Safety, Recognition, and Retention. The Scratchie Revolution

In this eye-opening episode, we're joined by James Kell, co-founder of Scratchie, who's flipping the script on how we approach fleet safety. Rather than focusing on catching drivers doing something wrong, Scratchie is creating measurable improvements by recognizing and rewarding positive driving behaviours.

James shares how Scratchie's innovative platform integrates with Geotab's telematics data to automatically identify and reward safe driving practices. By "inverting the report" – focusing on what drivers are doing right instead of wrong – fleets are seeing dramatic improvements in safety metrics, driver retention, and overall morale.

Key Topics Covered:

How the traditional punitive approach to fleet safety creates resistance and resentment
Scratchie's integration with Geotab and how it transforms telematics data into driver recognition
Real-world results: 28% improvement in safety attitudes and 96% driver preference for fleets using Scratchie
The Science Behind Positive Reinforcement and Why Immediate Recognition Drives Lasting Behaviour Change
How North American trucking companies are implementing Scratchie to reduce insurance costs while improving driver satisfaction
Practical steps for fleet managers to shift from a "gotcha" culture to a recognition-based approach
Listener Takeaways:

Why recognition is more effective than punishment for creating sustainable safety behaviours
How to leverage existing telematics data to boost driver engagement
Practical strategies for implementing a positive recognition program in your fleet
The connection between driver recognition, retention, and bottom-line results


Reach out to James Kell
https://scratchie.com
james@scratchie.com
+1 (415) 619-2704

Your Hosts:

John Farquhar
National Risk Services Specialist, Transportation, Gallager GGB
https://www.ajg.com/ca/
M: 437-341-0932
John_Farquhar@ajg.com

Chris Harris
CEO, Safety Dawg Inc.
905 973 7056
Chris@SafetyDawg.com
https://safetydawg.com/


Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#trucksafety #truckinsurance #truckpodcast

Do you need a "Truck Driver Safety Policy?" Get it today! https://safetydawg.com/policy

Transcript

0:01

How, or is it even possible to gamify safety? Our guest this week, James Ke comes all the way from Australia and he's the co-founder of Scratchie a company that gamifies the safety experience. How can we change the culture of your company to make it a more rewarding experience for truck drivers? Join us. That's next on the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. Welcome to the Trucking Risk and Insurance Podcast. James, welcome to the show. Can you please take a sEcond? Thanks, Chris or two to introduce yourself? Sure. So my name's James Kel. I come from Australia. I started out as a carpenter, uh, and I, I co-founded a technology company a few years ago to bring more joy to safety, to actually encourage safety and performance at work. And so. It's called Scratchie. And that's what, uh, I've founded and that's what I do. Uh, I mean, that's perfect. How did a carpenter come up with an idea to, I'll say gamify safety? Yeah. What I noticed in construction safety in Australia, it's, it's very compliance based. And when I started my apprenticeship. There wasn't a lot of safety to be honest. I mean, there was practical safety, you know, um, you'd look at, so there was, but there was none of that, the regulations and really, and what I saw when they, the more regulations and compliance and punishment that goes with that for not doing that. The whatever's required, the more that that happened, the less enjoyable work became. And so I ended up running the company, the construction company, and I was talking to the safety manager and we thought we were met mulling over this. And we said, well, isn't there a way to, rather than punish for a lack of safety. To reward for a presence of safety. So what a, what an idea. Right? And it rewards yeah, that's right. And so just to balance it out a bit, not to be against the, the compliance regime, but just to. Balance it out so you know the workers in the workers who did things well instead of just being ignored, which is what happens in the current regime, in the compliance regime, instead of just being ignored, they get a pat pat on their back. They get the recognition. And then they might even win a small award and they go, cool. Awesome. Finally, I'm being actually recognized for doing the right thing. And so that, that happened in construction safety and then it's, it's spread from there. So, uh, we've gone to, well, trucking and leg logistics, uh, with our, uh, Geotab partnership, but also McDonald's for the quick serve restaurants. So they reward their crews. I. And so it's, it's much bigger than just safety actually. And it's much bigger than construction. It's, it's what motivates us people is encouragement, recognition. Well, often a pat on the back goes a lot further than a kick in the ass. Totally. And there's a need for both, isn't it? Like, yes, every now and then you, you need to kick up the butt, but. It shouldn't be the only tool. Um, probably the, the biggest tool should be encouragement and then every now and then, yep. Kick up the butt. Did that wrong? Fine. We get that. But it needs balance. this fits right into one of the pet peeves that I have if in in trucking and. In most trucking companies, when a driver gets told, go see safety, it's usually, ah, what did I do now total? Totally. You know? And so you with Scratchie can turn this around. Yeah, exactly. And in fact, when, um, the, this trucking company asked us to, um. To, well, us to join to do what we do, us to become an accountant. They were a big trucking company in Australia called Toll, and so Gary and I both come from construction. We're both from the trade and so we both know the importance of. Talking to the people who actually do the work, right? Um, we say wear hard hats or hair nets. And so, uh, I'd never been on a shift in a truck, so said to to, and Gary, same thing. He, we were like, can we go on a shift? And they were like, what do you wanna do that for? And we're like, well, we just feel, we just don't really understand the industry and we, we know there's much more to it than we realize. So anyway, short, long story short, we sat in, um, for a shift and it was great. You know, good conversations. You always pick up so much stuff. Just having, having those convos. But one of the things was this guy said is, um, because in Australia at the moment, they're saying. And it is safety worldwide. The more you report near misses actually is a sign of a healthy safety culture, right? So instead of, um, pushing them under the carpet, um, actually report them. And so they started to reward the reporting of near misses. And, and I said, how's that? How's that going? That's encouragement, right? And he said, well, the thing is. If you want a near miss, I can give you a near miss. Right. He said, but even better is if I don't give you a near miss actually. So he said, um, the moment if I do everything right, I get nothing. And so that was that convers, you know, so it was easy to integrate in that sense. And, uh, so, which is a great point, I mean, with telematics nowadays, the near misses are usually caught on video camera. That's right. And yep, sure. Let's talk about them. Let's learn from them. Let's even celebrate them in a strange way. Um, thank, thank the Lord that we didn't turn into something fine. But best of all is the driver that you never hear from because he or she is nice and quiet. They get everything done, you know, and they're the people that need to be rewarded. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Just to, to wrap up that near miss part. I think a driver should be rewarded if they had great following distance and now a car comes in, cuts them off, hits the brakes, and the driver does a wonderful job of avoiding the crash, which totally would've been their fault. But yeah, the driver avoided the crash, so I think that too should be rewarded. Yeah, a hundred percent. But you're absolutely right if the driver never puts themself into that negative position, yeah, they really need to be rewarded. That's it. Yeah, that's right. So in both those instances, they're really good reason to say to the driver, well done. You know, but that second instance you mentioned, because there's no measures on that, right. They tend to, you know, just get, uh, forgotten about. Yeah. Is he lucky or is he good? That's right. Yeah, exactly. Now, you know, Geotab, so we're integrating with Geotab and, and this, I might be, um, going a bit fast for this, but, uh, the Geotab telematics is absolutely amazing and in fact. Geotab, I believe is the leader in the market. But there's some other companies there that do, um, similar amount of telematics. So basically the telematics available nowadays is, uh, incredible and we can use that so we can integrate with those telematics systems and, and have all that sort of stuff automated. Yeah. And that I, I really think this is the way that the world is moving. Gamification is one of the words that I hear tossed around a lot nowadays. Yep. I think Scratchie integrates with telematics and it does, it kind of gamifies the job of driving. Definitely. Yeah, it does. I mean, you know, we all have, I've got my, um, my whoop watch, um, or Fitbit or Apple Watch, or there's so many examples of gamification in our life today, and you could even say, you know, for. Probably not a great thing, but the whole, uh, Instagram, like that, that's actually gamification. That's a game as well. It's all this, um, sources of dopamine. The thing about, um, these sorts of Fitbit or or, or whoop watchers, is that. They're gamifying something that we would, should do more of, you know, exercise. Yeah. And so, and that's the, the thing about gamifying, um, you know, whether it's safety or in McDonald's it would be customer service and cleanliness and some of those things that. Need to be done, but they're kind of mundane. They're not something that you're intrinsically motivated to do for the most part. And, and so that's why a bit of gamification, uh, to celebrate, to sort of, it props up the, uh, the, the motive. Motive really to make you want to do it. Yeah. And can you talk about Scratchie and how it integrates right now with Geotab? What tools does it give the company now that they didn't have? Yeah, so we're in the early stages of the, the integration now, but Geotab provides their clients with a huge amount of data points as you could, as you would be aware, and. Uh, and in line with the prevailing kind of orthodoxy. Most of it is about where the risk is and where the problems are, and that's really important. Of course, you want to know that what's the collision risk and the, the, the riskiest people, um, of need to be looked at and need to be worked on, coached and everything else. Fine. What we've done is. Inverted that table. So we've said, okay, it's great to know all those things. Let's switch it around and let's find out who's the least risky. They're at the top of the table, click a button and they get sent a Scratchie. So what the driver sees at the end of their shift. Is, uh, a notification and it's like you've just been nominated for a scratchie. Now there's a lot of, um, psychology, I've had to get into psychology on this 'cause it's actually bigger than the technology. Um, and there's this, there's these two guys called DC and Ryan and DC and Ryan created this, this whole body really called self-determination theory. And basically what it is, is. What motivates us. Right. And they've said, and they've got, in fact, I'll, I'll just show you one second. Yep. So they've got this thing here. Um, it's like a, it's like 650 pages and working my way through it. And really it could be summed up into saying there's three things we need. We need to have a sense of autonomy. We need to feel competent and we need to be relating to people. If we feel as though we are in charge of our decisions and, and our domain. If we feel good at what we're doing and if we feel like we're relating to other people well, then psychologically we are growing. We're like a plant that's full of water and nutrients and that sort of stuff. So when it comes to work, especially with regards to safety and that sort of stuff, it's, there's, there's no autonomy. You get told what to do. Um, you are only pointed out when you are not competent. Right. And it sets up this disconnect between the supervisor and the manager because they're always busting you. And it's exactly what you said before. When they're told to see safety, they go, oh God, what have I done? Right? Yeah. So there's this, no, no relatedness between the three. So, um, what we do is we bring self-determination theory to the workplace. So. That's the theory part in the middle, what it looks like is the driver. Gets to the end of his shift and it's ping. You've got a Scratchie, you've been nominated for a Scratchie. He goes, Ooh. And that little, ooh, the little, ah, something here that there's a bit of anticipation. This is all part of the gamification. So we don't just say immediately, um, everything. You've gotta reveal it over time because it's like you want to count down. You wanna know what is it that's all part of, it's all the dopamine and the serotonin and all that sort of stuff is. Coursing through your veins as you go. I've just been nominated. Right? And so then they, he presses the button and there's a countdown five. For, again, two, one, and then it goes, you've just won. It's usually 10, 20, or$50 or something like that. Right? It can be just points, actually, but we, you know, it's a whole another discussion. We find that small cash rewards are really, um, kind of true and, and then so firstly there's the recognition. Most importantly, there's a recognition. That his boss has decided to, uh, award him. That's actually the most important thing. Right? So that's competence, right? The autonomy was because he made the decision to do the right behavior, right? He wasn't, yeah, sure there's rules and everything, but. This driver did it. Right? So he had the autonomy, he made that decision himself to do it right. Uh, competence, um, obviously is being celebrated. Relatedness. What that does between the supervisor and the worker is amazing. You know, all of a sudden when, um, that when you're a worker and you know that your boss knows that you're good, yeah. Then it's a great feeling, right? Yeah. So that's, that's what this is all about. So is this a, uh, a manual process? Is it an automated process when you say the driver was nominated for a Scratchie? Um, yeah. Or is it both? It's both. There's, it's a really good question and it's been very well considered. It needs to be the supervisor. Saying, Joe has done great, I'm gonna nominate him for a Scratchie. So that is necessary. All of the other work is not necessary, so we've automated everything else. And so the next release of Scratchie, we even bring the supervisor, the three that we would recommend. It's the recommendation engine. We bring the three and he presses one button for each of those awards, and then he goes about his day. So we know that supervisors have too much to do, like that's a supervisor's life, so we need to make the supervisor's life easier. So that's kind of the, the whole motive behind this is, um, let's give, let's give those recommendations on a plate. So all the supervisor needs to do is to say. Good. Good, good. And now let's carry on with these other two phone calls I was on, you know, so yeah. So you're automating the part of the process and then you're allowing the supervisor to go, yep. Good choice. Good choice, good choice. That's it. Exactly. Yeah. And meanwhile the worker goes, oh, I've just been recognized for this. Great. That's awesome. And next time worker sees. Um, the supervisor work goes, thank you. That was, uh, thanks for actually recognizing that. And importantly, the supervisor does re remember when he did give those awards and he goes, ah, no problem. You know, when he gets thanked, he doesn't, he doesn't go, ah, okay. I guess, you know, it's like, no, you're welcome. That's fine. You know? Yeah. And as I said before, I, I really think safety needs to help. Not to be the police department all the time. That's right. Or in my world, I'll say it. The Oh shit department. Um, yeah, because yeah, too often that's what they are. They're the police with the big stick and they're always threatening people. Yeah. I just think that's a terrible way to run. A department and a business, and many safety supervisors, or many safety managers agree with you. They're like, we're, we're kind of a bit over. The only tool we have is punishment. And what that it, it encourages some types of personalities to be the safety manager, which frankly is not the kind of personality that you, you, that you'd want. So. It does a lot of things. Um, and then in the, in the quick serve restaurants and, um, space, it's, it's like, like I said before, it's kind of gone away from safety and so it's the supervisor that's always having to nag the crew and the workers to do things that are important, but they're just boring. Yeah. And in this time around, um, supervisor has another tool is to say, Hey, Josephine. Look at that tidy area, that super clean area. The second time I've seen that happen, I haven't had to ask you, here, scan this, have a Scratchie. And so that happens, you know? Yeah. I, I just think that is a great way to be going about it. And, and nowadays, as I said, with the telematics, we're finding out a lot more about truck drivers' behavior. And we see, you know, with these dash cams, we see the near misses. Now we see the collisions. Um, but it's still hard to recognize when a driver doesn't get into either one of those situations. Hmm. So scratch That's right. Is gonna help. Totally. That's exactly right. Uh, the, all the telematics, all that beautiful data comes through and we deal with, with that data in a different way. That's, that's essentially what we do now. Changing topics, just not quite changing topics. But you recently went to a Geotab conference, right? I did in Orlando. Yeah. Oh, it was massive. This Aussie comes out to Florida and yeah, I, I just cannot believe the scale of things in the US and yeah, it was amazing and so impressive. And you know, it's a private company and I was just blown away. Yeah. And Right. Just to blow our horns. Um, it's, it is a Canadian company. Yeah, it is. Thank you for that. Right. Yeah. And I forget how many countries? 20, somewhat, I think. Oh, at least. Yeah. It's a worldwide organization, so congrats Geotab for that. But they're in Australia and mm-hmm. This is the first company that you've. I don't wanna say partnered with, but that, 'cause that's not true. But that you've integrated, I guess is the correct word, correct spreadsheet platform now. Yeah. Can you integrate with other companies? We certainly can. Yeah. We're, we're open API, which means, um, we're open to integrate and in fact we're based. Integration because what we are not is a safety platform. We are not, um, anything. What we are is a rewards layer. So we can be added to these existing platforms. Um, safety culture, Oracle A Connects, Procore, you know, any one of these, um, and any one that you can think of, uh, we can add that rewards layer. To whatever it is you use. So that's the other good thing is it's not learning a new system, you stay on your system. It just gets better, gets optimized because of the rewards layer. Okay. James, I, I think that's a great place to leave it. So if I can kind of summarize and then you can pop in and say, Chris, you forgot this point. Uh, Scratchie is a rewards optimization program. Mm-hmm. Gamifying. Mm-hmm. Safety and giving out pats on the back's. It that in a nutshell, that's it. It's, it's getting that recognition happening for good work. Right. It's, it's winning at work. Yeah. I mean, God, I used to hate, I was a safety person. Well, I still am. I guess I, you know, and I hate it all the time. Calling the drivers in, giving them written warnings, giving them, you know, shit for stuff. And they already knew they did it wrong. Mm-hmm. And yeah, that's right. They're already sort of, uh, chastising themselves. Yeah, yeah. Yes. But because of insurance and government regulations, I had to document that stuff and, and beat the, the person up. And I really didn't have a tool to say, Hey, thanks, job well done. Yep. That's it. Right. And so. Scratchie, there's your contact information is in the show notes down below So I would personally, I think this is a great idea and congrats for a carpenter coming up with AEs Scathingly. Brilliant idea. Thanks a lot Chris. No thanks for the conversation. It was uh, yeah. Yeah, look forward to staying in touch. It was great. Thanks so much, James. James, all the way from Australia, co-founder of Scratchie. Thanks so much for joining us on the show this week, and for you, our viewers, think about how you can gamify, make it a more rewarding experience for your drivers. Because that's going to increase your retention. And we all know that retention is the best way to keep the good drivers. So James contact info is in Reach out to James, I think this is awesome. Test Chris Harris, Safety Dawg. See you next week.