Giant Tiger reduces fleet idle time and achieves 98% weigh station bypass rate with Geotab

Tiger Trucking, Open in new window Giant Tiger’s private fleet of more than 800 vehicles, achieved a 98% weigh station bypass rate and won the 2024 Fleet Safety Award from the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada in the large fleet class — outcomes the company attributes directly to implementing Geotab’s integrated telematics platform. 

Giant Tiger, a privately-owned Canadian retail chain founded in Ottawa in 1961, operates over 260 store locations with more than 10,000 team members and relies on its Tiger Trucking division to move product across Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. When the fleet needed measurable visibility into driver behavior, idle time, and multi-province compliance, they chose Geotab.

How to manage a large private retail fleet without real-time visibility

By measuring the performance of the fleet,  companies have a clear vision of the required actions and strategies to reduce costs, improve driving habits or increase the profitability. In this case,  Tiger Trucking was established in 1987 to service Giant Tiger's growing retail network. By the time the company partnered with Geotab, the fleet had scaled to more than 800 vehicles operating across three provinces. 

Without a centralized telematics solution, Giant Tiger had limited insight into driver behavior, equipment availability, maintenance schedules, and idle time. Fleet managers could not reliably measure performance across the network — and without measurement, optimization was impossible.

"You can't manage what you can't measure. So having the ability to measure in a large fleet really helps us to hone in on the challenges in our fleet and correct them swiftly and smoothly."   Justin Bauder, National Fleet Manager at Giant Tiger.

Geotab's integrated fleet management platform was the fit

Giant Tiger implemented Geotab as its core telematics platform, gaining real-time visibility into asset tracking, vehicle maintenance, driver behavior, and compliance data — all within a single, unified system. Critically, Geotab's open integration ecosystem allowed Giant Tiger to connect additional telematics solutions without replacing or duplicating their core platform.

Geotab's integrations deployed by Giant Tiger include:

• GO Analytics: Driver-centric coaching tool that surfaces Geotab-generated safety exceptions in a structured, drillable format. Fleet managers use it to identify high-risk behaviors and coach individual drivers toward safer performance.
• DriveWyze PreClear: Connected bypass network that enables authorized vehicles to bypass weigh stations electronically. Integrated directly into the Geotab Drive app, it delivers automated pre-clearance instructions during pre-trip inspections — no manual setup required.
• Penske Fleet Insight: Predictive maintenance integration that helps Giant Tiger anticipate equipment issues before they cause unplanned downtime.

"The thing that makes me over the moon about Geotab is the ability to integrate," commented Bauder. 

"I've seen multiple suggestions of mine end up in the final product — the GO Analytics team is more than eager to take feedback on both the function and design of the system." - said Andrew Fader, Fleet Systems Officer at Giant Tiger

How Geotab transformed fleet efficiency and driver safety

When Giant Tiger integrated DriveWyze into the Geotab Drive app, they didn’t just upgrade their software, they completely revolutionized their day-to-day operations. By leveraging real-time data tracking, the fleet secured a remarkable 98% weigh station bypass rate and saw a 6% drop in roadside inspection requests by regulatory authorities. In practice, this means monthly bypasses doubled, allowing drivers to stay on the move, reduce delivery friction, and eliminate costly downtime. 

But the impact went far beyond saving time on the highway. Giant Tiger paired Geotab’s idle-time tracking with proactive driver coaching programs, drastically cutting fuel waste and curbing fleet-wide carbon emissions. This perfect blend of operational efficiency and a driver-first safety culture earned Giant Tiger the prestigious 2024 Fleet Safety Award (Large Fleet Class) Open in new window from the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, proving that high-performing fleets run on both smart data and human care.

"Geotab has played a massive part in our ability to measure and manage our business and have real-time information. They allow us to have arguably the best safety score in the country for a fleet our size," James Johnstone, Head of Transportation at Giant Tiger.

Geotab simplifies compliance for multi-province fleets

Fleet compliance across provincial and international borders is one of the most administratively complex challenges for private trucking operations. Geotab addresses this by centralizing mileage data across jurisdictions, simplifying fuel tax reporting for IFTA purposes, and tracking vehicle safety status in a single platform. Giant Tiger uses this capability to manage compliance across Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, and cross-border routes without relying on manual data collection or disconnected reporting systems.

"Whether we're tracking mileage within different provinces or jurisdictions, or tracking the status of vehicle safety, all that information is contained within one easy-to-use platform," Johnstone said.

Driver accountability at every level

One of the most significant cultural shifts Giant Tiger experienced after implementing Geotab was the establishment of accountability throughout the decision-making chain — from individual drivers on the road to dispatchers and fleet planners in the back office.

Geotab's data creates transparency that is objective and independent. Fleet managers can review driver-level exception reports, identify patterns, and implement coaching programs with a factual, data-backed foundation. This removes subjectivity from performance conversations and gives drivers a clear standard to meet.

"The largest impact to our operations since implementing Geotab was the overall accountability at every level in the decision-making process," Johnstone said. “There's transparency and data, and there's an independent third party that's able to provide that in a dashboard for us that shows us the truth and the numbers.”