David P. Frame, CEO of Bob Frame Plumbing Services Inc., a four-generation-old contractor in South Bend, Indiana, has always done as much as he can to keep his techs safe on the job. Hard hats, safety glasses and all the other typical PPE, of course. Plus, a safety department led by no less than an ex-OSHA inspector. His union crews paid time and a half to come in early for all safety training classwork.

“They need to know that we care about their safety,” David says. “As an owner, you want to know that you’re doing the best you can for your crews. And we were investing a ton of money on safety programs. But all this time, we were overlooking one of the biggest safety hazards of all.”

While David did all he could to keep his techs safe while on the job, he wasn’t addressing what to do to keep them safe while on the road to those jobs.

“If business owners aren’t addressing the biggest safety exposure employees face,” David adds, “which happens whenever they get behind the wheel of their vehicles, then we’re kind of missing the boat on safety.”

As a result, David’s business, which his grandfather started in 1932, was the first Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association member to implement Federated Insurance’s DriveSAFE program soon after the insurer introduced it in October of 2021. Federated is a well-known and long-term corporate partner of the PHCC and a company dedicated to providing insurance products to trade associations.

“We only exist as an insurance company because trade associations like the PHCC created us,” adds John Gehan, executive vice president and chief insurance officer, Federated Insurance, based in Owatonna, Minnesota, who joined us during our visit to Bob Frame’s offices, along with David; Tyler M. Frame, president; and Amanda Frame, vice president and director of operations. “Risk management is in our DNA and it’s what we do first and foremost for trade association members so we are always looking for new ways to keep our customers safe. And the biggest exposure, particularly for contractors, is auto crashes. It is the No. 1 cause of death in the workplace.”

The DriveSAFE devices used to capture driving data are now onboard Bob Frame’s fleet of 22 vehicles, ranging from service vans to vac trucks. Essentially the program leverages GPS technology to track driving habits to enable everyone to stay safe on the road. Combining in-vehicle telematic devices and mobile apps, the program tracks driving behaviors such as driving over the speed limit, slamming on the brakes, stepping on the gas and taking a turn too fast.

While company administrators can stay on top of hazardous driving, perhaps more importantly, the first-hand feedback provided through the program helps techs themselves become more aware of and intentionally change their own driving habits to help decrease accidents, injuries, litigation, reputational damage, and many expenses associated with a work vehicle accident.

“Years ago, we did try another driver safety program that used GPS devices,” David adds, “But it required a lot of dedicated time on our part. And the big problem was that our crews felt that we were watching them constantly and only providing feedback when something was wrong because they had no ready access to the information. On the other hand, the regular self-monitoring aspect of the DriveSAFE problem was a different way to use this type of technology and it works. It was just amazing when the program came out.”

How DriveSAFE works

Federated originally partnered with technology company Cambridge Mobile Telematics, the world’s largest telematics service provider, with its own dedicated mission to make drivers and roads safer.

“Telematics are becoming more and more common,” Gehan says. “They’ve been in the personal lines of insurance for several years, and in the last couple years, they’re getting more and more common for commercial carriers as well.”

Let’s break down a few components of the DriveSAFE program:

Tags: DriveSAFE uses state-of-the-art telematics tags that are installed in each vehicle in a company’s fleet and paired to individual techs who are behind the wheel. The wireless tags are simple to install and powered by batteries that have an expected life of three to five years. The tags are typically affixed to the vehicle’s windshield.

“It would take me longer to walk out to one of our vehicles than to actually install and set up the tag to start capturing driving data,” Amanda adds.

Once initialized and paired to each vehicle, the tags gather data from sensors to measure and track the following key metrics of a driver’s behavior while on the road:

• Smart phone use: If the phone is on, in a driver’s hands and while the vehicle is moving, the system will know. (Gehan had some particularly sobering statistics on the dangers of smart phone use while driving that we talk more about in our sidebar, The Dangers of Smartphones.)

• Speed: DriveSAFE records a speeding event whenever the vehicle is 9 miles per hour over the speed limit.

• Hard braking: DriveSAFE records instances where drivers are slamming on their brakes in a lower-speed zone or drastically reducing speed on the highway. 

• Harsh cornering: Like with hard braking, DriveSAFE prefers to record “smooth” instances of driving.

• Hard acceleration: As with instances of slamming on the brakes, DriveSAFE will also record drivers with a so-called “lead foot.” (Accelerating in order to merge onto a fast-moving highway, however, won’t impact a driver’s score.)

“What we’re measuring are poor reactionary driving behaviors,” Amanda adds, “the types of behaviors that are most likely to cause an accident.”

Phone App: For drivers, an easy-to-download app onto their own smart phones provides updates on their driving behaviors in a couple of different ways. Individual trips are given a “star” rating – in other words, five stars awarded for each of the metrics – so techs can easily understand each trip at a glance. On an individual trip, for example, drivers could lose a star for driving too fast and another for braking too quickly.

However, drivers also get ranked by an overall score (out of 100) that’s a key component of driving performance, and is based on their driving data over the last two-week period. The numerical score, front and center atop the DriveSAVE app, also shows overall trends and how well they rank among their colleagues.

And if that wasn’t enough encouragement to check out everyone’s performance, the app will notify users later in the day to keep up their safe driving and review their scores.

Administrative Portal: As a final part of the DriveSAFE program, data is sent to a cloud-based dashboard, where it is analyzed and compiled into reports. This allows businesses to identify poor driving, monitor compliance with safe driving practices and track progress over time.

Much of these administrative duties fall to Amanda.

“When we first started the program, we set our standard score at 80,” Amanda says. “But we found in a few months, our guys really believed in the program. I don’t think we really dropped below 95.”

Since then a 95 score is the standard at the company – during our visit the latest collective score posted in the break room was actually 98.7!

“However, when I do my reviews of the program, if anyone does drop below that 95 score,” Amanda adds, “then I can go through their trips and see what we need to keep an eye on and address. For example, if I only see a four-star trip then I can determine what star the driver lost by say, taking too sharp of a turn or accelerating too quickly.”

Another key part of the DriveSAFE program is its emphasis on driver education. Through Federated’s partnerships with leading safety organizations, DriveSAFE also provides access to specialized training materials tailored to the needs of each business. This can include online training modules, in-person workshops, and industry-specific safety resources.

However, much of the “education” surrounding the program comes down to the drivers’ commitment to improve themselves – improvements further reinforced by regularly checking out their own scores.

“That’s the big thing,” Tyler adds. “Everyone can see their own performance, see where they messed up and then it’s just ingrained in everyone to fix those things. And everyone who’s been around tradespeople know they all want to compete and improve themselves to be better.”

And compete they do since the company has turned the scores into contests throughout the year in which drivers can earn cash for high scores. Basically, the company splits the drivers into two teams of seven techs. Every other week, the tech with the highest DriveSAFE score and who’s driven the most miles gets $50. At the end of the year, the company adds up the tech who has earned the most high scores in the year, and that winner from each team receives $1,500 for a total of $3,000 at the end of the year to recognize safe driving.

“If you went through all the individual scores,” Tyler says, “you’d see a lot are earning 100. And that’s not easy to get. On average, one of our techs might make seven service calls a day and drive hundreds of miles throughout the week. But that’s the buy-in we have from our techs. They know this is for their benefit and the public. We’re keeping everyone safe.”

And while the DriveSAFE program works only when techs are driving a company vehicle, Tyler says he’s heard plenty of stories about how the awareness of safe driving at work carries over to good habits while behind the wheels of their personal cars.

“That self-awareness of the DriveSAFE program really starts to change driving habits for the better all the time,” he adds, “and they’ll make those in the changes without even realizing they’re doing it.”

Adds Gehan: “With the numbers Bob Frame is putting up, I can comfortably tell you their organization drives much, much more safely and responsibly than the general public does on the road. That will reduce crashes, save lives and protect employees in the long run.”