Driving up road safety
Steve Thomas of vehicle tracking specialist Ctrack discusses how prudent use of telematics and associated data can reduce fleet risk
Using telematics to monitor and influence how vehicles are being driven is a proven way of improving road safety, but simply installing the technology does not guarantee results.
Proactive risk reduction can only be truly achieved through the effective analysis of data to identify the biggest areas of concern and understand the reasons behind the behaviour of drivers.
Speeding is unsurprisingly a central focus for most fleet safety strategies, with many transport operators taking a zero-tolerance policy towards it.
However, can we honestly say that all examples of speeding are the same and offending drivers should therefore be judged accordingly? Is someone that consistently drives marginally above the speed limit on a motorway worse than someone that sometimes drives above 40mph past a school?
Severity of speeding should be considered alongside frequency as part of any driver behaviour monitoring, so transport operators can see where the highest levels of risk exist.
Perhaps incidents of harsh braking while driving at excessive speed also needs to be monitored and factored in, which suggests the occurrence of near misses. This requires a configurable reporting tool or league table that can automatically ranks drivers based on the safety priorities of the business, with the ability to drill down into the information for additional investigation.
Meanwhile, speeding and dangerous driving at a depot or customer location is often overlooked, despite it resulting in a growing number of vehicle incident and related injuries for many transport operators. Speed limit data only covers the road network, making it difficult to monitor speed restrictions at private locations.
One way around this is to create virtual zones around all company and customer sites, so driver behaviour can be monitored through a vehicle tracking system based on individually-defined operating rules.
The proliferation of vehicle camera technology is further supporting risk reduction by giving added context into driving events beyond the level of insight already provided by vehicle tracking. By creating a complete picture of what has happened, it becomes possible to see whether a driver was at fault and if there is a recurring issue that needs to be addressed.
Some harsh driving events can be the result of positive and preventative action by the driver, such as avoiding someone that runs into the road, which should be commended. Only with video evidence can exact cause be determined.
Integrating cameras with a proven fleet telematics system allows transport operators to bring together driver behaviour details with video footage into a single platform. This ensures all vehicle and driver data is consistent and accurate, without the hassle of using multiple systems to undertake any investigation.
A multi-camera solution can also offer an effective driver aid, with an in-cab monitor providing visibility of side or rear blind spots.
Improving road safety is not simply about looking for poor driving behaviour. It’s about having the tools in place to ask the right questions needed to identify and mitigate fleet risk. Transport operators are then able to make it an important part of their wider corporate safety strategy that targets continuous improvement and companywide culture change.
