SAN DIEGO—Video telematics provider Lytx is integrating its solutions into Daimler Truck North America equipment. The technology company is also adding more safety features centered around truck parking.
Truck parking is one of the biggest problems facing the industry, according to the American Transportation Research Institute’s 2022 Top Industry Issues studies, which was released here earlier during American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition. The 18th annual ATRI list ranked truck parking as the No. 3 overall concern in the industry—drivers, however, ranked it No. 1.
When drivers can’t find designated truck parking, they are often forced to park in unsafe locations, such as interstate shoulders or exit/entrance ramps. This type of risky parking can increase the chances of devastating collisions, serious injuries, and financial liability risk for companies, according to Ofelia Chernok, senior portfolio marketing manager at Lytx.
In the next few weeks, Lytx will offer fleet managers more visibility into their drivers’ parking and improved operational efficiency and safety through the new Parked-Highway/Ramp feature.
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The system triggers when the Lytx DriveCam event recorder identifies that a vehicle has been stopped for 10 minutes on the shoulder of a highway or an off/on ramp—where other vehicles might pass by. When a Parked-Highway/Ramp event occurs, it notifies fleet managers so they can quickly intervene by sending nearby safe parking locations via GPS directly to their driver.
“It started as an experiment in the Lytx Lab after a customer vehicle was in a collision on the side of the road,” Chernok told FleetOwner. “You can see it’s a massively hot topic. There’s news everywhere around it.”
To help fleets, Lytx has built a database of safe truck parking spots. “Using GPS checkpoints and geospatial analysis, we present the risk after the vehicle has been stopped for at least 10 minutes on the side of a highway or an interstate or an on- or off-ramp,” she said.
Once a fleet manager is alerted that a truck is stopped in a potentially unsafe location, the manager can contact the driver to check in to see if there is a problem. “So they would work with their driver or their dispatcher directly,” Chernok explained. “Is the problem that the vehicle is disabled, or has the driver reached their hours-of-service limit—or whatever the case may be. They can work with the driver in that moment to help them get to a safer parking space.”
Freightliner and Western Star integration
Also, during the ATA conference, Lytx announced the collaboration with DTNA to launch a new vehicle telematics gateway and camera solution that can be ordered directly from the OEM on select Freightliner and Western Star models.
The solution leverages the configurable Lytx DriveCam components, which will be integrated into the vehicle during production. Customers can begin placing orders later this fall, with the first Lytx-equipped trucks built in early 2023 for the Freightliner Cascadia and Western Star X-Series line of 47X, 49X, and 57X models.
The solution is powered by the Lytx Vision Platform, which provides OEM partners and clients with the ability to leverage Lytx’s expertise in video, big data, and artificial intelligence to build custom solutions, Chernok said.
“Combining our business strategy of offering customer-first solutions with the configuration options within the Lytx Vision Platform, we are grateful for the opportunity to work with the team at Daimler Truck North America to deliver our customizable safety solutions in an innovative new way,” said Brandon Nixon, chairman and CEO of Lytx. “This integration partnership highlights our passion for leveraging our technology and expertise to provide companies with custom solutions to fit their needs.”
