CUSTOMER CASE STUDY

Challenge

The team at KONE understands that driving is integral to the job, and ensuring employees return home safely is the top priority. To accomplish both, safety is woven through every aspect of their business. 

KONE was experiencing frequent minor incidents as workers drove to customer sites to install, service, modernise, and replace elevators and escalators. The company was using a telematics device that didn’t capture video and wasn’t built on an AI model that could provide real-time data and insights to drive change.

“We were having about one incident every day and we knew we had room to improve,” says Val Hails, Safety Director for KONE. “When accidents weren’t the fault of a KONE employee, the company didn’t have evidence to exonerate the company or its drivers. Claims and costs increased and the time spent managing all the details of those claims continued to climb and take a toll on staff.”

“Our previous solution showed no video whatsoever,” says Hails. “It was just pretty much numbers and a colour chart showing if you’re in the red or if you’re in the green. We really didn’t know what our employees were doing on the road.” 

KONE’s existing system often wasn’t accurate or reliable, making it exceedingly difficult for the company to trust it to work or rely on the data. A lack of data also made progress on the company’s sustainability initiatives difficult to measure or maximise. 

“The big thing that we were looking at is accuracy,” said Halis. “We wanted a product that was reliable. We wanted a product that we can trust and we wanted a product that is accurate to a point that it’s providing us actual data of what’s going on and not misinformation.” 

A cross-functional team at KONE conducted a thorough evaluation of market segment vendors, including an extensive side-by-side trial, and ultimately chose Motive.

Solution

KONE selected Motive’s road-facing AI Dashcams for its fleet of 2,800 vehicles in the United States. Now KONE has an accurate and reliable solution to monitor and proactively coach drivers and has video evidence to exonerate the company and drivers when incidents occur.

Motive AI Dashcams use advanced AI-driven detection and send real-time feedback to drivers alerting them to risky driving, and encouraging immediate adjustments. Drivers are coached right from the Motive Driver App. “The system’s internal coaching on behaviour modification interested us most. Motive is an onboard coach to help drivers recognise and correct unsafe actions,” says Hails.

Matt Walsh, the Environment, Health, and Safety Manager at KONE says that self-correction has been key to success. ”Motive gives the drivers the feedback they need to be able to self-correct and change their behaviours on their own, without any interaction from their supervisor, and make adjustments right there on the spot to improve.”

Customisation was among KONE’s other top criteria. They appreciated Motive’s ability to customise its solutions to meet their specific needs. Hails emphasised, “We operate short distances so we sought a partner that could tailor the system to our specific requirements. The ability to listen and provide what we need was the ultimate decision for us moving forward with Motive.”

KONE is able to tailor what events are detected, and carefully communicate how the cameras are used and for what purpose. “We worked with Motive to ensure that everyone understood the intent of devices. It’s not punitive. We’re not trying to watch our employees’ every move. We’re trying to help them get home safe, and that’s our ultimate goal,” said Halis.

Results

The deployment of Motive facilitated a significant transformation in KONE’s approach to fleet safety and management. With Motive AI Dashcams deployed throughout the fleet, KONE is proactively coaching drivers about their habits at the moment an unsafe behaviour happens. There’s no more waiting for a supervisor to talk to a driver on the rare day the driver might be back in the shop. 

Walsh appreciates the video quality provided by the Motive cameras, enabling specific time and location verification during incidents. With better video, exonerating drivers after they have been involved in an accident is much easier. According to Valis, “Motive gives us the opportunity to potentially exonerate and tell the truth and identify who was at fault at the incident and, ultimately, change driving behaviour.” With collision detection accuracy and high-quality video, KONE has undeniable evidence that can be used to exonerate the company and drivers on accidents that aren’t their fault, and resolve incidents quickly in the rare instances that KONE is at fault. This reduces costs and frees up time for staff to focus on safety and not on paperwork. 

The team at KONE now has accurate data they can analyse to see patterns and identify specific drivers or routes that are higher risk than others. As Walsh notes, “What gets monitored gets done.” KONE now has a platform for immediate and effective responses to unsafe driving practices, fostering a safer work environment. As Halis explained, “In a lot of cases, we now congratulate our drivers for driving safely. And in others, we take that opportunity to change a behaviour and coach on what they could have done better.”

Together with Motive, KONE has deployed an AI-powered safety solution as an investment in its team members. Every improvement in behaviour a driver makes means they are safer on the job and the roads are safer for everyone. “It’s not punitive. We want to help employees get home safe and we’ve made a significant investment with that ultimate goal in mind,” says Hails.

Perhaps the most important factor has been the partnership between KONE and Motive. “It’s really the people who make a programme succeed, especially a programme of this magnitude. The Motive team has been so supportive in our journey,” says Hails. Walsh agrees: “It’s the people and their genuine care for and understanding of what we are looking to accomplish as a company.”

Walsh reaffirms that it’s all about safety. “What’s really important to KONE is employee safety and making sure that they make it home safely every day. And that’s what Motive is ultimately helping us to do,” he says.

A look ahead: safety, sustainability, and vehicle maintenance

KONE has just gotten started on the road to fleet safety improvements. “With the data we have now, we expect to see the unsafe behaviours go down, the costs go down, the incidents go down, insurance premiums go down, and a significant return on our investment,” says Hails.

KONE is optimistic about the future applications of the data collected through Motive, especially concerning their sustainability goals. Walsh shared, “As we get all this data about our vehicles and how our fleet operates, we’re going to be able to leverage that information to make decisions about our sustainability plan.”

Data about fuel expenditures, carbon emissions and idling will all become visible, helping KONE make measurable improvements to reduce environmental impacts.

“We’ll also be able to optimise the use of our vehicles, determine what types of vehicles are going to certain areas and perhaps identify the ideal uses for EVs,” Walsh explains.

Hails says that another part of the next phase will be planning ahead for new vehicles that come on board and the old vehicles that are being retired. “We’ll now be able to think ahead and develop a process around how we handle all of that so we can keep vehicle utilisation and customer service optimised. When you have the data, you don’t have to react. You can plan ahead.”

Both Walsh and Hails emphasised Motive’s role as more than just a provider but as a partner—a crucial aspect for KONE, which strives to ensure all employees are safe, from worksites to their commute home. Hails summed up his experience saying, “It’s been extremely positive. We’re a very high-demand type of customer. The Motive team has been nothing but supportive.”

Through a strategic partnership with Motive, KONE has not only enhanced its operational safety but has laid a robust foundation for future advancements in sustainability and efficiency. Through transparency and a collaborative approach with Motive, KONE’s operations are poised to set a new benchmark in the industry for safety and efficacy in fleet management.

The testimonials, statements, and opinions presented on this webpage reflect the real-life experiences of individuals and/or companies who have used our products and/or services. Individual results may vary and past performance is not a guarantee of future results. The testimonials presented on this webpage were voluntarily provided and not paid.