[0:02] Cris Sierra: is when we get in we have an accident.
[0:05] Nirav Chheda: One in 10,000. That's pretty huge.
[0:27] Nirav Chheda: Bambi CEO Nirav Chheda and I am here with the one and only Cris Sierra.
[0:33] Nirav Chheda: Cris is the vice president of transportation at WellMed which is one of the largest NEM transportation providers across Texas and Florida.
[0:44] Nirav Chheda: Cris, how you doing? Doing well.
[0:46] Nirav Chheda: Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for being here.
[0:49] Nirav Chheda: Um, Cris, you are an expert in data and analytics and you infuse that in all of the work you do in NEMt and that's what we're here to talk about today is how you use that to improve NEMT
[1:03] Nirav Chheda: operations. Can you give us a bit of a background about yourself um and you know how you've come to be in this role at Wellmed?
[1:13] Cris Sierra: Yeah, definitely. So um I have close to 20 years of operational um background.
[1:21] Cris Sierra: I started in the banking industry actually within a credit union over 13 years.
[1:26] Cris Sierra: Um served in numerous capacities there and um towards the latter part of my career.
[1:32] Cris Sierra: really dove into operations and then um had an opportunity to come over uh to uh Comfort Care and Well Med um and run our data analytics and financial side of it.
[1:46] Cris Sierra: And um something that was really near and dear to my heart is just data analytics.
[1:51] Cris Sierra: And so um it was a really good opportunity and jumped into that side of it.
[1:56] Cris Sierra: And then from there, you know, just really growing into um the role and the company and learning more about non-emergency transportation and um the impact that comfort care and WellMed have spec specifically with older adults and uh just
[2:15] Cris Sierra: really have grown to to love the arena and the environment and um you know the mission that we serve daily.
[2:25] Cris Sierra: Um and so you know just with the growth opportunities that presented itself you know had an opportunity to move up through the company and um several years ago is when I took over um running the entire um organization
[2:39] Cris Sierra: of for comfort care transportation. And so now um you know we do roughly 1500 transports a day and throughout uh Texas and Florida operations and um you know helping our older adult community um with what I call white
[2:57] Cris Sierra: glove service and ensuring we're we're getting to them safely, taking them safely to their appointment and getting them back home.
[3:04] Cris Sierra: And so it's such a vital service especially with social determinants of health and um the NEMT environment is just something that continues to grow and and we're going to see that with our baby boomers and um that's where
[3:19] Cris Sierra: data analytics from an NEM perspective is really going to be vital for our operators um and ensuring that they're powering themselves with really powerful data analytics to see how are they operating ating how is their efficiency of their
[3:36] Cris Sierra: company? How's the efficiency the optimization of routing and scheduling because ultimately that's going to impact the the overall uh operational expenses and and their bottom line when it comes to a revenue factor.
[3:50] Cris Sierra: So data analytics can be an extremely powerful tool and and that's how I've used it very heavily and so excited to jump into it and and talk more about how operators can leverage data analytics um to support their
[4:05] Nirav Chheda: operations for sure. And Cris, I also want to mention before we dive into the data and analytics um you've also become a leader in the NEMT industry as a whole.
[4:15] Nirav Chheda: You've been working with NEMTAC. you serve uh on one of the NEMTAC advisory boards.
[4:21] Nirav Chheda: So NEMTAC is the National Industry Association and you focus on standards and certifications, right?
[4:28] Cris Sierra: Yes. Yep. Yeah. So I've been with NEMTAC several years on um their certification and standards um advisory board.
[4:36] Cris Sierra: And so that really is the uh creating the standard for NEMT nationally and specifically for how N&T operators and drivers are uh operating and you know how they're interacting, how they're loading, you know, a client.
[4:54] Cris Sierra: And so it's a really good forum to be involved in creating that standard that's highly needed for us and you know ways to help um educate operators and drivers.
[5:07] Cris Sierra: Um and then also work to reduce you know fraud, waste and abuse and by having that standardization it it really helps arm everyone and just become more educated and create consistency throughout the nation.
[5:21] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. Awesome. So Cris, a lot of the viewers here, they have, you know, they're startup NEMT providers, they're just getting into industry or maybe some people who have been in the industry a while.
[5:33] Nirav Chheda: Um, people are curious to know how can they use data and analytics to improve their operations and grow their businesses.
[5:41] Nirav Chheda: I'll let you take it away.
[5:42] Cris Sierra: Yeah, definitely. So when we talk about data analytics, I think it can be a very overwhelming and scary thing for people because there's just so many measurables, right?
[5:52] Cris Sierra: Um but it doesn't have to be something that's scary to tackle.
[5:57] Cris Sierra: Uh in fact, it can as as individuals jump into it, they'll see that it becomes a very highly relied tool to operate their business.
[6:08] Cris Sierra: And so it's crucial um in the NEMT environment um for many factors and I'm really excited to jump into those.
[6:18] Cris Sierra: Um so from a data analytics perspective when you think about optimizing routes and schedules, right?
[6:25] Cris Sierra: We talk how data analytics can really help um our operators optimize routes and schedules by analyzing historical data, right?
[6:35] Cris Sierra: How have we done in the past?
[6:37] Cris Sierra: what trends have been there to help us get more optimal from a routing and a scheduling perspective.
[6:46] Cris Sierra: Um, this ensures that we have efficient use of resources of time, reducing our travel time.
[6:55] Cris Sierra: Anytime we can reduce that that windshield time, that's going to be a big factor for our operators.
[7:01] Cris Sierra: And then also minimizing fuel cost.
[7:04] Cris Sierra: So a lot of that plays into the efficiency from a routing and scheduling perspective and that comes from our data analytics um to be able to help us out from that perspective.
[7:16] Cris Sierra: Then you jump into stuff like cost efficiency.
[7:19] Cris Sierra: So by being able to analyze um the data related to say fuel consumption, right?
[7:26] Cris Sierra: vehicle maintenance, a driver's performance, or monitoring, you know, how are they driving, what's their behavior look like?
[7:33] Cris Sierra: And I'm going to jump in a little bit later into fleet telematics and get more specific about um the driving behaviors and stuff like that.
[7:42] Cris Sierra: But, you know, looking at from any operator's perspective, you know, how can we identify cost-saving and that's going to help us maintain, you know, financial stability in our operations.
[7:55] Cris Sierra: And so that's where operators need to look at data as leveraging it as a partner to help them operate their their uh operations.
[8:07] Cris Sierra: Um some other factors when it comes to data analytics is looking at it from a patient experience.
[8:15] Cris Sierra: Um data analytics can definitely help trend that data for you and improve that experience.
[8:21] Cris Sierra: It helps you understand what are some of your patients preferences and the behaviors, right?
[8:26] Cris Sierra: What do the riders look like?
[8:28] Cris Sierra: Um what are some of their what are their consistent modalities?
[8:32] Cris Sierra: And that helps you when you're identifying the type of fleet you're going to be utilizing.
[8:36] Cris Sierra: Looking at, you know, where are we getting um looking at it from an ambulatory or a wheelchair perspective or maybe a stretcher or what do those trends look like from the patient side of it?
[8:49] Cris Sierra: Um and then analyzing feedback that we get and satisfaction surveys that's all data driven.
[8:55] Cris Sierra: Um operators can really make informed decisions to enhance the overall patient experience during transports because you know I've learned firsthand as an operator and uh serving as a broker perspective as well in the past is that patient experience
[9:14] Cris Sierra: really drives a lot of it.
[9:15] Cris Sierra: and a patient doesn't like riding with your company, that's going to have a major impact to your bottom line.
[9:22] Cris Sierra: So, being able to one, listen to what your customers, your patients are saying, your clients, um, and seeing what issues you have and then having that data that's actionable.
[9:33] Cris Sierra: And that's the biggest piece of it, what you'll hear me say a lot is how is our data actionable?
[9:39] Cris Sierra: You know, what what trends are we identifying and then being able to take action from that data.
[9:44] Cris Sierra: So, it's one thing to um ingest that that data and to track it, but it's another thing to take action with it.
[9:52] Cris Sierra: And that's the the key to leveraging data analytics is ingesting it and then um being actionable for you.
[10:00] Nirav Chheda: Yeah. So, Cris, I want to focus on that actionable bit.
[10:04] Nirav Chheda: Can we sort of make some of these things concrete?
[10:07] Nirav Chheda: You've covered like a lot of different areas in which you can use data and analytics.
[10:11] Nirav Chheda: Can we talk through some examples of measures that are taken and tools that are used and how that's actually helping an NEMT provider to make a decision about changing their business in one way or another?
[10:25] Cris Sierra: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I think from um something that's very relatable for everybody is um on-time performance, right?
[10:36] Cris Sierra: And that's where data analytics can definitely tie in from your on-time performance to see how the optimization of your routing and your scheduling is.
[10:44] Cris Sierra: Right? So if your routing may be too tight or too loose, that could impact your on-time performance.
[10:51] Cris Sierra: And that's where that data analytics is coming into play.
[10:53] Cris Sierra: So looking at, you know, what is our on-time percentage?
[10:56] Cris Sierra: Is there a difference between our our um scheduled pickups return versus our scheduled return ride homes or will calls and what is impacting that needle to move up or down from an uh on time performance aspect.
[11:13] Cris Sierra: Um the other thing that's tied with that piece of it as well is acceptance rate, right?
[11:20] Cris Sierra: So understanding one your on-time performance but also you know what's your bandwidth your capacity that ties back to the optimization of your routing and your scheduling.
[11:31] Cris Sierra: If you're not optimized from that perspective and not looking at it from a data analytics then you may not be utilizing your resources the allocations that you have appropriately.
[11:42] Cris Sierra: So instead of doing you know 15 transports a day you may be doing 10 transports a day per driver because the analytics are showing that your route optimization is not efficient.
[11:56] Cris Sierra: So, you know, acceptance aspect of it, your on-time performance.
[12:00] Cris Sierra: One of the things I stated earlier was the reduce in travel time, right?
[12:05] Cris Sierra: So, windshield time. Um, that's a lot of dead spaces.
[12:08] Cris Sierra: How do you work to reduce those dead miles, right?
[12:11] Cris Sierra: That dead head type of deal.
[12:13] Cris Sierra: And so, um, if we can reduce that piece of it, then it really helps, like I said, from the bottom line aspect.
[12:21] Cris Sierra: One of the other aspects too that from a concrete perspective is idle time.
[12:26] Cris Sierra: I think idle time is [clears throat] extremely valuable data to look at because again it ties back to the optimization of your routing and scheduling which um that takes a look and saying you know how are we routing?
[12:41] Cris Sierra: How how does that look like from that perspective?
[12:43] Cris Sierra: You know is our idle time increasing?
[12:46] Cris Sierra: But then you look at it and compare it to your transport volume and saying, "Well, my transport volume isn't going up, but my idle time is high or my idle time is increasing." Okay.
[12:55] Cris Sierra: Well, that's an indicator that we may not be routing appropriately, right?
[13:00] Cris Sierra: That we have our routes too loose.
[13:02] Cris Sierra: We need to increase the number of rides maybe per driver to help reduce that idle time and increase our transports.
[13:09] Cris Sierra: So, that's where data analytics can really come in for you.
[13:13] Cris Sierra: the powerful tool is the correlations that it has, right?
[13:17] Cris Sierra: And seeing how one can impact the other.
[13:19] Cris Sierra: And that's the key to looking at all your data.
[13:23] Cris Sierra: And I talked about ingesting it, right?
[13:25] Cris Sierra: The key to it is understanding operationally what everything means.
[13:31] Cris Sierra: So that way at a high level you're able to take an overview and that's you know what we've established on our operations at Comfort Care is you know creating dashboards.
[13:42] Cris Sierra: So allows us initially at a high level to see performance indicators and if something is out of line well we can see that immediately and go to work to address that and say you okay we had a dip
[13:57] Cris Sierra: in our on-time percentage our transport volume didn't decrease we maintained our trendable um transport volume you know what happened to cause that decrease in our ontime percentage and so it allows us to dive deeper into that data.
[14:12] Cris Sierra: And that way as moving forward in the future, we can work to reduce or eliminate those roadblocks or those challenges that you're having from a performance perspective because you want to ensure that your performance is at a high
[14:26] Cris Sierra: level, your quality is at a high level because all that equates back to your operating cost, right?
[14:33] Cris Sierra: And your revenue. And by ensuring that those things are operating at high efficiency, that's going to help you with your cost perspective of it.
[14:43] Cris Sierra: Because if I can do more transports, I can do it on time, I can do it consistently, and I can do it at a very high quality level, that's going to allow me to um not only have a
[14:55] Cris Sierra: very positive experience for patients, but also grow, look at scalability, your operations, and be able to tract and say, okay, you know, I know I can sustain this and you know, looking at a growth model based on what
[15:11] Cris Sierra: we're doing from on-time percentage and our capacity, you know, we have opportunity to grow and then allows you to, you know, build your footprint.
[15:20] Cris Sierra: I need to bring in more drivers because we're getting now more volume because of the quality of service that we're providing, the on-time percentage, all that stuff.
[15:30] Cris Sierra: Taking a look into it. So, those are just a few key key areas when you're looking at, you know, tangible items from a data analytics perspective.
[15:40] Cris Sierra: And um everyone's you know always on top of on-time percentage that's a huge huge huge huge measurement for for all operators.
[15:48] Cris Sierra: So being able to see what triggers your on-time performance and moving the right way or the wrong way and how do you rectify that and that's where data analytics comes into play.
[15:59] Cris Sierra: So instead of making a educated guess, you know, no wild, you know, type of guess, you'll have concrete data to help support that and be able to take actionable action from there.
[16:12] Cris Sierra: And as well that, you know, that allows you from a staffing perspective to be able to let your staff know and say, "Hey, here's the data that supports us.
[16:20] Cris Sierra: Here's where what we need to do." And you can collaborate together and saying, you know, how do we move this needle?
[16:26] Cris Sierra: Here's the data. here's the trend history um for us to be able to take action on it.
[16:33] Nirav Chheda: And to everyone listening, I mean, Cris has proven that you really can move that needle significantly by measuring these things and using actionable insights.
[16:44] Nirav Chheda: Cris, you've grown WellMed's fleet to how many vehicles at this Yeah, it's a little over um 200 vehicles.
[16:52] Cris Sierra: Um when I started at the company, we were just under 120.
[16:57] Cris Sierra: Um and so we've really have grown our internal fleet, but we've also had leveraged um thirdparty providers as well because we have more demand than the capacity we're able to support.
[17:10] Cris Sierra: Um and so it's a good thing.
[17:11] Cris Sierra: So it allows us to strategically partner with other operators that are very like-minded.
[17:18] Cris Sierra: And so um but that only happens by us looking at our data, right?
[17:24] Cris Sierra: And so from a routing perspective, how do we get more efficient on that piece of it from an a quality aspect, from a patient experience?
[17:33] Cris Sierra: Because if we have a very low score in patient experience, that's not going to grow our volume either.
[17:39] Cris Sierra: So um we've we've been able to capitalize on that.
[17:45] Nirav Chheda: Awesome. Awesome. So you know like at a high level there are these metrics that NEMT companies need to look at like the ratio of loaded versus unloaded miles that their vehicles are driving you know like like you
[18:00] Nirav Chheda: mentioned like the idle times that the drivers are sitting around right like a lot of it boils down to like hey how are you scheduling trips onto your drivers and vehicle schedules for the day like you want to
[18:11] Nirav Chheda: keep them busy you want to keep them doing highv value work and You need tools obviously to help you do those things.
[18:20] Nirav Chheda: Um Cris like you know at a fleet with the size of yours you know 200 plus vehicles like data and analytics and optimizing these things becomes even more important.
[18:34] Nirav Chheda: I think what a lot of the viewers would find valuable is like even if you have like a small number of vehicles you know focusing on these things is still highly valuable to your business.
[18:45] Nirav Chheda: So I'm wondering if you can speak to like how some you know smaller NEMT operators like the ones that you sort of contract with and work with for example um can use or have used data analytics to improve
[18:57] Nirav Chheda: their own own operations. Yeah, absolutely.
[19:00] Cris Sierra: So, we've had um different sizes of um other operators that we've we've uh worked with and some from, you know, under 10 vehicles in their fleet to others that have 30 to 50 vehicles in in their fleet.
[19:16] Cris Sierra: And so, regardless of the size of the fleet, this is all applicable to everybody.
[19:21] Cris Sierra: Now, you know, how how much of the data analytics that you're introducing that might vary, right?
[19:29] Cris Sierra: um but it still is very applicable to your operations.
[19:32] Cris Sierra: And so um for smaller operations, you know, they're looking at their on-time performance, idle time, right?
[19:41] Cris Sierra: Um I think there's kind of a key things they need to look at is the on-time performance, idle time, and then tying that back to their routing and And I think it's a good opportunity to point out, you
[19:54] Cris Sierra: know, from a data perspective, like all those things are really great, but it also ties back to the type of tool you're utilizing to help you with your optimizing your routing and your scheduling.
[20:07] Cris Sierra: Um, that is only as good as the software that you're utilizing as well.
[20:11] Cris Sierra: So, having a company like Bambi come in and being able to offer that route optimization and um, scheduling is going to be really key.
[20:20] Cris Sierra: So that's, you know, when I hear smaller operations, smaller operators say, "Yeah, I don't know if I can necessarily afford it." My word of advice to them, I don't think you can't, you know, you can't afford not to
[20:34] Cris Sierra: do this because um, you know, staying stagnant is going to be crushing to these operators.
[20:41] Cris Sierra: So these small operators, you know, need to work to move towards getting more efficient and um finding ways on how they can get more um optimal in their routing and creating auto automation in that aspect of it.
[20:57] Cris Sierra: Um and so it's, you know, taking small steps to get to that piece of it.
[21:02] Cris Sierra: And and that's why I tell you know the smaller operators is um you know it'll it'll help you from growing your company and so you start start small be very intense and very scoped in what you're looking at
[21:19] Cris Sierra: from analytics perspective because as I said at the beginning you know there's tons of data out there and it be it can become very overwhelming.
[21:28] Cris Sierra: So you know focus on your first controllable items you know stuff like on time percentage and understanding you know what impacts that and being able to look at your data from that piece of it and it might start
[21:40] Cris Sierra: something small that utilizing like Excel your spreadsheets and you know analyzing that data until you're able to grow and then you start using more robust tools like um PowerBI or Tableau things like that to really help drive um
[21:56] Cris Sierra: data analytics vis visualiz ization and um using those type of tools.
[22:01] Cris Sierra: But um but again, you know, all that is only as good as the type of software that you're utilizing.
[22:09] Cris Sierra: And so um you know, to give you an example, you know, we had one operator that was still on paper manifest and they were able to move to um Ammy Software and that really helped them increase their business.
[22:22] Cris Sierra: Now, you know, it took time for them to change and understand that aspect of it.
[22:27] Cris Sierra: Um, but what we saw was it allowed the owner to take a step back from having to be so hands-on with all of the the manual aspects of it and relying on the software to increase the efficiency of
[22:40] Cris Sierra: his operations. And by doing so, it allowed us to do more business with him because now he's gotten more efficient.
[22:47] Cris Sierra: He's his on-time percentage has gotten better.
[22:50] Cris Sierra: His patient experience has gotten better.
[22:52] Cris Sierra: And so they're able to increase their capacity because now they have more efficiency in their operations and data analytics helped confirm that.
[23:02] Cris Sierra: So we took a look at it before took a look at it after you know the um implementation of their software and you can definitely see night and day how that can help increase their operation.
[23:15] Cris Sierra: So that's why data analytics is just so powerful and the software you're utilizing is so powerful because they all go hand inand with each other.
[23:25] Nirav Chheda: Thanks Cris. Telematics is another area that I think would be good for you to focus on.
[23:31] Nirav Chheda: Um it's something that pretty much every NEMT provider can get a lot of value out of.
[23:37] Cris Sierra: Yeah, definitely. So telematics can it has so many advantages for fleet operators and um it can make it very valuable a valuable tool for your business.
[23:51] Cris Sierra: Um so a few items I I'll jump through real quick and then get a little bit more detail on some of them but you know Telematics from a GPS perspective.
[24:02] Cris Sierra: So you can have one real-time tracking um looking at fuel efficiency, maintenance optimization, um one of the big ones driver behavior, monitoring how that is.
[24:16] Cris Sierra: Um and then also tying back to route optimization.
[24:20] Cris Sierra: So things like real-time tracking or that's very key in understanding where are your where where's your fleet, where are your your drivers at.
[24:30] Cris Sierra: Um and looking tying that to your optimization of your routing.
[24:35] Cris Sierra: Um being able to look at the movement of your assets, optimize your routes, and respond promptly when there's any type of issues or emergencies.
[24:44] Cris Sierra: That real-time tracking allows you to take advantage of that.
[24:47] Cris Sierra: So, um that's something that any size of operator if they have their um vehicles, they need to be capitalizing on GPS units.
[24:58] Cris Sierra: There's so many different options now available at very different cost levels um that it's a disservice to their operations if they aren't taking advantage of that.
[25:10] Cris Sierra: Um one of the other big drivers that Telematics can help is with fuel efficiency.
[25:16] Cris Sierra: All operators know fuel costs are one of the most significant operational expenses that you have and so to be able to appropriately monitor your fuel efficiency is very vital.
[25:29] Cris Sierra: Um and it'll help you analyze the driving behavior as well.
[25:33] Cris Sierra: So things like including speed, idle time is huge, right?
[25:39] Cris Sierra: So it helps you you know promote that driving better driving habits and reduce the fuel consumption and lower operating cost.
[25:48] Cris Sierra: Um then the other thing maintenance optimization that I pointed out.
[25:53] Cris Sierra: So um Telematics what it can do is really help with the health and performance of your vehicles and that's why leveraging it is really vital.
[26:03] Cris Sierra: It allows more predictive maintenance, right?
[26:07] Cris Sierra: So you're not worrying after have to worry.
[26:08] Cris Sierra: You don't have to concentrate and worry about, you know, what vehicle do I need to get service next?
[26:13] Cris Sierra: Um, you know, how is it holding up having the telematics to help be more predictive in that perspective will help your fleet stay healthy and it reduces downtime which reduces cost because if your vehicles are down, you're not
[26:28] Cris Sierra: transporting, so you're not making money.
[26:31] Cris Sierra: So that's a huge significant blow to your operations.
[26:35] Cris Sierra: Um and so the great part with like from a maintenance from a telematics perspective is so many of the companies that offer telematics, you know, you can have num numerous amounts of alerts that you can set up um
[26:50] Cris Sierra: alerts you of upcoming maintenance um or potential issues that might be arising with the vehicles.
[26:56] Cris Sierra: You can um schedule repairs before any major problems happen.
[27:01] Cris Sierra: So being um proactive and preventative maintenance is very key in operations um and minimizing that downtime like I talked about.
[27:10] Cris Sierra: And then the biggest thing too is you know if you're owning this vehicle outright, it's going to help you extend the lifespan of your vehicle.
[27:17] Cris Sierra: So capitalize on the cost, right?
[27:20] Cris Sierra: Um and not having to turn over another vehicle because we weren't proactive in the type of approach we were taking with our maintenance on our vehicles.
[27:29] Cris Sierra: The last piece on um telmatics that I think is a very important aspect of it is driving behavior the for specifically for the drivers and being able to to monitor that monitor that.
[27:42] Cris Sierra: So I will tell you this was vital for our operations.
[27:48] Cris Sierra: It was huge. we saw tremendous um improvements overall in driving behavior um fuel cost, maintenance cost, all things like that.
[27:59] Cris Sierra: So being able to utilize telmatics enables you to monitor that driver behavior.
[28:08] Cris Sierra: So, you can really look at things like speeding, harsh braking, um harsh acceleration, excess idling, a lot of those things are you're able to monitor.
[28:20] Cris Sierra: And so, by identifying and um addressing those poor driving behaviors, it allows you to have that conversation with your drivers and say, "Here's what the expectation is.
[28:32] Cris Sierra: Here's what happens when you're not abiding by that." Right?
[28:35] Cris Sierra: One, you're unsafe. Um, secondly, it has a domino effect to the cost of our operations.
[28:43] Cris Sierra: And this is what I always tie back to the drivers, to the bottom line for them, saying, you know, if you're if you're driving unsafely, you're driving fast, you're cornering too hard, breaking too harshly.
[28:54] Cris Sierra: That creates a unnecessary wear and tear on our vehicles.
[28:58] Cris Sierra: It increases our maintenance costs. It increases our fuel costs when you're speeding because the faster you go, the more fuel you're utilizing.
[29:06] Cris Sierra: And so ultimately what does that do?
[29:08] Cris Sierra: That increases our overall operational expenses and reduces our bottom line and our revenue.
[29:14] Cris Sierra: And what does that mean to you as a driver?
[29:16] Cris Sierra: That means I can reward you less now because I have more expenses.
[29:21] Cris Sierra: So rather than spending on expenses, let's improve the driving behaviors and I can reward you for those driving behaviors and increase you know the type of maybe bonus that that maybe you weren't offering previously and now you're able
[29:34] Cris Sierra: to do that because you've seen an increase in leveraging the telematics perspective of it.
[29:39] Cris Sierra: So it can really help improve the overall safety, reduce accidents and lower insurance cost because insurance cost isn't as is a hefty um operational expense for operators.
[29:53] Cris Sierra: So you know leveraging telematics, you know, if operators aren't doing that today, again, I say it's a disservice to their operations.
[30:01] Cris Sierra: They need to capitalize on it.
[30:03] Cris Sierra: It helps from controlling cost, controlling the overall safety of their fleet environment and as well it helps them, you know, when they're taking on new business and being able to say, "Hey, here's how we monitor our fleet, right?
[30:18] Cris Sierra: So, here's one thing. You don't have to worry.
[30:20] Cris Sierra: We work on it to ensure that we're promoting safe driving habits.
[30:24] Cris Sierra: We're working to promote that we're, you know, um, having our cost extremely low by having all these things into play." So again, all these things from a data analytic perspective equate back to your bottom line.
[30:40] Cris Sierra: How can you reduce expenses, reduce your cost, and increase your overall revenue?
[30:44] Cris Sierra: And so by leveraging all these appropriate tools and and um creating actionable items with them, that's what can really help you with all that stuff.
[30:55] Nirav Chheda: Okay. And this Cris leads us to story time.
[30:59] Nirav Chheda: So, what I like to do with these interviews is get some real stories.
[31:03] Nirav Chheda: Can you tell us one or two stories of times where you really looked at data and said, "Oh, wow.
[31:12] Nirav Chheda: We need to change this about the business or that and things really like the needle really moved." Story time.
[31:25] Cris Sierra: Um, yeah. Um I think one since I touched so much on telematics was the safety aspect.
[31:35] Cris Sierra: Um so when we rolled out the monitoring of the the vehicles with GPS units, it be it allowed um us to educate our drivers more appropriately and letting them know here's why we're we're monitoring and the purpose behind
[31:55] Cris Sierra: it. And so that had um really paid dividends for us from a safety perspective and a cost perspective.
[32:04] Cris Sierra: And so um what we saw by um the fleet telematics and monitoring that driving behavior, we had a reduction in our number of accidents.
[32:16] Cris Sierra: So we went from um basically a success rate of close to probably 94 95% of transports um happening without any type of accident or something like that.
[32:29] Cris Sierra: Just again historical data by introducing the telematics and the driving behavior we were able to jump that to 99% success rate.
[32:38] Cris Sierra: So basically what that equates to now for us is for about every 10,000 transports we do is when we get in we have an accident.
[32:47] Cris Sierra: That's huge. That's tremendous. And so you're talking about, you know, the safety aspect, but that's a huge cost savings because um you don't have to worry about additional repairs to the vehicle, right?
[33:01] Cris Sierra: Then you're talking about potential litigation, getting sued because if your driver hits somebody, right?
[33:08] Cris Sierra: um from that perspective or maybe they got hit but they weren't driving that safe because they were breaking too harshly stuff like that.
[33:17] Cris Sierra: So litigation costs that's huge because you can be paying out to tens if not more hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[33:24] Cris Sierra: So you had huge cost savings from that perspective.
[33:27] Cris Sierra: So um there's just a lot of aspects that we were able to leverage from that piece of it.
[33:34] Cris Sierra: So, you know, we we increased our overall safety.
[33:38] Cris Sierra: Um, we decreased the number of accidents, you know, that we were seeing per number of transports was tremendous.
[33:45] Cris Sierra: And and that number, I'm proud to say, is probably even higher now.
[33:49] Cris Sierra: We have very little um accidents, knock on wood.
[33:53] Cris Sierra: Um, but I don't even say knock on wood because it's intentional.
[33:57] Cris Sierra: We're very proactive in our approach with that of monitoring everything.
[34:01] Cris Sierra: And then we reduced our cost.
[34:03] Cris Sierra: um our um maintenance and accident cost, our litigation cost, all of that was huge by the introduction of um the fleet telematics.
[34:16] Cris Sierra: And it wasn't a very quick switch, right?
[34:19] Cris Sierra: It was very intentional, a lot of conversations, a lot of education and monitoring what the data was telling us and and seeing, you know, where could we change behaviors?
[34:30] Cris Sierra: And so now it's really um the great part that I love within all of our respective markets that we operate, it's a competition now of who can have the highest safety um score.
[34:42] Cris Sierra: And so now we're having, you know, most of our drivers are hitting 98 99% uh safety scores, meaning, you know, they didn't trigger any type of speeding alerts, harsh braking, harsh cornering, anything like that.
[34:57] Cris Sierra: So it's tremendous. they really have safety in mind and so they have competitions of how they're doing better and it's allowed us to recognize um those drivers that are performing very well from a safety perspective.
[35:10] Cris Sierra: So, we do quarterly recognition. Um, their managers recognize them consistently, but enterprisewide we do a quarterly recognition.
[35:19] Cris Sierra: And then we do our safest driver of the year and they get this huge shout out and celebrated and um, you know, just thanking them for the work that they're doing from a safety perspective.
[35:32] Cris Sierra: And so, you know, when you think about the number of transports we did last year, we did close to 600,000 That's huge.
[35:40] Cris Sierra: and and to be able to reduce you know the number of accidents because of you know data analytics and monitoring driving behavior.
[35:49] Cris Sierra: So that was a huge win success for us and um it just continues to pay dividends for us.
[35:58] Nirav Chheda: One in 10,000. That's pretty huge.
[36:02] Cris Sierra: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I'm proud to to brag about that because we just we like I said very proactive on everything with it.
[36:14] Nirav Chheda: That's an awesome story. Um Cris, thanks so much.
[36:21] Nirav Chheda: Are there any sort of final takeaways that you would want to leave NEMT operators with who may be new to the business or maybe haven't leveraged data and analytics so much?
[36:32] Nirav Chheda: I know you've shared a lot about the importance of it, but there's any sort of like quick, you know, final like here's an actionable thing you need to do tomorrow or one thing you want to leave them with?
[36:50] Cris Sierra: you know, take a a moment to go look at your operations and find one area that you want to focus on.
[36:59] Cris Sierra: Forget everything else. just focus on one item and say for the next 30 days I'm gonna focus on our even look at it from an on-time percentage on time pickup percentage right on on our one way of picking
[37:13] Cris Sierra: up you know the patient and taking them to their appointment I'm only going to look at that aspect for 30 days and really focus on how I can drive that and what the data is telling me and how
[37:23] Cris Sierra: it looks and that's going to allow you to really understand your operations and how you're moving the needle in a positive or a negative way and from there what you're going to find is it's going to create a
[37:37] Cris Sierra: snowball effect for you and it's going to get you excited and want to say where else can I apply that to my business.
[37:44] Cris Sierra: So focusing on one thing shortterm you know 30 days look at it and you know monitoring how your progression is going and what changes have you made that have had that impact to um that one goal.
[37:58] Cris Sierra: So, um, this doesn't have to be anything for an extended period of time.
[38:03] Cris Sierra: It's it's very quick. It's very actionable that you can take away.
[38:07] Cris Sierra: And the last piece I want to say to you is utilize resources.
[38:11] Cris Sierra: You know, network, build your network up.
[38:13] Cris Sierra: You know, larger companies that are maybe taking advantage of different types of data analytics.
[38:20] Cris Sierra: Get in contact with them and ask them what's been successful, what hasn't been successful for them.
[38:25] Cris Sierra: you know, how have they been able to grow their business you by leveraging data analytics.
[38:31] Cris Sierra: So, focus on one key area, 30 days and build your I love it.
[38:39] Nirav Chheda: Cris, thank you so much. Run, Bambi, run.
[38:45] Nirav Chheda: Awesome. Thanks, Cris. Yeah.
