“It’s impossible to assess how safe limo drivers are from their appearances,” says Abe Amer, founder and CEO of Angel Elite Corporate Chauffeur Services. “Take Erik, for example. He’s a really likeable Angel Elite driver. Soft-spoken, approachable and makes customers feel at ease.”
“One would naturally assume he’s a good driver,” adds Abe.
In reality, Erik had developed some unsafe habits stemming from his former cab driving days and had a tendency towards hard braking and fast acceleration.
“I can’t be in the car with him all the time,” Abe explains. Luckily, Zendrive can.
Epiphany on Safety
Angel Elite expects its drivers to engage in some aggressive driving, given they must navigate through the aggressive traffic of New York City streets. But even Erik was surprised when he was shown his driver safety scores, measured using Zendrive technology.
“Erik had a sort of epiphany after seeing the data. He didn’t want to be that driver,” emphasized Abe. “After seeing his low scores, Erik wanted to improve his driving.”
Abe realized that intuition alone was not enough to judge the safety quality of his drivers. With Zendrive’s help, he could monitor his drivers and help them improve their road behavior.
Data through Dashride
Zendrive’s safety report is available to Angel Elite through Dashride, a mobile-first dispatch software provider that helps Angel Elite and other car companies streamline and automate their dispatching operations.
The report showed that Erik’s scores were low in all three driver safety categories:
- His control score showed he accelerated quickly and slammed on the brakes often.
- His caution score showed he had an inclination towards speeding.
- His focus score showed he rarely stowed his phone properly.
Rapid Improvement
Just a few weeks after Abe reviewed the report with Erik, Erik’s overall safety score improved by 30%. Abe attributes this improvement to Erik being more aware of his driving behavior. Erik stopped hard braking and rapidly accelerating as often and made sure to properly store his phone in the holder while driving.
“Zendrive is extremely valuable because it pinpoints each driver’s improvement opportunities – from using the phone too much to speeding to slamming on the brakes too often,” explains Abe.
Abe’s drivers are happy that higher scores not only earn them bragging rights, but also better tips and Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews.
“When drivers are more zen about their actions, our customers have five-star experiences,” says Abe. “We couldn’t prove our value to the customer without Zendrive’s technology.”
For Angel Elite, better safety ratings can boost profits by increasing customer satisfaction and by keeping Angel Elite collision free.
Standard of Safety for the Industry
The benefits of safety analytics can extend to other companies in the industry.
“Taxi and limo companies need to modernize their operations to stay competitive,” explains Nadav Ullman, CEO of Dashride. “Fleets that embrace new technologies have an opportunity to take a larger piece of the ride request revenue.”
Nadav is convinced companies who approach new corporate accounts with premium white glove offerings plus Zendrive safety features available through Dashride can close Fortune 500 deals that much faster.
“One of the things these companies can pitch to corporate customers is Zendrive’s safety analytics because it demonstrates the service they can provide,” explains Nadav.
To learn more about these innovative companies, visit Angel Elite and Dashride.
