How does Geotab telematics improve safety for large trucking fleets?

Geotab improves fleet safety for large fleet through robust data, real-time driver behavior monitoring, AI-assisted cameras, and structured dashboards. The platform provides hours-of-service tracking, digital vehicle inspections, driver behavior scoring, and immediate coaching capabilities that help fleet managers identify and address safety risks before incidents occur. Plastic Express achieved a 13% reduction in severe safety alerts within 3-6 months by integrating Geotab telematics with Netradyne AI cameras and Gridline analytics.

What are the benefits of telematics for trucking companies?

Telematics provides trucking companies with real-time visibility into driver behavior, vehicle diagnostics, and compliance management across dispersed operations. For Plastic Express, deploying Geotab telematics enabled digital ELD compliance, faster driver coaching with video evidence, weekly driver exoneration from false claims, and measurable reductions in speeding, stoplight, and stop-sign violations.

How long does it take to see results from fleet telematics?

Plastic Express achieved measurable safety improvements within 3-6 months of deploying Geotab telematics. The company recorded a 13% reduction in severe safety alerts, along with declines in speeding violations, stoplight infractions, and stop-sign violations during this timeframe. Results depend on proper system customization, driver buy-in, and consistent coaching based on real-time data.

How do AI dash cams integrate with fleet management systems?

AI dash cams integrate with Geotab through the Geotab Marketplace, creating a unified safety platform. Plastic Express uses Netradyne dual-facing cameras that detect drowsiness, distraction, and cell phone use, while generating composite driver safety scores that feed directly into Geotab dashboards. This integration allows terminal managers to view telematics data and video evidence in one interface, enabling faster coaching and driver exoneration on a weekly basis.

General

Plastic Express reduced fleet safety alerts by 13% with Geotab

Plastic Express used Geotab to enhance driver safety and operational efficiency, integrating telematics and AI-driven cameras, resulting in a 13% decrease in severe alerts.

Published: Aug 8, 2024

Updated: Jul 29, 2026

Success Highlights

Customizing AI safety scores to exclude job-specific behaviors drove driver buy-in and produced genuine risk reduction rather than false positives.
Integrating Geotab GO devices with Netradyne Driveri cameras through the Geotab Marketplace enabled terminal managers to coach drivers with objective evidence.
The 13% reduction in severe alerts was accompanied by measurable declines in speeding, stoplight violations, and stop-sign infractions across 30 dispersed terminals in a 3–6 month timeframe.
Weekly driver exoneration using dual-facing camera footage shifted driver perception from surveillance to protection, with drivers self-correcting behavior after reviewing their own event videos.

Fleet telematics is an essential solution for any size fleet in 2026. The use of GPS tracking, onboard diagnostics, and real time insights about safety, compliance, among other categories was essential for Plastic Express. The company deployed Geotab telematics alongside AI-assisted cameras and got a 13% reduction in severe safety alerts within three to six months, with measurable improvements in speeding, stoplight, and stop-sign violations across a 285-truck fleet.

Who is Plastic Express?

Plastic Express is the largest veteran-owned logistics company in the United States. Founded in 1970, the company operates:

285+ tractors across bulk operations, drayage, and long-haul fleets
30 bulk truck terminals nationwide
4.2 million square feet of warehouse space
A mixed fleet including heavy-haul containers to port, local day cabs, and long-haul sleepers

The Baytown, Texas location alone runs approximately 25 bulk tractors and 10 drayage/heavy-haul tractors serving port operations, a high-stopping, high-complexity environment that required a customized safety approach.

What was the fleet safety challenge for the logistic fleet?

Plastic Express had a strong safety culture with a clear visibility problem. Before deploying Geotab telematics, fleet managers lacked real-time insight into driver behaviors across 30 dispersed terminals: speeding and traffic violations, following distance gaps, driver distraction and drowsiness, and cell phone use behind the wheel.

Without objective, event-level evidence, coaching conversations were slower and harder to act on. Drivers could not be exonerated quickly in disputed incidents. The transition to electronic logging devices (ELDs) added a cultural dimension. Drivers initially worried the technology would undermine their autonomy.

How a fleet seems before and after Geotab telematics:

Area	Before	After
Driver behavior visibility	Limited, reactive	Real-time alerts across all terminals
HOS management	Paper logs	Digital, tablet-based, daily review
Coaching evidence	Anecdotal	Event-specific video + telematics data
Incident exoneration	Slow, disputed	Weekly, camera-backed
Severe safety alerts	Baseline	13% reduction in 3–6 months

3 successful telematic solutions deployed by the logistic company

Plastic Express partnered with Gridline Open in new window, a Geotab reseller, to build an integrated fleet safety stack across three platforms.

1. Geotab Telematics Platform

Geotab is the data backbone. It provides electronic logging devices (ELDs)for hours-of-service compliance, Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports (DVIRs) submitted from in-cab tablets, real-time dispatch communications, and fleet-wide safety dashboards for terminal managers.

2. AI-Assisted Cameras (via Geotab Marketplace)

To add visual context to telematics data, Plastic Express integrated Netradyne Driveri Open in new window dual-facing cameras through the Geotab Marketplace. Road-facing cameras capture external events; driver-facing cameras detect drowsiness, distraction, and cell phone use. The AI-generated Green Zone Score gives each driver a composite safety rating updated in real time.

3. Gridline Analytics

Gridline unifies Geotab and Netradyne data into a single dashboard — giving terminal managers one interface for safety events, trip data, HOS status, and driver scorecards, without switching between systems.

How Geotab telematics drives fleet safety

Geotab gives fleet managers structured, real-time access to the data that matters most for safety decisions:

Hours-of-service (HOS): Safety managers review all driver logs each morning and monitor remaining hours for the day and week
DVIR completion: Drivers submit inspections digitally from in-cab tablets; maintenance alerts trigger automatically when issues are flagged
Driver behavior scoring: AI-generated safety scores surface leading risk indicators, following distance, drowsiness, distraction, before incidents occur
Real-time coaching: Terminal managers act on events within hours, not days, using in-app video clips sent directly to the driver

"The best drivers are using the system in a very short feedback loop when we have certain types of alerts that come up, whether it's a cell phone, whether it's a stoplight, whether it's speeding." — Dave Edgarton, AVP Environmental Health and Safety Plastic Express

How Geotab customized a fleet safety program for Plastic Express?

Port and drayage operations involve constant stopping, U-turns, and low-speed maneuvering, behaviors a standard safety algorithm would flag incorrectly. Plastic Express worked with Gridline, Netradyne and Geotab to exclude hard stops, U-turns, and accelerometer-based alerts from the Green Zone score for drayage drivers. As a result safety scores reflected genuine risk, not job requirements. Driver buy-in followed.

"That has been really helpful and really allowed drivers to get on board when they understood that they weren't going to be punished for their normal type of operations." — Dave Edgarton mentioned.

What results did Plastic Express achieve?

Metric	Result	Timeframe
Severe safety alert reduction	13%	3–6 months
Speeding violations	Declined	3–6 months
Stoplight violations	Declined	3–6 months
Stop sign infractions	Declined	3–6 months
Following distance	Improved across fleet	3–6 months

13% reduction in severe safety alerts

Within 3 to 6 months, Plastic Express recorded a 13% decrease in severe alerts, driven by genuine behavior change, not just better detection.

Faster coaching, measurable behavior change

Terminal managers now coach drivers within hours of an event using event-specific video sent directly through the Netradyne app.

"If I see something that I need to address with a driver, I'm able to do some coaching right through the Netradyne app and sending it to their driver eyes. A lot of times they can self-correct just from seeing some of the videos." — Allen Perkins, Terminal Manager Plastic Express

Driver exoneration on a weekly basis

Camera footage exonerates drivers from false at-fault claims. Plastic Express pulls footage weekly to protect drivers and the company.

Full ELD compliance and daily visibility

Paper logs are a thing of the past. Today, drivers easily manage their hours of service, DVIRs, and vehicle inspections right from their tablets. Automation makes compliance effortless while giving management total operational visibility.

How did drivers respond to the safety program?

As any Fleet AI dash cams integration creates initial resistance, however, once drivers experienced the system protecting them, they understood the importance for their own safety and work. Additionally, the safety scoring system reinforced positive behavior rather than punishing mistakes.

"I like everything about it. The driver app, it shows like the little things that you do wrong and it rewards you when you do something right. Helps me to be a better driver, that's for sure." — Plastic Express Driver

Plastic Express’ adoption of Geotab’s technology has markedly improved safety metrics and operational efficiency. Find out more about Geotab’s trucking fleet solutions here.