How Fleet Cameras and GPS Keep Your Business on Track
What does a fleet camera and GPS system do for a company?
Fleet cameras and GPS systems are like PPE for the vehicle! They help protect your company, supervising your employee – drivers when you cannot be with them. Implementing a GPS system and/or cameras in the company vehicles is a meaningful investment in the safety of your company, your drivers, and the public. Cameras and GPS systems that monitor drivers’ behavior have been proven to help drivers change their behavior - for the better when they know someone is watching (the company with this technology). This technology provides a way to hold drivers accountable if they drive carelessly – before it results in costly consequences.
What's the most common bad driving habit these systems catch?
GPS systems will alert you if a driver is speeding, braking hard, turning hard, accelerating rapidly, and/or not wearing seatbelts. The idea is not to have a gotcha moment but to learn if there is someone habitually driving unsafely.
For example, speeding is a habit that is very often an unconscious habit that the driver may not even realize, or realizes but does not recognize is dangerous. Speeding is one of the leading causes of motor vehicle crashes resulting in fatalities, so it is indeed dangerous! Regularly, breaking hard signals that the driver is tailgating or following too closely. Rear-end impacts are the most common form of preventable accident, and 99.9% will be considered at fault for the driver who was following too closely, no matter how the driver in front may have contributed. Having a system that warns you that one of your drivers is doing this regularly can help you provide them feedback to change their behavior before it results in a rear-end collision.
Cameras also monitor these behaviors but have the added benefit of helping you know if your driver is driving distracted or worse, driving while texting. Texting is anything with the phone that takes your hands, eyes, and mind off the task of driving. Distractions like eating, drinking, and reaching for items in the vehicle cause around 10% of collisions, but texting while driving often results in much more severe collisions because the driver is so consumed with the phone and fails to brake or react appropriately to dangerous conditions.
Can good driving data lower a company's insurance premium (and how)?
Most people ask if implementing a GPS/camera system will result in a premium reduction. The short answer is not immediately. There is no set % discount for adding these safety devices to your fleet. However, safer driving results from the gps/camera systems, results in fewer claims, which will result in lower premiums. It takes time, and it takes a bit of a track history to show the insurance carriers that you are not just installing the gps/cameras but that you are using them to hold drivers accountable, to remove driving privileges, or to retrain them when needed.
Since there is no discount for installing the systems, what do you think motivates companies to implement the cameras the most?
Something I have seen a few times recently is companies implementing GPS/cameras after they have a “he said, she said type” of collision where they believe their driver who is telling them they are not at fault, but because they have no camera, they were unable to prove it. Sometimes companies are reluctant to put in cameras because they worry that footage will be used against them, and that is possible. However, on the flip side, these cameras help resolve things quickly either way, and resolving claims quickly always makes them less expensive.
What is something every fleet owner should know about adding the gps/camera system to their fleet?
The main thing I would want owners to know is that the cameras/GPS system alone is not a silver bullet. Your company still needs to select good drivers (a.k.a. check driving records prior to giving an employee keys to the company vehicles or permission to drive personal autos on behalf of the company) and provide some driver training. The cameras and GPS system are an awesome enhancement and help to supervise the drivers by telling management who is driving safely and who is not. However, it is still up to management to make sure that data is being used to hold drivers accountable and provide corrective counseling or retraining if needed.
In addition, if you are adding this technology to your company vehicles, it is time to update your fleet safety manual to advise your employees in writing about how they will be used and the consequences of not driving safely based on the data from the devices.
Finally, over the years, I have heard business owners’ / fleet managers worry that adding these cameras is going to make them lose their good employees. I would reassure them that as these systems are becoming increasingly common – I am seeing many companies install them, and it is not happening. Good employees are not leaving because you are making a business decision to invest in safety that will help them drive better, which benefits everyone.
Please reach out if you would like any help with finding and/or implementing a GPS or camera system for your fleet, or if you need any help providing driver training and updating fleet policies related to this technology.
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