Though they weren't expecting it, two fleets say they recently chose SmartDrive video systems for their trucks because of particular features the systems offer.
Truckload carrier Knight Transportation chose to evaluate video systems for its trucks after experiencing a sustained increase in litigation activity, much of it fraudulent but still costing the company time and money. Knight found that many passenger car drivers already have installed video systems of their own.
The company piloted two different video systems and found SmartDrive superior on a number of key metrics. The SmartDrive system captured twice as many — and a wider variety of — collisions, including side-swipe and low-impact collisions. The system also reduced unsafe driving among the carrier's driver population, and Knight's pilot location experienced the lowest claims cost in the fleet and had zero preventable collisions during the trial.
Knight also noted the SmartDrive system's flexibility to add more cameras should the fleet choose to do so. After realizing an 84% improvement in safety performance with the SmartDrive system, Knight decided to deploy SmartDrive's video-based safety program in all its trucks.
With SmartDrive, "there was a significant difference in terms of collisions captured, the overall visibility to risk and the ability to access additional video context on demand," said Brett Sant, senior vice president of safety and risk management at Knight.
Meanwhile, O&G Industries, the largest private construction company in Connecticut, is deploying SmartDrive's video-based safety program across its fleet of 225 vehicles. The company needed only a third as long as it originally expected it would to come to that decision, cutting short a 90-day pilot period to 30 days.
As part of the rollout, 45 of O&G's concrete mixers will be equipped with SmartDrive 360, integrating with those vehicles' existing back-up cameras. The addition of a video-based safety program has helped widen O&G management's field of view, providing the driver's perspective of what's happening on the road and challenging working conditions at job sites.
An unexpected outcome of O&G's SmartDrive pilot was stronger relationships between drivers, management and executives. With long-tenured driver employees — some of whom spend their entire driving career with O&G — the company counts that as a significant "win." The pilot also demonstrated the value of a managed service program with a fair and consistent video review process, according to O&G, and the company says it will leverage the safety program as a core component of its new driver incentive program.
"SmartDrive outperforms other systems because our platform identifies and captures more risk, delivers actionable transportation intelligence that uncovers more savings and efficiency opportunities and is easy for managers to adopt and use," stated Steve Mitgang, CEO of SmartDrive.
