About Hill Brothers

Hill Brothers, based in Omaha, Nebraska, provides dry van and refrigerated trucking services with a modern fleet of 230 tractors. Founded in 1986 by brothers Pete, Al, Pat, and Jim Hill, the company’s main goals have always been to offer the best service in the trucking industry through hard work, dedication, and innovative truck-driving technology.

The challenge

Operations and safety leaders at Hill Bros. began evaluating ELD systems in 2020 through different lenses. Operations wanted to enhance driver productivity. Safety Director Raul Soria focused on compliance and risk.

Hill Brothers was using an ELD system that checked the boxes for compliance, but “didn’t offer much else,” noted Soria, who has been working at Hill Brothers for 18 years.

The system reported critical safety events like speeding and hard braking. Reports identified exceptions but lacked depth of analysis to differentiate safe drivers from poor performers. Shortcomings were also evident in driver workflows, from accepting dispatches to sending arrival and departure notifications.

Both departments agreed the company needed an ELD and telematics platform that would easily integrate with third-party apps and features to give drivers a single sign-on user experience.

The company needed an ELD and telematics platform that could easily be integrated.

The solution

Hill Brothers chose Transflo Telematics, developed in partnership with Geotab, for its differentiated mobile capabilities, Soria explained.

The Transflo Mobile+ app gives drivers a single sign-on experience to access training modules, digital forms, document scanning, payroll and settlement data, and third-party apps such as turn-by-turn navigation.

“We are directing every driver through the mobile app to conduct any normal business function. The ability to do this offer Hill Brothers an immediate advantage,” Soria said.

Included in the platform is a Driver Scorecard that gives managers in safety and operations real-time insights for which drivers need help the most.

For compliance, the safety department can quickly investigate hours-ofservice issues by using an interactive map tool to view hours and driver movements. The operations team uses reports to identify customer issues, such as dwell time, and monitor how drivers are utilizing available hours to maximize productivity.

Hill Brothers uses another report to identify when company vehicles have a governed speed that is outside the fleet’s specification. Managers route these vehicles to the shop for reprogramming.

To help drivers get up to speed quickly with the platform, Hill Brothers produced a set of training videos to demonstrate how to use all features, from accepting dispatches to reporting accidents. Each video is undertwo minutes long and accessible through the app.

The results

Hill Brothers has realized a significant decrease in the number of accidents and incidents. Soria credits this to using the Driver Scorecard reports and video event recorder technology the fleet implemented in January 2021.

The Driver Scorecard report helps managers focus coaching on the bottom 10% of performers. Drivers in the top performance group are recognized by managers. Operations and safety teams also use scorecard metrics to have meaningful discussions with drivers, during annual reviews.

Hill Brothers has also seen improvements in driver safety by using integrated third-party applications. The company activated Transflo Premium Truck Navigation powered by CoPilot and is currently evaluating Transflo Weigh Station Bypass powered by Drivewyze that also will give drivers location-based safety alerts for low-clearance bridges and other risks, Soria said.

Transflo Telematics has created efficiencies in the office and for drivers. With the Transflo Mobile+ app, drivers are transmitting digital forms for vehicle inspections, surveys, job referrals, and weekly training evaluation forms, among other processes.

Hill Brothers is planning future enhancements by using features in the Transflo Mobile+ app that allow drivers to enter a trailer number to locate assets in a drop yard and monitor the temperatures of refrigerated loads. The company is developing a custom scorecard that drivers can access through the app as well.

The technology continues to pay dividends on many fronts. “Transflo Telematics has made us more productive, safe and profitable,” Soria said.

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