The Evolution of Camera Tech & Safety

Historically, telematics and camera solutions have taken the “carrot and stick” approach but focused mainly on the stick. In other words,  most often focusing on the worst drivers. But Adam Kahn, president, commercial fleet business for Netradyne, thinks that approach is flawed.

“We take a more philosophical approach. From day one, we thought about how to go after safety performance,” Kahn said.

Currently, fleet operations do not have a line of people stepping into the office applying to be drivers. Even if you had 10 applicants, you still have to get through to the qualified applicants.

“If you have 10 applicants who apply, maybe one is qualified, and then you got to figure out if that driver is qualified for your fleet,” Kahn shared.

Envy can be a powerful tool in terms of motivating drivers.

“If you have 60 drivers at a monthly meeting and you bring two drivers up to the front of the room and congratulate them, I guarantee the other 58 drivers in that room will think, ‘I want to be that person, how do I be that person?’ And that’s what we strive for with Driveri --how do we let the great driving performance shine?” Kahn added.

Video Telematics Impact Insurance Costs

Some insurance costs are sinking fleets these days. Video telematics has been one potential solution to help turn this curve around. Insurance premiums aren’t going to be decreasing, but you can work toward keeping them from increasing further.

“The new norm is how do you keep your insurance premium the same. How do you defend and position your fleet where you are demonstrating a safety culture that has results and strong measurements and KPIs as well as touchpoints with the driver?” Kahn asked.

A programmatic approach tends to help stabilize insurance costs. Fleets know many factors can draw up insurance, such as a false claim against the driver or vehicle.

“If you’re going to have a finger pointed at the fleet saying ‘you did this’ and you can turn around and say, ‘look at the video, it wasn’t our driver,’ those are great stabilizing statements insurance companies love,” Kahn said.

How Fleet Safety Programs are Evolving

Kahn believes that fleet safety programs are evolving.

“Getting information to drivers and fleet operators more quickly is always important. Can you have an event that gets processed within seconds and starts to create a meaningful workflow?

One example Kahn provided was fleet drivers going through or rolling through stop signs.

“By providing a little bit of real-time guidance to the driver that he or she went through a stop sign allows the driver to just own it and self correct, I think those are really powerful catalysts of safety performance improvement,” he said.

The frequency and timeliness of talking with drivers is also very important.

“Maybe it’s once a week, maybe it’s once a day, it might evolve to once an hour. But it is that timeframe and responsibility to talk with drivers. I think technology and the ability to take an event and process it real time [that allows fleet managers to] start to have that conversation is really important,’ Kahn concluded.