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Idealease revolutionizes fleet operations with ELEVATE®, our proprietary Driver Performance System that improves driver safety and saves fleets millions of dollars in annual operating costs.

Sign up for the ELEVATE® Question/Tip of the Week and receive short, actionable, and easy-to-use information to help your drivers operate their vehicles more safely while reducing fuel consumption, idle time, wear and tear on equipment, maintenance costs, vehicle downtime, and more.

If you have a question or a topic you would like covered in a future ELEVATE Question/Tip of the Week, email ELEVATE@Idealease.com.

Find a complete list of ELEVATE topics below.

Q:

Do you have any ideas for successful incentive programs to improve driver behavior?

A:

There are many different approaches to incentive programs. Overall, your organization is saving significant operation costs due to driver behavior improvements. Beyond fuel savings, you are most likely forming a safer fleet with less accidents, reduced breakdowns and unscheduled maintenance; and in many instances, lower insurance costs.

An important factor is primarily focusing on team results. This helps unify the team as Us against Them vs. Me against You within a location. Here are just a few ideas that may be a good fit for your organization:

  1. Food Celebration – Whether it’s a pizza party, an outdoor barbecue, or something else more tailored to the size of the team, people love to celebrate a win over food!

    1. MVP – If the team wants to recognize an outstanding team member, maybe that person gets a $25 gift card to a local restaurant or coffee shop. MVP is not always the top driver but is sometimes a lower performing driver that made significant improvements in that period of time.

  2. Plaque or Trophy – Perhaps a traveling trophy or plaque engraved with “Team/Region/Location of the quarter/half/year as determined by your organization”. You might even consider displaying a duplicate plaque at the corporate headquarters.

    1. Depending on the timeframe, a gift for each team member is always a hit; try rewarding company swag, a gift card, or another form of recognition.

  3. Yearly Celebration – Again, this is up to your organization, depending on the benefits you've reaped because of the improvements; but perhaps you recognize MPG leaders, Idle % leaders, and Safety leaders (either through actual accident/incident reduction results or KPI improvements).  This could be held in recognition of an individual driver, manager, or team.

    Gift ideas:

    1. Company jacket with embroidered team member's name(s)

    2. Larger amount gift card or cash bonus

    3. Business associated trip (i.e. to an annual meeting) to be recognized by top management

You get the idea. Not all incentives need to be in the form of cash. Many times, the items they get that they will not or cannot purchase themselves is a better reward. And let's face it- recognition in front of peers is always the best bang for your buck!

American Family Insurance has other detailed suggestions that may help you devise the right options for your fleet.