Lytx delivering safety for Silver Eagle Houston

Silver Eagle Distributors Houston, a Houston-based beverage distribution fleet, is achieving “outstanding program results” using Lytx’s Driver Safety Program and Fleet Tracking Service, according to the telematics solutions provider.

“We are proud to work with a best-in-class company like Silver Eagle Houston, whose core values around protecting their drivers and the community are well-aligned with our passion for safety,” said Del Lisk, Lytx vice president of safety. “Because of those values, they have high expectations for a video telematics solution that not only helps them proactively protect their drivers and provides a strong return on investment, but one that will be a true benefit to their fleet.

“With the Lytx Driver Safety program, they are getting invaluable insights into driver performance and consistently reinforcing their company safety culture with impressive results.”

Since deploying, Silver Eagle Houston says it has seen “dramatic” improvements in the incidence and severity of risky driving behaviors since deploying the Lytx system, including the lowest risk per vehicle in the company’s history.

“When we first deployed Lytx event recorders, we were looking to better understand the behaviors of our drivers and the challenges they face on the roads,” said Brian Kirk, Silver Eagle’s senior vice president and chief information officer. “Now, we couldn’t imagine our fleet without this technology. Not only has Lytx helped us achieve safer driving across our fleet and decreased our liability, but the technology has also encouraged our drivers to be more proactive about their safety and the overall safety of the Silver Eagle community.”

The Driver Safety Program uses Lytx’s DriveCam event recorders to capture data around risky driving. That data is reviewed by professional analysts, and advanced machine vision and artificial intelligence algorithms to identify specific unsafe behaviors. This information is delivered to fleetsin the form of customized, prescriptive coaching workflows, Lytx said. With this pinpointed information about risk in their fleet, companies can work with drivers to improve habits and prevent collisions.

Silver Eagle Houston is using the platform to achieve strong safety results. In the past 15 months, the company has recognized:

41% decrease in frequency of risky driving incidents
44% decrease in the level of severity of risky driving
31% decrease in traffic violations
19% decrease in incidents of distracted driving
48% improvement in late response behaviors
72% decrease in unsafe following distance behaviors
74% decrease in driving without a seatbelt

Silver Eagle Houston is an independent beer distributor with approximately 9,000 accounts in the Houston area. The company was concerned about the risk of driving on freeways and surface streets, and wanted a reliable solution that could be tailored to fit its fleet needs to help improve driver safety. Lytx’s video telematics stood out for its ability to deliver valuable insights in an effective format for coaching and evaluation.

When Silver Eagle first implemented Lytx technology, its leaders were proactive in educating the entire company about how they would be using DriveCam, Lytx said. As a result, drivers had a clear picture of the technology’s role in their vehicles, and how it would be used to help improve their driving and safety.

Mitch Miller, Silver Eagle’s director of health, safety and environmental, cited their strategic approach to change management as a major factor in their success. As one way of encouraging accountability and a positive approach to improving driving behaviors, the Silver Eagle Houston team developed a quarterly program to recognize top coaches and drivers called “Road Safety Champions.”

“The Lytx Driver Safety Program has been instrumental in creating change in our fleet and encouraging safer driving,” Miller said. “In fact, we’ve had to begin reworking our recognition program now that multiple drivers every quarter are achieving zero coached events—a problem we are more than happy to have.”

Now several years into deployment, Silver Eagle Houston has seen cultural changes that go beyond the statistical improvements in safe driving. Not only have the Road Safety Champion awards made safe driving a point of pride, drivers now are more engaged in working with their managers to review and discuss incidents if and when they occur.

“After several years with Lytx, I now have drivers calling me up to ask about incidents, often before I can even flag the event for them,” Miller said. “They want to see the full picture of what happened, where they could have improved and how they can do better next time they are on the road.

“This attitude shift—from being nervous around the cameras to counting on the additional vision they are able to provide—truly affirms our decision to deploy the Lytx Driver Safety Program and demonstrates the power that the technology can deliver.”