Dot Transportation Sees 30% Increase in Efficiency with Fleet Safety Technology
Dot Transportation, the private fleet for Dot Foods, is part of North America's largest food industry redistributor.
With more than 2,000 drivers and safety data flowing from multiple systems, the company needed a more efficient way to identify driver risk and proactively improve safety performance. By implementing Descartes Fleet Safety™, Dot Transportation centralized safety data, streamlined workflows, and adopted a more proactive, data-driven approach to fleet safety.
The Challenge: Proactively Identifying Driver Risk with Disjointed Systems
Before implementing Descartes Fleet Safety, Dot Transportation relied on a homegrown risk management system (RMS) that the company had developed in the early 2000s. While the system had supported the business for years, it relied heavily on manual data entry and was designed to have a limited lifespan. As the fleet grew, it became increasingly difficult to maintain and lacked the predictive capabilities needed to proactively identify driver risk.
To fill the gaps, the safety team layered scorecards and other reporting tools on top of the RMS. However, these tools only measured past performance, providing lagging indicators instead of actionable insights that could help prevent future incidents.
"It was a lot of manual work. We had scorecards that we used on top of our RMS, but the only things we were able to produce were lagging indicators. They weren't proactive and precise enough to help us really know that an accident was going to occur." - Tim Eckhardt, Director of Safety and Compliance, Dot Transportation
Recognizing these limitations, Dot Transportation began looking for a solution that could integrate with its existing systems while providing more accurate, predictive insights into driver risk.
The Solution: Descartes Fleet Safety™
After evaluating available solutions, Dot Transportation selected Descartes Fleet Safety based on two key requirements: seamless integration with its existing technology and advanced predictive analytics that could help identify at-risk drivers before incidents occurred.
By centralizing safety data into a single platform, Descartes Fleet Safety gave teams across compliance, claims, accident management, and camera monitoring access to the same information, eliminating disconnected processes and improving collaboration. The platform also replaced manual reporting with predictive insights, allowing the safety team to spend more time coaching drivers and less time managing data.
Beyond the technology, Dot Transportation viewed Descartes as a long-term partner committed to continually investing in and evolving the platform.
“We thought, ‘This is a growing company that is going to invest constantly in their platform,’ and that’s what Descartes Fleet Safety has done.”
The Results: 30% Efficiency Gains and Continued Accident Reduction
Since implementing Descartes Fleet Safety, Dot Transportation has increased operational efficiency by approximately 30% by replacing manual processes with a centralized, data-driven platform. With less time spent managing data, the safety team can focus on higher-value activities such as coaching drivers and proactively reducing risk.
“When I look out at the work center, everybody has Descartes Fleet Safety pulled up. The compliance team, the accident team, the claims team, camera monitoring… everybody uses the same system and the same data.”
Predictive analytics have also helped Dot Transportation take a more proactive approach to fleet safety by identifying high-risk drivers earlier and enabling targeted interventions. As a result, the company has achieved three of its best four years for motor vehicle accident rates since implementing Descartes Fleet Safety, including the lowest accident rate in company history.
"We've used Descartes Fleet Safety for four years now and, in three of those four years, we've had our best motor vehicle accident (MVA) rates ever, with 2023 being the all-time best we've ever had as a company."
Today, Descartes Fleet Safety serves as the foundation of Dot Transportation's safety program, providing a single source of truth for safety data while helping the company continue improving efficiency and proactively managing driver risk.
Results at a Glance
- Predictive Increased operational efficiency by 30%
- Achieved the lowest accident rate in company history
- Sustained year-over-year reductions in motor vehicle accidents
- Eliminated ongoing maintenance and development costs associated with an in-house safety platform
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