Tim Clowney Discusses Driver Safety at Green Lawn and Pest

WEST CHESTER, Pa. — Through giving away a new truck, among other incentives, Green Lawn Fertilizing/Green Pest Solutions have found success in its driver safety program.

“We started the driver safety program, contest wise, five years ago,” said Tim Clowney, safety compliance manager at Green Pest Solutions. “In that time, we have given away five Ford F-150. So, it’s been quite exciting for us to do that. Our founder and CEO Matt Jesson, he’s been very generous in providing the winner with a truck. It seems to really go over well with all the drivers in our company.”

Clowney said the program helps the drivers be aware of their daily habits on the road, just to make sure they’re operating safely.

“As most of us know, we’re out there driving every day and we see what it’s like,” he said. There’s a lot of inconsistent drivers that are not performing safely, whether people are on their phones or other devices while driving, Clowney said he has seen some major distractions.

“This is just bringing awareness to the drivers really,” Clowney said. “We also reward them monthly too with gift cards and things like that. So it’s just an incentive to drive safely to protect them because our number one goal is to get them home every night to their friends and family.”

The true incentive is to have drivers be safe while out on the road providing service to their customers. Clowney said the company has implemented GPS tracking systems that score drivers based on their driving.

“It’s almost like a gamification between the drivers because they can see each other’s scores,” he said. “There have been improvements over all these years. I think we’re up to 225 drivers now, so we have that many vehicles on the road at one time during the day, it’s a big deal. We really don’t have major accidents. We have our share of little things where maybe you backed into a mailbox because you didn’t see it in the mirror or things of that nature. But major accidents, we are pretty good and free from that overall.”

Clowney recommends companies of all sizes implement some type of driver safety program, whether that’s an incentive-based program or one that just collects telematics.

“We’ve just added cameras to our pest division trucks this year, and we’ve already saved ourselves multiple times with drivers that have hit us,” Clowney said. “But it would be questionable if we didn’t have it on video. I would recommend it 100% to any company that has vehicles on the road every day because we are distracted more than ever right now with our phones, tables, you name it. It’s getting increasingly difficult to be out on those roads without stuff happening.”

Green uses the data to keep track of the top five drivers in lawn and the top five drivers in pest. Clowney said each month the winners of each division receive $25.

“It is a really nice thing that we’ve done to really push safety,” he said. “While these guys and gals are on the road.”

The company only gives away a single truck between the lawn and pest division, but it is at no cost to the winner.

“It’s quite an expense to purchase a truck, give it away, gross up their taxes and everything,” Clowney said. “We take care of all of it.”

The winner is announced at the company’s kickoff meeting every February, where everyone receives tickets based on their driving the previous year. Clowney said the program is set up to have everyone start with 91 points and goes to 100.

“At 91 you might have one ticket for entering the contest drawing,” he said. “At 100 you would have 48 tickets. We put them all in a roller and roll it in front of everybody. We pull the driver’s name out of the roller and Jesson calls the name. Everyone goes nuts, it’s pretty cool.”

The root of the program is about pushing safety for the drivers, something Clowney believes can be applicable to companies of any size.

“It’s going to benefit you, the driver and the entire company,” he said. “We’re putting safety at the forefront, in front of everyone’s eyes.”

To watch the video interview click here.