Trucking Safety in the Valley

Corey and I recently met up in Pharr, TX to work with 1st Patriot Insurance and their clients to improve safety for this insurance agency's clients. Below is the transcript.

John- Hey, this is John Davis with Transport Safely and I am speaking with Corey from NOCELL tonight. And we were just recently together down in the Rio Grande Valley down in McAllen, seeing 1st Patriot Insurance and we are working with them on helping their clients achieve better safer scores and absolutely operate safer. And Corey's company provides technology that can help eliminate cell phone use and distracted driving of drivers. And we talked to some safety folks this week about some of the issues that they're having. And we came up with some different scenarios that the NOCELL technology could help. But before I jump into that, Corey, why don't you tell a little bit about the tag and how it works with the cell phone to help eliminate distracted driving. So folks who may not have seen us before, how it operates.

Corey- Sure John thanks, I appreciate it. So the NOCELL platform is a hybrid solution. It's got a NOCELL tag a piece of hardware that is in the cab, an App that goes on the phone in the portal that controls the whole thing. And basically to make it really simple, when the vehicle's in motion, the unauthorized Apps. So whatever Apps the fleet manager does not want the driver to use while the vehicle's in motion are physically removed from the phone. And then after the trip is completed, the Apps are they're placed back on the phone. No data's lost, no messages are lost no texts are lost, nothing's lost just that they're not on the phone while the driver's driving. So the driver can focus solely on the mission of watching the road and doing the job of driving and getting there safely.

John- Okay, and then, so we talked about this, during this last week that the fleet managers have the flexibility to choose what is on the phone and what's not on the phone correct?

Corey- Absolutely.

John- So with the, and I want to point that out, so if a fleet uses a certain App or something that is mission critical to their operation then your technology can allow access to that App, to what extent it needs to be, what the technology and what I've seen with the technology. And I as a safety director, I personally use it in my own vehicle so I can have a better understanding of how this technology works. So when I am out recommending it and talking to fleet managers and safety directors and owners about it that I know what I'm talking about. So I think that with that it's with a commercial driver the main thing is trying to limit the cell phone use, the handling of the cell phone. Keeping it out of their hands. And one of the other things we talked about is the technology is great, is step one and then step two is 'cause I know all you safety directors and fleet managers are undergoing throughout this is not gonna work. The next, the second step is you have to do the training with the drivers so they can, whether it's using the assistant on the phone to read the last message from dispatch or whatever, the whole idea is to keep this out of their hand. And so that they can focus, two hands on the wheel, focus on safely going from point A to point B. So, I throw that out there. So, safety directors and fleet managers and owners can understand that it's just like anything, it's sorta like when we first learned how to text on the flip phone back, some of you're not old enough to know that, but you learn how to do it. And it's sort of retraining. And I told Corey when I first used the App, I was on a long trip driving from Southern Texas back to Florida. And the aha moment I had was I didn't realize how much I picked up my phone. It's picking up, oh, I heard a ding. I heard a text message. Oh, I got an email oh. A lot of it wasn't responding to it, it was just picking the phone up to see what it was, oh that's just a junk mail. Oh, that's a text I can read later. And then oh that's my family member and I better handle that. And I'm the safety director. I had to put it down and so that was the aha moment for me is, oh, you don't realize how much you pick that device up. And I think that's what you're seeing with some of the clients that you already have, is they're having those aha moments of what's going on.

Corey- Absolutely, the product itself can be as flexible, open or restrictive as the fleet manager wants it to be. If they want to leave it wide open for the first two weeks and just gather data. How many times did they pick up the phone? Is our rogue device in the vehicle? Just gather that data they can do so. If they need to lock it all the way down they can. If they need to have access to WhatsApp and they need, or whatever communication method they use or Ping Loud or something to that nature, if that, because the cell phone is not going away obviously, the cell phone is a standard piece of equipment in the vehicle, right? It's being used for maps, it's being used for invoicing, it's being used for all these different applications. So why not have it in there, have the flexibility to allow the whitelist the Apps that the driver needs and make sure that, like you said, they're not picking up that phone, 150 times an hour, which is pretty much the average.

John- Right, well, I didn't even think about that, but you're right on that because it's just ding after ding, after ding, after ding. Right and you think about all the different Apps, especially for a driver, Facebook dings, Message dings, WhatsApp dings.

Corey- Instagram.

John- Their stockbroker dings, whatever it is. And it takes their eyes off the road. The other thing that I talked to some of the safety directors, I want to get your feedback on this Corey is we have some safety, some companies that I deal with that have cell phone violations under the unsafe driving BASIC score. And as if you're a fleet manager or a safety director or even an owner or in insurance, you know that that's one of the heaviest weighted violations you can get and it can be even really bad, so just holding a cell phone is a 10, but if you're texting, if you get caught texting it's 25. So five points for inattentive driving, five points, 10 points for texting, 10 points for the cell phone. And what I want to remind people, 'cause I've said it many times before, that lives on your Unsafe Driving for two insurance renewals or you can fire the driver. You can get rid of them, but the company is gonna live with that for 24 months. And there's not a whole lot you know. I do a lot of data queues for our clients, and there's that's just an unwinnable challenged in data queue unless you have absolute video footage or something that.

Corey- go away

John- It does not and so that was what I was thinking about your technology is, there's another application, because what a good safety director should do is just fire that driver. We had a cell phone policy you got the violation and you fire them. Then I start thinking about the driver shortage. And I know a lot of people say, there's not a driver shortage, there's a driver shortage. And your technology could be a remedial coaching type thing, where, okay, we like I had one company that had four cell phone violations, so they fired four drivers. Well, then you start thinking of what the cost of recruiting them, the cost of training them, the cost of everything. And we're all human, we all do it. But then in that case, taking your technology and going, let's salvage this driver. Even to the point of getting a brochure or marketing material, the write-up sending it up to your insurance agent at 1st Patriot Insurance, them sending up to the insurance company. It says, we take this serious.

Corey- Right, we are being proactive now.

John- We're being very proactive on this. And let the driver know that it's gonna be with you for a certain amount of time. It's really depending on company, because you can monitor it and then they can earn their good behavior back and then you can take it out do that. The other thing is what you said that I really like too, if you're gonna be a very good and effective safety director for a fleet, the number one thing you've got to do is have tools in place to monitor behavior, to develop training and to head off problems.

Corey- Correct.

John- So even if, like you said, you don't lock the phones down, but a device's on every truck. And we know that John picks up his phone 50 times during the hour, but Corey is picking up 75 times during the hour. Then those are teachable, teachable moments with drivers that they may not even realize it. And then if you had, if you were able to couple in, 'cause a lot of the bigger fleets have inward facing cameras. So, if you are collecting the data from NOCELL that says, okay, this is what the phone handling is. And then you're collecting the data from the cameras. Then you can talk to the drivers and you could probably get a lot more buy in to work on it. The other thing is a safety director, and I love the drivers. I loved the fact that they bring me my stuff that I like to fish with. They bring my clothes, they bring my family and everything. I absolutely love. So it's the number one thing about your technology that I absolutely love is the protecting the driver from the driver.

Corey- Right,

John- That was the aha moment I had when I first used it driving from South Texas back to Florida, I was going, I never thought about that. It's protected, it's the same thing I say about cameras. Driver side cameras. I don't want it. Big brother's watching me and all that. Well, when the lawyer's on the billboard or after you, and they're hunting you, having a NOCELL, having a camera in there, because think about if you are, and I'm knocking on wood here, a driver's in an accident, and there's a witness, that's in a car that said I saw him on his phone. And then you have the NOCELL technology that said he wasn't on his phone.

Corey- Right, pull the data, that's right.

John- Pull the data. And that way you have much more defensible case.

Corey- More defensible and it's you're being proactive and you can exonerate the driver when the driver's not at fault.

John- Correct, correct and even on the violation, if someone, if a highway truck officer rides by the trunk it's I saw you on your phone. No you didn't. I got the camera showing I wasn't on my phone. And I had the NOCELL technology that says I definitely wasn't on my phone. So that's, those are some important things there.

Corey- I always say it's hats off to the company for investing the money in the safety of the driver and hats off to the driver for understanding that this company is investing in their safety, so that that driver gets home at the end of their shift every single time.

John- Absolutely, absolutely, well and that's one of the things that I like about working with 1st Patriot Insurance in Texas is they understand that.

Corey- They do.

John- They understand the importance of bringing in, some safety partners to come in and provide their clients with services that will help them be a safer operation. And the whole goal is to get the insurance rates down. If you're not having accidents because of cell phone violations. One of the other big trends right now that I absolutely hate with the drivers, remember drivers, I love you, doing Facebook lives and stuff, while you're going down the highway or watching a movie or, stop doing that, please stop doing that, because all you're gonna do as a Facebook live all the way to the scene of the accident. And it's, I know you're driving 10 hours a day, you're bored and you're trying to find, the monotony of it, but.

They understand the importance of bringing in, some safety partners to come in and provide their clients with services that will help them be a safer operation.

Corey- If only there was another technology to take it away.

John- Well and that's the thing is even before I met you, I go, well all my clients have a cell phone policy. Okay, are you riding with all your drivers to know that they're abiding by it that they signed cell phone policy? No, okay then how do you know they're abiding by it? Well, don't they better abide by it, if they get a violation or whatever I'm gonna terminate them.

Corey- Bring that cell phone policy to court and see how that stands out.

John- Exactly, exactly, oh, it stands out real great. Oh I had a written cell phone policy, and the driver didn't follow it and I did monitor it, and I didn't make sure that he was following it, and.

Corey- It is almost more dangerous to have a cell phone policy and not enforce it, not being able to measure it, than not having a cellphone policy at all, right?

John- Absolutely and so, I've been doing this for a lot of years, and we all are trying to do the right thing. And I'm talking to the safety directors now, we're all trying to do the right things, and make sure we have the right tools in place. And unfortunately in the cell phone world like you said, it's not going away. It's gonna be, I think it's gonna just get worse. If you think about all the different applications that can send another notification, so it's.

Corey- As the guys that our team at Virginia Technology or a tech Virginia Technology Transportation Institute said, technology got us into this problem, and technology is gonna have to get us out of this problem, that's all.

John- That's very true, that's very true. And then that's a lot of what I think is going on with the autonomous trucking thing and all that. And we can take the human error out of it. We can't do that. That'll be. That's a whole another thing I can go down on, why I don't think that'll work. But that's what lobbyists and people that are talking about this is, oh, well, we had this accident this accident, this accident. What they forget is a lot of the accidents that my trucking clients deal with, is a four-wheeler being distracted and hit the truck. So that's the call of the exit. But unfortunately, because of the way the lawyers are, the truck is gonna get sued.

Corey- Right, there's a big name on the side of the truck so.

John- Exactly, exactly, so anyway, I encourage you to check out 1st Patriot Insurance, if you are a fleet in the State of Texas, because they only operate in the State of Texas and they have a great team of people they are working closely with us. So, if you need Corey's a company services to help lock down cell phones. If you need my services for compliance or safety, please contact 1st Patriot Insurance, tell them you saw this video, and we're here to help. And if you are interested for Corey go to nocell.com and there's contact information on there correct for.

I encourage you to check out 1st Patriot Insurance, if you are a fleet in the State of Texas, because they only operate in the State of Texas and they have a great team of people they are working closely with us.

Corey- Correct yeah.

John- Yeah and then just contact him about, maybe you want to get the tags and monitor the whole fleet, the aha moment I think you'll have, as you don't have any idea how often your drivers are on the phone.

Corey- No.

John- And pick it up with them. So, this may be a great way for you, and is this is not ultra-expensive technology either. So, it's not gonna break the bank on the benefits of what it could do, saving your driver's life. Saving the other people on the highway's life, saving you on violations under the unsafe driving. Saving you on your insurance. Saving you on everything that you can do. So, and then for us just go to transportsafely.com and we've got driver training, and anything that you would like to help make your operation safer and feel free to contact Corey or myself. We work very closely together and, or 1st Patriot. And we would love to work as a team to try to get a better insurance experience for you and your company.

Corey- Absolutely.

John- So I really appreciate you spending a little time with me this evening. And I understand you're up in where, Austin tonight?

Corey- I'll be in Austin today yeah.

John- Yeah I'm down at Edinburg near McAllen. So it was freezing yesterday and it's 84 degrees today. So reminds me of Florida. So anyway I'm gonna intro exit hours here, and then I really appreciate your time tonight.

Corey- Thanks John, appreciate it.