How to advance driver safety and coaching

There are over 3.5 million trucks on North American roads that cross international borders.

According to the statistics from Nation’s trucking alliance, 90 percent of all consumer products and food are shipped by semi-truck throughout Canada, and approximately two-thirds come from the United States.

 

Trucking accidents in Canada

The OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) statistics show a significant increase in commercial motor vehicles (CMV) with collisions resulting in fatality. CMV-involved fatal crashes went up 40% last year in Ontario. Based on OPP statistics, 78% of CMV collisions occurred on provincial highways.

This leads us to believe that drivers have a low awareness of safety and employers are not taking these risks seriously.

 

Costs associated with fleet accidents

The average cost of a loss related to a fleet vehicle accident is between $16,000 and $75,000. This increases drastically if there is a fatality involved, according to an article from automotive fleet.

As an example, the average cost of insurance for semi-trucks has increase to between $12,000 and $16,000 in the U.S. and $15,000 and $20,000 in Canada.

 

The roadmap to an advanced safety program

It’s important to establish clear goals, and policies to demonstrate the company’s commitment to building a company safety culture.  This increases safety awareness among every member of your team and helps prevent future accidents. Not only improving drivers’ behaviour but the back-office can also contribute to creating a safety program for drivers. There are two effective approaches fleet companies can take to establish a safety culture in their business.

 

On the road: prevent incidents with video-based technology

Over 80% of all accidents involving passengers and trucks are the fault of passenger vehicles.

This is a significant number. Protecting your drivers is important, providing proof of not-at-fault ensures they continue driving (productivity) and that you are retaining talent (finding good drivers is always a challenge).

The following are major causes of CMV accidents;

  • Distracted driving
  • Road and weather conditions
  • Speeding and driving recklessly
  • Failing to properly train drivers

What can fleet companies and drivers do to avoid these causes? Here we explore how they can detect and change these behaviours and why video-based technology is a key to preventing incidents on the road.

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Today, Astreon’s A.I. Dashcam is an all-in-one recorder designed to increase safe driving. It has not all the features of a regular dash camera, and also supports intelligent driving assistance that allows companies to detect unsafe behaviours proactively.

 

 

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Astreon’s A.I. Dashcam captures critical incidents in super high definition. It also provides advanced active collision warning by intelligently identifying vehicles, lanes, and traffic scenes ahead via the ADAS camera and effectively predicts driving hazards such as tailgating, front & pedestrian collision, and lane departure.

 

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With a driver-facing camera, it is possible to identify the driver’s behaviours such as using mobile phones while driving, being drowsy, distracted, and not wearing a seatbelt via the cabin camera, and giving an alarm in combination with the vehicle operation status which comprehensively reduces the traffic accidents caused by driver misconduct.

 

At the office: Improve safety awareness with reporting and coaching tools

Identifying and addressing unsafe driver behaviour is the center of an effective fleet safety program. Using the data collected by a dashcam and telematics, you can analyze and assess driving behaviour. By leveraging Astreon fleet management software, you can get full visibility into countless useful data points across your operations from anywhere anytime. Reports from fleet management and analysis tools can help you approach actional insights to establish a safety culture.

dashcam monitoring

Our cloud-based web portal enables fleet companies to monitor live critical events such as accidents, crashes, or dangerous driving from any devices and those uploaded videos can be used for training purposes or insurance claims.

To establish a safety culture, here are some effective actionable plans;

Monthly reporting

Leverage advanced data from telematics and fleet management software. Reporting the rate of unsafe events or reckless driver behaviours can be the best benchmark to compare the monthly report which contains safety and efficiency data by month.

 

Show drivers video footage in coaching and training program

Showing actual video footage when an unsafe event occurred is the best way to educate drivers on safety and how to take the right action proactively. With Astreon’s cloud-based web portal, you review all important videos with the driver, providing a coaching and training program.

 

All-In-One Driving Recorder Designed for Safe Driving

Astreon’s A.I. Dashcam is an all-in-one recorder designed to increase safe driving. It has not all the features of a regular dash camera, and also supports intelligent driving assistance. It has the advantages of a powerful telematics tracker, competitive price, and low cost, secure installation.

Learn more at https://www.astreon.com/a-i-dash-cams/.

Contact us today!

Tel: +1 (888) 647-4730
Email: sales@astreon.com

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4 quick steps to prepare your fleet for dashcams

Transportation companies are now embracing advanced safety technology that was previously considered cost-prohibitive not providing a clear ROI that fleets require to make such an investment.

Today’s landscape has changed drastically. Dashcams have become the norm for carriers to protect themselves against false claims and improve drivers’ safety + CVOR.  The industry is finding the ROI is more quickly attainable. Over 80% of all accidents involving passengers and trucks are the fault of passenger vehicles. Protecting your drivers is important, providing proof of not-at-fault ensures they keep driving, attributing to productivity and increased wages for the driver. This also helps with talent retention. Finding good drivers is a constant challenge.

 

According to a survey from FreightWaves subscribers, 70 percent of respondents are currently using dashcam technology. However, many carriers don’t comprehend dashcam’s features, or how to leverage them. When it comes to the acceptance of new technology, it always comes with some misconception and confusion.

It’s critical for companies and drivers to understand the benefits and features, and to develop a preventive mindset when they implement advanced dashcams.

 

Here are 4 tips to help prepare your business and fleet for dashcams, and to avoid common mistakes;

 

1.    Involving drivers in the pilot

As a company adopts innovative technology, they should involve drivers in the pilot phase of implementation. Drivers’ input is the most useful resource to point out growing pains and establish a solid safety system during this phase. The company also should have drivers test in different locations to see if there are any regional challenges in various locations.

The company should identify any problem areas that can be corrected before implementation. Keeping your drivers in the loop is ideal.

  

2.    Conduct Q&A sessions

Building trust and transparent relationships with drivers is a key to minimize resistance to new technology. Conduct Q&A sessions, workshops, or meetings with employees to explain why the change is necessary, and what the features and benefits of the system are.

 

The most successful acceptance of dashcams is to share videos and assess and debate driver behaviours in dangerous circumstances. Drivers usually don’t mention to their peers what happened when they encountered critical situations so this is a great opportunity for drivers to acknowledge how other peers deal with dangerous situations.

 

3.    Managing & leveraging data

The dashcam collects and sends key telematic data to analyze and assess driving behaviour. Leverage this data for safety coaching events and driver assessment.

 

At Astreon, we offer driver coaching tools which assess driving habits, behaviors and safety. It evaluates telematic data and provides a score based on penalty points for violations like speeding, unnecessary acceleration, heavy braking, acceleration while cornering, reckless driving, etc.

 

4.    Rewarding positive action

Drivers rarely receive rewards, even though their work environment is often stressful dealing with inclement weather, congested traffic, dwell times, etc. Encouraging drivers with rewards and public acknowledged of their achievements makes a big difference with driver satisfaction.

Some drivers might think they are always being observed by employers because of the dashcams. To reduce this negative impression, employers should explain the purpose of implementation and benefits of dashcams, plus rewards that motivate drivers’ positive behavior and safety score.

 

Employers could

  • Share the video with the entire team and celebrate the driver who took positive actions in a critical situation
  • Acknowledge the driver’s actions in a company meeting, workshop or newsletter
  • Publicly thank the driver
  • Present a gift card

 

These rewards are wildly successful in all businesses. On average, incentive programs achieve a 35% increase in driver safety scores across the board. The result is safer drivers and reduced insurance claims through Gamification: where drivers compete on their scorecards, aiming to achieve a higher score than their peers.

 

Adopting innovative technology

The Fleet industry has radically changed as a result of innovative A.I. Enhanced Dash Camera systems, and lower costs of data and hardware. Video evidence is regularly accepted by insurers when submitting claims, proving your driver is not at fault, avoiding fines and preventing insurance hikes because of those fines. On top of that, some insurance companies offer a premium rate if you employ a dashcam system.

 

The key to successfully implementing new technology is to establish a transparent relationship, collaboration, and engagement with drivers.

 

All-In-One Driving Recorder Designed for Safe Driving

Astreon’s A.I. Dashcam is an advanced dash camera with a built-in A.I. processor to detect driving events such as lane departure, forward collision, and unsafe driver behaviour. It can alert the driver in real-time of dangerous behaviours, and upload events to a monitoring platform to be reviewed by a fleet manager as a coaching aid and for evidence.

Learn more about Astreon’s leading solutions here.

Contact us today!

Tel: +1 (888) 647-4730
Email: sales@astreon.com

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