Meet the founder – Hayden Cardiff from Idelic

Prior to Idelic, I worked as a consultant for a large regional trucking fleet, Pitt Ohio. They had created an in-house safety software that they used with great success, being a solid part of their industry renown and award winning safety program. Having sold this software to other trucking companies along the way, but not wanting to commercialize it on their own, they asked me to research what other options they had to bring the product to market.

I spoke to as many fleets as I could of all sizes and segments, asking about their biggest challenges in safety and risk management and kept hearing very consistent feedback. Each of these fleets felt like they had way too much data coming from too many disparate systems that they couldn’t effectively use to be proactive and predictive around risk but that they were liable for in the courtroom. Once I saw how wide-spread the problem was and how we could dramatically affect not only the fleet’s already thin margins but also save lives by solving that problem, I decided it was definitely worth it to jump in with both feet.

We then spun out of Pitt Ohio, created Idelic, and built Safety Suite from the ground up to help fleets lower losses and improve on-road performance. We’re definitely proud of our roots and how we were able to still use the insights from the original safety product and historical data to jumpstart our predictive analytics efforts.

Idelic’s Safety Suite is the first fleet solution of its kind, made to help fleets find efficiency and reduce accidents by getting more from their existing data and systems. While the technology is sophisticated, Safety Suite can be broken down into just a few simple steps:

1. We consolidate a safety team’s disparate technology systems (ELDs, cameras, telematics, HR system, FMCSA, etc.) by partnering with those providers to develop an extensive integration network.
2. Safety Suite then analyzes and predicts risk using that data through advanced AI and machine learning (ML) to provide real and accurate insights, like which drivers are likely to get into an accident in the next 90 days. These insights are made actionable through easy-to-use tools like our Driver Watch List.
3. Then, Safety Suite goes above and beyond any other solutions on the market, letting you act on those insights by coaching high-risk behaviors in the same platform. You can assign targeted training plans to address risk, stay ahead of compliance, understand your claims in-depth, and take a proactive approach to driver management.
4. By centralizing all of this in one platform, we’re able to empower fleets to make data-driven decisions about safety. SafeView, Idelic’s business insights module, provides easy executive reporting, behavior trend monitoring, terminal and regional insights, and so much more. We put customizable dashboards and reporting right at your fingertips.

Using Safety Suite, fleets can centralize, analyze, and act on their data in one locationleading to a 20% reduction in accidents on average.

While our telematics and camera partners use powerful AI features to properly identify and sort driver events, Idelic takes that data further. We have over 50B miles of driver data that combines the telematics alerts with other relevant driver data such as HoS alerts, violations and citations, and driver history and then compare the results to over 250,000 real-life accidents to create our own proprietary AI. This technology uniquely positions Idelic to proactively identify driver risk… not just driving events. Each risk factor contributes to a driver’s Watch List Score, where safety teams can focus their time and resources on coaching the drivers who are at high risk of an accident in the next 90 days.

In the early days of a startup, the name of the game is building momentum. Moving deals down the funnel, hiring a key hire, bringing on a new partner, getting some press, anything to build up the momentum to be able to grow revenue and bring on investment. This oftentimes leads you to pursue opportunities that are diverse and potentially time consuming, but necessary to meet your next milestone.

The biggest challenge we faced as we started to scale Idelic was focus. It was hard to say no to opportunities that we would have said yes to 6 months ago, but would make it harder to grow efficiently in the next 6 months. The constant pressure to build and keep momentum has to be met with the discipline to focus on the right areas, the right needs, the right market segments, and the right customer pain points. There were times when we didn’t do a good job of this and we got bogged down, but learning from the struggle of digging ourselves out of issues, we’ve been able to stay locked into the areas that make the most impact for our customers and our business. This has really allowed us to scale.

CLI Transport, a three-time ATA President’s Trophy winner, is the dedicated petroleum carrier for Sheetz Convenience Stores. Their safety team faced challenges associated with using separate telematics systems for their divisions, previously making holistic data analysis and risk prediction across the fleet next to impossible. Their safety team also lacked effective driver coaching tools, leaving them open to risk and potential accidents on the road.

CLI implemented Idelic’s Safety Suite Platform to centralize their telematics and other driver data into a single source of truth. Applying Idelic’s proprietary machine learning and predictive analytics, based on over 40 Billion miles of data, the CLI team was able to proactively identify risky drivers and proactively provide coaching. Idelic’s coaching plans made engaging with drivers more seamless and the business insights tools provided visibility into the effectiveness of their safety initiatives. With Idelic, CLI cut their preventable accidents by 52% in one year and saw efficiency gains by centralizing telematics data and implementing industry-leading driver coaching. This is just one of the many customer stories we’ve seen with fleets using the Idelic Safety Suite.