SmartDrive: the smart truth about safety
SmartDrive Systems has highlighted the reductions in both the risk of accidents and claims-related costs that can be achieved by fleets via the utilisation of its video safety programme.
“Road safety is arguably the most important aspect of fleet management, whether in logistics, specialist van fleet or passenger operations,” said Penny Brooks, managing director at SmartDrive.
“Not only does it carry a moral and legal imperative to ensure public and worker safety, it also lies at the heart of the rigorous cost and risk control fleets need to exercise.”
SmartDrive Systems offers HGV, passenger and van fleets a video-based, managed solution which it says provides visibility of driver behaviour and on-road incidents, alongside analysis and coaching insights which deliver real-world results.
“SmartDrive’s highly configurable video safety programme is designed to capture the vehicle and driver behaviour data fleet managers need, with unarguable narrative in the form of analysed video footage, with associated safety scores and comprehensive KPIs and reporting,” said Penny.
“This gives fleets a comprehensive, effective and robust method of gathering intelligence and simplifies the means of turning that intelligence into objective evidence, insurance claim defence and programmatic driver coaching content.
“SmartDrive’s clients typically see a 50 per cent reduction in collisions within 12-months, as well as claim costs plummeting, through the virtual elimination of fraudulent claims and unnecessary 50-50 settlements.
“Most systems on the market offer either reactive data, post-collision, or leave the assessment of coaching requirements to the already busy fleet manager.
“SmartDrive’s objective and highly trained risk analysis team review all video, meaning that the fleet manager or driver-trainer can focus on clear, unarguable and well evidenced discussions with drivers to eliminate the high-risk behaviours which risk lives and waste money.”
In road safety, visibility is usually defined too narrowly to be effective in preventing collisions, Penny contends.
“We must go beyond what the driver can see, moment by moment, and recognise the need for fleet management to have full visibility of on-road behaviour.
“This is because most collisions are not caused by drivers being unable to see hazards or lacking the skill to handle a commercial vehicle; they are caused by human error arisen from drivers’ attitudes and behaviours
“Telematics has successfully shown many fleets where drivers speed, accelerate, brake or corner too hard. However, that data cannot tell them why. In reality, you can’t manage what you can’t see, which is why a video-based solution is so effective.
“It can show you the hazard appearing – and the driver’s in-cab behaviour immediately prior to the incident. Did the driver show heroic reflexes – or were they distracted and so reacted late? The vital clues to changing high risk behaviours are only shown in the wider narrative.”
Beneficiaries include parcels giant Yodel, which reportedly exceeded its annual safety target for collision reduction within six months with SmartDrive, despite having used many other systems.
Then head of fleet and transport, Andy Yemm, said: “We use Microlise telematics and Tachomaster, both of which give us valuable data. Tachomaster can, for instance, show us harsh braking or speeding. Microlise can show us an individual’s driving style.
“However, we still have no context or narrative. The SmartDrive footage and coaching insights give us the final piece of the jigsaw, which makes it far more powerful when we sit down with a driver to show them what actually happened.”
What Yodel saw, says SmartDrive, is that the value was not simply in the cameras or the vehicular data but in its analysis, which delivers simple, straightforward and specific coaching advice for the fleet manager to deliver.
All of the observation, the viewing of incidents, the understanding of root causes and the correlation between on-road behaviour and collision risk is handled for the fleet by SmartDrive’s team of in-house experts and boiled down to the specific coaching the driver needs to receive.
“This is important because fleet managers have neither the time, nor often the training, to assess the wealth of data which comes from safety systems by themselves,” Penny added.
“Transport has long been an undervalued and price-sensitive commodity and, post-Covid, costs will be under more pressure than ever, as both consumers and industries try to mitigate their losses from the pandemic.
“A comprehensive and actionable road safety programme is the single most effective tool for controlling fleet costs. Those real-world results go beyond a cut in collisions SmartDrive’s clients see. They also include lower insurance premiums, lower claims costs, lower fuel usage, less vehicle damage, fewer uninsured losses, and lower unscheduled downtime.
“It also means a robust defence against fraudulent claims and unnecessary split settlements. The savings keep stacking up, and the moderate investment in a SmartDrive video safety system programme is rapidly recovered.”
