Richards Building Supply drives safer with Geotab Vitality

About Richards Building Supply

Richards Building Supply, a long-time Geotab customer supported by Descartes, is a family-owned distributor based in Illinois, with a fleet that distributes building supplies across the Midwest and beyond. For more than 47 years, Richards Building Supply has built its success on relationships and trust, guided by a “Safety Always” mindset and family-focused values that inspire how they serve, solve and celebrate together each day. Those same values are carried forward by their drivers on every route, every day.

Challenge: Building a stronger safety culture

​​At Richards Building Supply, safety isn’t just a policy, it’s a core belief. With a Safety Always mindset and a family-focused culture, keeping drivers safe, supported and motivated has always been a top priority. Drivers are the backbone of the business, and protecting their well-being – as well as the safety of everyone on the road — is central to how Richards serves, solves and celebrates every day while fulfilling its mission to improve lives.  

While the company already leveraged Geotab telematics to track performance, Richards wanted to take its Safety Always culture even further, making safety personal for every driver, celebrating safe performance and reinforcing positive habits across the fleet. Richards recognizes that even with a highly safe and professional fleet, there’s always room to reduce collisions, strengthen retention and improve fuel efficiency, opportunities that further engagement and advance their mission to improve lives.

That’s where Geotab Vitality came in.

Solution: Drive well, get rewarded

Geotab Vitality combines real-world telematics data with behavioral science to motivate and reward safe driving, empowering drivers to take ownership of their performance. It engages with drivers through a mobile application, where they earn rewards for measurable improvement — not perfection — building engagement through positive reinforcement rather than penalties.

In July 2025, Richards Building Supply launched a 90-day pilot, engaging 130 drivers across Illinois and several key cities throughout the U.S. Using data from their existing Geotab GO Devices, the Geotab Vitality platform set personalized safe-driving goals for each driver and tracked key behaviors like speeding, braking, acceleration and cornering. Drivers who met their weekly goals earned reward credits redeemable in an in-app rewards mall featuring over 160 global brands.

The results came quickly.

• A 25% improvement in safe driving behaviors within the first 30 days
• 41% total improvement in safe driving behaviors by day 60 – maintained even after the pilot ended
• Richards Building Supply drivers are now performing over 8% safer than comparable Geotab fleets, a performance gap that places them among the top-performing fleets in their peer group

Jenny Vetter, Logistics Manager at Richards Building Supply commented:

“A critical element of the app's success is its ability to directly engage our drivers through a simple, rewarding experience. The app’s design is user-friendly, and its reward system is a powerful motivator. Drivers can redeem points for everyday items, from a coffee at a local store on their route, to merchandise from major retailers.”

Rather than relying on managers to email reports (a typical scorecarding process used by many fleets), the app allows drivers to check their scores whenever they want, fostering a sense of ownership and personal accountability.

One driver communicated:

“The Geotab Vitality app has completely changed the approach to driving. It’s a positive reinforcement tool to earn points every day. It also generates your own personal goals, and little effort is needed in the app to get the dollars to grow. Just drive safely. My dollars are adding up quickly and I am already using them from the many reward options available. What a great way to reward a driver.”

Results: Safety, savings and smiles

After the pilot, Richards Building Supply partnered with Geotab Vitality to complete a detailed ROI analysis, turning their safe driving behavior improvements into measurable business results.
 

Using Geotab data, the analysis projected savings across three key areas (based on data from drivers in the pilot group):

1. Collision risk reduction

• An 8% reduction in Geotab’s Predictive Collision Risk (PCR) rating, with the most improved group of drivers cutting their risk by nearly one-fifth (17%)
• Annual estimated collision costs: reduced from $349K to $321K
• Estimated savings: $28,000 in repairs and downtime avoided

Even for a well-managed fleet of professional drivers, the impact was significant, proving that when drivers get engaged and motivated, they drive even safer.

2. Fuel efficiency gains

• Fuel efficiency improved by 2.7%
• Annual estimated fuel spend: reduced from $2.75M to $2.67M
• Estimated savings: $75,000: based on an average diesel cost of $3.92 per gallon in Chicago

Safer driving doesn’t just prevent accidents; it cuts costs at the pump too.

3. Driver retention improvement

• An estimated reduction in annual turnover from 25.5% to 14.3%
• Retention-related cost savings: $92,000, driven by fewer new hires, less downtime and improved morale¹

One driver summed it up perfectly:

“Having Geotab Vitality was such a great idea. It is very easy to use and earn points. It’s awesome that Richards Building Supply is doing this for the drivers. I appreciate them thinking of us and our Safety”

Note: The methodology and assumptions used in this model are intentionally conservative. The analysis does not include potential savings from litigation avoidance or employee disability costs related to collisions. Additionally, maintenance cost improvements – which Geotab data suggests can exceed 14% due to safer driving and reduced wear and tear – were excluded, as these benefits typically require a longer time horizon to become observable in the data.

The bottom line

Across the full fleet, Richards Building Supply is projected to save over $195,000 annually, achieving a 443% ROI after factoring in Geotab Vitality program costs of just $36,000.

And this is just the beginning. With the pilot’s success, Richards Building Supply is now expanding Geotab Vitality across their entire fleet in Q4 2025 / Q1 2026.

Jenny Vetter, Logistics Manager at Richards Building Supply noted:

“Our success using the Geotab Vitality App is a great example of how technology can foster a stronger, safer, and more engaged workforce. Our partnership shows that safety programs don't need to be punitive. Instead, by providing direct feedback, clear goals and tangible rewards, we can create a ‘win-win’ for both our drivers and our company.”

What’s next

​​Richards Building Supply proves that even fleets with a strong safety program in place, can still get safer – and more efficient – when you focus on motivating drivers, rather than monitoring them

For Geotab customers and resellers, this is a powerful example of how data + behavioral science = measurable ROI.

Download the case study

About Descartes

Richards Building Supply’s Geotab solutions are provided through Descartes, a trusted Geotab Reseller committed to helping fleets leverage technology for safer, smarter operations. Descartes has been a strong supporter of innovation and customer success throughout the process – and continues to play a key role in bringing connected safety solutions to fleets Globally.

Geotab Vitality: Drive well, get rewarded

Geotab Vitality helps fleets reduce collisions, lower costs and build stronger driver engagement – one reward at a time.

👉 Learn more at www.geotab.com/vitality