Daisy’s Garden Supplies: $100,000 recouped with Geotab

Daisy’s Garden Supplies sells landscaping and building materials to commercial, wholesale, trade and retail customers across Victoria. The business has been growing rapidly over the past five years, expanding from three to nine stores across Victoria. 

As the business grew, so did its fleet, which now has 100 trucks ranging from light rigid through to heavy rigid combinations. The fleet transport the majority of inbound stock supply whilst all servicing customer deliveries across the state.

Daisy’s needed a better way to keep track of its trucks, and ensure that their drivers arrived safely to a growing number of locations.

Results at a glance: 

• Retrospectively claimed four years worth of fuel tax credits worth more than $100,000, which covered the entire cost of the fleet management system.
• Used driver safety scorecard data to create a driver reward system, recognising top-performing drivers and stores.
• Achieved primary goal of creating a culture of safe driving.
• Gained near real-time visibility through GPS tracking, allowing them to answer customer questions about delivery times.

The Challenge: Solutions needed to address growing pains 

Up until two years ago, Daisy’s wasn’t using a fleet management solution. But as its vehicle fleet expanded, it was becoming increasingly clear that manual recordkeeping wasn’t going to be enough.  

“We’ve been on a journey for the last four or five years to really expand the business and commercialise it. Part of that has been upgrading and overhauling a lot of our systems.” — Stephen Cathie, CFO, Daisy's Garden Supplies

Safety was the top priority. A number of costly incidents highlighted the need for improved driver behavior to limit risks and reduce maintenance and insurance expenses. Daisy needed tools that would provide near real-time visibility and a method to reliably measure driver performance. 

The company's fleet structure also presented challenges. The fleet was decentralised, with approximately 80 of its vehicles attached to nine different stores, operating on a "point to point" basis rather than on a planned, single route. This structure means there is no single person overseeing the entire fleet, making it harder to maintain visibility and control. 

The Solution: Safety first, with other benefits

To address these issues, Daisy’s piloted a number of solutions from a variety of providers, including a 10-truck pilot with Geotab. Following the pilot's success, they decided to roll out Geotab across their entire fleet. Installation was simple enough for the business to handle themselves. 

Daisy’s installed 90 units over six months, and the fleet is now close to 100% connected. They chose Geotab for a combination of reasons, with driver behavior monitoring being a key differentiator. GPS vehicle tracking was the initial reason for adoption. But Geotab’s ability to use data on harsh braking, hard cornering and speeding to generate a driver safety scorecard was a dealmaker.  

“Safety’s the driving component. It really is. Safe driving behaviour is absolutely the number one message. Everything else is kind of tack-ons to that primary goal.” — Stephen Cathie, CFO, Daisy's Garden Supplies 

Another important feature was the driver fob system, which allows multiple drivers to easily log their trips in a single vehicle, which is a common occurrence in their store network. It’s easy to use and does not require complex PIN codes or passwords for drivers in the cabin.

Daisy’s also began using Geotab data to substantiate fuel tax credit claims, a benefit they were not initially aware of.

The Impact: Pulling ahead with Geotab solutions

Geotab’s solutions have provided an immediate benefit for Daisy’s, including retrospectively claiming over AU$100,000 in fuel tax credit for the past four years, which covered the entire cost of the fleet management system.

More importantly, the technology has helped to create a culture of safe driving at the business. Armed with the driver safety scorecard, Daisy’s created a bespoke driver reward system, recognising the best-performing driver and store. Individual winners receive a $200 cash voucher, while the top-performing store also gets a team lunch paid for by the company. 

“Putting some financials behind it just creates awareness. People are now interested in their score.” — Stephen Cathie, CFO, Daisy's Garden Supplies 
 

In addition, the GPS tracking has given Daisy’s near real-time visibility, allowing them to answer customer questions about delivery times. Geotab’s solutions also help with asset management, fault reporting and vehicle maintenance. 
 

The road ahead for Daisy’s

Following their initial success, Daisy’s is now considering more uses for Geotab solutions. Mr Cathie’s ultimate goal is to use the data they are collecting to uncover more efficiencies and drive revenues. He is considering routing solutions, idling data and utilisation, all of which would help to drive both operational efficiency and cost savings. 

He also wants to use the data to make operational decisions, such as choosing the most efficient quarries to pick up materials from. This is significant, because freight costs make up a large portion of the total cost of their products, which are mostly low-value, high-volume materials like soil, rock and aggregates. 

Daisy’s is also interested in dashcams, particularly as Geotab has launched an all-in-one video telematics solution powered by AI, to take advantage of a single-source solution. This would provide another level of enhancement for driver safety and could potentially lead to reduced insurance premiums.

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