How technology can promote safer driving across your fleet
It is in the interest of any fleet operator to promote safe driving. When drivers make risky moves or get distracted, they put themselves, others on the road and corporate assets at risk. Advanced technologies like vehicle telematics and AI-enhanced dashcams make it easy to monitor drivers across fleets of any size, empowering you to create a culture of safety that helps protect employee well-being, prevent damage to vehicles and minimize liability risk.
Helping drivers stay safe and stay focused
Dangerous driving behaviours like speeding and pulling unsafe maneuvers diminish public road safety, increasing the risk of accidents that can cause harm to drivers and those around them. For businesses that operate commercial vehicle fleets, these behaviours also increase liability risk. It’s for these reasons fleet operators dedicate a lot of resources and time to training and coaching their drivers, helping them refine their driving behaviours for greater on-road safety. But many fleet operators miss out on valuable training opportunities that happen when drivers are behind the wheel.
Fortunately, modern technologies can unlock these opportunities for every driver within a fleet, whenever they’re on the job. Using GPS technology and on-board diagnostics, vehicle telematics systems can measure things like acceleration, road speed and engine speed, enabling them to detect dangerous driving behaviours. This includes speeding, hard braking, aggressive acceleration, harsh cornering and unnecessary engine revving. Because these are only a subset of behaviours that can contribute to unsafe driving conditions, a vehicle telematics system is best paired with an AI-powered dashcam that offers a view of the cabin as well as the road and the vehicle’s perimeter.
Installed in a vehicle’s cabin, these dashcams can see and identify behaviours a telematics system can’t using AI and machine vision. If a driver is driving without their seatbelt fastened or glances down at their cellphone, the dashcam will pick it up. It can also identify signs of fatigue, such as a driver’s head drooping. One of the most useful features of the AI integration is the ability to flag dangerous driving behaviours as they happen. Combined with visual or audio alerts in the cab when speeding and other risky on-road actions are detected, these solutions can encourage drivers to adopt safer behaviours in real time. These types of cameras can also record incidents and upload footage to the cloud for review and further training opportunities.
AI-powered dashcams and telematics solutions can integrate with fleet management platforms to provide a single view of driver behaviour as well as asset conditions, route planning and more.
Why driver safety solutions are good for business
In addition to making it possible to detect and address problematic driving behaviours in real time, advanced technologies can analyze driving behaviours across your fleet at the individual level. You can use the resulting insights to develop tailored training programs that focus on addressing each driver’s specific problems areas, lowering the likelihood of future incidents and potentially preventing a costly accident.
Timely feedback and personalized coaching can result in fewer accidents involving your fleet vehicles, which reduces repair costs, supports lower insurance premiums and decreases your company’s risk of legal liability. In addition to protecting your staff and assets, safer driving contributes to better fuel efficiency and lower fuel costs because behaviours like excessive speeding, rapid acceleration, harsh braking and tailgating all consume extra fuel. Safe driving is also easier on vehicles, minimizing wear and tear and downtime due to repairs.
A vehicle fleet operated by safe drivers is also good advertising for your company. A business that prioritizes safety will enjoy greater trust from customers and potential customers who spot their vehicles on the road, contributing to an overall better public image and stronger market position.
Equip your fleet for safer driving
Fleet management solutions from Bell offer everything your business needs to promote driving behaviours that minimize risk on the road, including integrated fleet analytics platforms and AI-powered dashcams. Our professional services team can help you plan and deploy the best technologies for your fleet, drawing on strong partnerships with industry-leading vendors and more than 20 years of experience with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. Plus, when you choose Bell, you get the benefits of solutions running on Canada’s best national network for IoT – helping you get ahead and stay ahead.
We’ll continue to drive innovation in IoT and fleet management, making us the right partner today and for your long-term needs. See bell.ca/fleetmanagement for more details.