Texas has some of the most dangerous roads in the country. Locals even deemed one area as “Death Highway.” Last year alone, 93 people died in accidents just on the Texas-side of the Permian Basin.

Kimbrell pointed out, “Certain highways in Midland Texas are rated number one in fatalities due to oil field traffic. My guys travel that highway a lot so they need to be well protected.”

Choosing dash cams after a tragedy

Because TZC’s employees constantly drive through treacherous roads, often with little to no cell phone reception, Kimbrell installed Motive’s Smart Dashcams in all of the company’s 19 vehicles. This decision came after a dramatic event in Kimbrell’s safety career.

An employee at one of Kimbrell’s past companies was involved in a fatal collision. The employee happened to have a dash cam in his vehicle.

The tragic incident and the ensuing costs for legal claims and insurance investigations would have put the company out of business. She declared, “Thank God for the dash cam. That little camera saved the entire company millions of dollars.”

That experience permanently shaped Kimbrell’s no-nonsense approach to safety. “Ever since then, I have never gone without a dash cam.”

Kimbrell acknowledged, “In this industry, there are on-site accidents all the time.” Dash cams provide a layer of protection against wrongful accusations against TZC’s field workers.

A recent complaint was from a woman who claimed she was side-swiped by a TZC vehicle. After looking at the footage, however, Kimbrell proved it wasn’t TZC’s employee or vehicle.

“It’s not that I have a lack of faith in humanity, I just don’t want people calling and claiming our company did something wrong when we didn’t.”

Using AI-powered dash cams to coach drivers

Having dash cams allows Kimbrell to monitor TZC’s drivers and coach them to make improvements. The system alerts her of rash driving behaviors like hard braking, cornering, or acceleration. With store-bought cameras, you’d need to use SIM cards and spend time looking through and finding the right footage.

TZC prides itself on hiring experienced, good drivers, but there’s always one or two who need to make improvements.

Kimbrell said her safety and coaching protocol has become more efficient because of dash cams. In her line of work, it’s crucial to have the facts and evidence in real time to make confident decisions. She gave an example of a recent driver who wasn’t following company policy. “I called him into my office and showed him the video footage. We went over the video and what caused that to happen. I then put him on notice until his driving improves.”

Not only can Kimbrell monitor his score, but drivers can track their own scores and view their critical driving videos on the Motive driver app on their smartphones.

In these instances, dash cam footage is handy for two reasons:

1. It provides driving context to understand the conditions that may have triggered the specific safety event. For example, did the car in front of the driver’s vehicle brake suddenly? Or was the driver tailgating?
2. Video footage as a teaching tool. Kimbrell didn’t need to go into too much detail about what the driver did wrong. It was all there on the video, which made the coaching process that much faster and smoother. The footage provides a factual way to show what happened.

Improving customer satisfaction with GPS updates

In addition to the Smart Dashcam, Kimbrell uses Motive’s Vehicle Gateway to GPS track and monitor where her employees are in real-time. She does this to ensure they are safe. “We don’t know when guys are leaving job sites, as many of these places have zero cell service.”

Knowing where her trucks are gives her confidence to give TZC’s customers updates on delivery arrival times or when a job is completed. This helps strengthen customer relationships and gives her company an advantage against competing businesses.

All of these safety and business measures help TZC with its bottom line, and cost savings is critical in such a competitive industry. These benefits help the company grow its business and ensure strong customer partnerships. Like most companies, it relies on repeat customers and referrals.

Simplifying payroll and increasing accuracy

When it comes to verifying contract workers and their hours, Motive has been an immense help. In the oil and gas industry, there’s a lot of time spent waiting around on site. “Our guys are getting paid, even when they’re sitting around.”

Kimbrell believes most of her workers are honest about the number of hours they work, but sometimes, their ticket time (or timesheet) doesn’t match the time spent on the worksite.

Through Motive’s geofencing, Kimbrell stays vigilant about worker timesheet accuracy. “We just caught one of our employees not being honest about their hours. Because of GPS tracking and geofence, I was able to see when his truck entered and left the site.”

Motive’s geofence, GPS tracking, and Smart Dashcams provide TZC with a higher level of safety. For Kimbrell, this translates to not only cost savings, but also peace of mind. “I know my guys are well protected.”

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