PHOENIX. Meritor Wabco Vehicle Control Systems and Iteris have jointly released SafetyDirect, a new vehicle reporting solution. Debuting today at the American Trucking Assns. (ATA) Management Conference and Exhibition here, the solution delivers detailed trend data as well as instant notification of vehicle safety and performance, the companies noted.
“We fully expect the system to revolutionize the way fleets monitor report and capture safety data,” said Jon Morrison, president & gm of Meritor Wabco Vehicle Control Systems. “By integrating data from our company’s SmartTrac and OnGuard active safety systems into Iteris’ SafetyDirect and lane-departure warning systems, it’s easier for fleet managers to collect the information they need to meet and improve safety and business goals.”
SafetyDirect allows customers to use a single point of access to monitor and synchronize driver performance reports on braking, stability control, following distances, collision safety system braking and lane-departure warnings for individual drivers as well as an entire fleet. The comprehensive reporting includes event location, date, time, speed, odometer reading and safety trending data.
The SafetyDirect application uses information transmitted from the vehicle by the fleet’s onboard mobile communications system via leading telematic providers such as Qualcomm and PeopleNet.
Iteris also said that SafetyDirect is compatible with Qualcomm’s Mobile Computing Platform 100 and 200 Series units and it is also compatible with PeopleNet systems.
“Iteris’ SafetyDirect is an ideal complement to Qualcomm’s extensive suite of safety services,” said Norm Ellis, vp of sales, services, & marketing of Qualcomm Enterprise Services. “Iteris and Meritor Wabco possess unique, high-value truck safety data, which can help further enhance the comprehensive safety profile for Qualcomm’s fleet customers.”
A web-based reporting tool, SafetyDirect uses an onboard data logger to capture and report driving behavior, vehicle characteristics and critical events, according to Bill Patrolia, Iteris director of North American truck sales. It can currently be installed with any of the available combinations of Meritor Wabco’s ABS, ATC, SmartTrac, OnGuard and the Iteris LDW system.
“Stand-alone LDW is a safety feature for the driver, and the benefit can be measured at a fleet level in terms of reduced number of accidents,” said Patrolia. “We have proven that. “But fleet managers, especially directors of safety, don’t know how drivers are performing and can’t rank drivers by safety performance.”
The companies said SafetyDirect’s benefits to include fleet-wide driver safety statistics, automated scheduled safety reports, and a portal for detailed information and statistics.
By utilizing information gathered by the Iteris LDW system and Meritor Wabco’s SmartTrac and OnGuard, SafetyDirect can constantly record the number of instances a driver experiences the following events:
- Lane departure warnings
- Lane change without turn signal
- Excessive braking
- Excessive curve speed
- System disable frequency
- Loss of tracking (camera view blocked)
- Forward collision warnings
- Headway alerts, including events of following distance histogram and collision mitigation events
- Electronic stability program events
- Roll stability events
- Antilock brake events
- Percent of time cruise control is engaged
Patrolia said SafetyDirect takes critical event reporting to the next level. “This picks up more minor events over time; we can see when a driver is making a habit of, say, going too fast on on-ramps or off-ramps; what his average following distance is. With the OnGuard system, we can see a guy who is in a too-close range, tailgating consistently over a long period of time, and intervene.”
SafetyDirect will be extremely useful for fleets in keeping their safety scores down within CSA, Patrolia added. “CSA is all about safety scores, ratings and tickets. If you can rein in drivers with bad habits that result in tickets before they get them, it will make a fleet’s CSA scorecards cleaner.”
