Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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TECHNOLOGY: DRIVER TRAINING The days of 'one-sizefits-all' training are over. – Don Osterberg, senior vice president of safety and security, Schneider National and cab-facing video and vehicle operating data. The only footage that makes it out of the truck is short clips when risky driving events occur. The clips show what happened before, during and after an event such as a sudden lane change, a rapid acceleration or deceleration or rolling through a stop sign. SmartDrive and Lytz upload the video clips and data surrounding risky events from the onboard device to cloud-based servers through cellular networks. Before the next business day, the events are reviewed by behavior analysts who score events according to individual fleet policies. Any contributing factors or non-safe behaviors – such as distraction, fatigue or not using a seatbelt – are noted. Fleets then manage the events using robust online portals. "If we see an incident that is unsafe, we contact the driver and tell him what we've seen," says Edwards. "Depending on the severity, we will bring him in and go over the action, put an action plan in place and reprimand. We may even disqualify them from driving." SmartDrive recently added alerts and data from third-party active vehicle safety systems such as Meritor Wabco, Bendix and Mobileye. High-risk events are separated from low-risk events and combined with onboard video, audio and vehicle data to provide a unified view for driver coaching. Lytz's latest portal, version 3.0, has role-based user dashboards with customized key indicators, including a ranking of drivers according to their accident probability. Individual events also are ranked and displayed by severity in a "to do" list tied to a workflow that is designed to improve "coaching moments" with drivers. Lytz also has a mobile version of its portal for the iPad so that fleet managers can review video clips and coach drivers while outside the office. Drivers also can visit a website for in-cab coaching. DRIVER ACCEPTANCE One difficulty with implementing a video-based DRM system is acceptance from drivers who may view such in-cab devices as an invasion of privacy. "Some drivers don't like it," Edwards says. "They feel the truck is their house." Drivers are more receptive once they understand how the system works, but others may continue to have reservations. "Some have bad driving habits and don't want a camera," he says. Bozutto's – a Cheshire, Conn.-based wholesale distributor of food and household products to retailers in 13 New England and Mid-Atlantic states – is in its third year of using SmartDrive. To say the company's 280 drivers initially were reluctant about having an in-cab camera would be an understatement, says Tom Halpin, transportation safety manager. During the rollout, Bozutto's held a town hall-style meeting to try to ease drivers' concerns. "The initial rollout was a hostile environment," Halpin says. "Drivers didn't like it at all." Halpin remembers a much different meeting six months later; Bozutto's drivers were applauding the system for exonerating their peers from wrongdoing and the dramatic difference it had made to the company's safety record. Accidents were down, and Compliance Safety Accountability scores had improved. The company's Behavioral Analysis Safety Improvement Category (BASIC) score for Unsafe Driving had dropped from 27.1 to 7.8, accidents had fallen by 22 percent, and seatbelt and cell phone violations were down from 30 per year to zero. For the first time in recent history, the company's insurance carrier did not raise its rates. "We went from nonacceptance to 360-degree acceptance," Halpin says. "Now, our drivers would be hesitant to take it out." COMPUTER TRAINING On Nov. 3, 26 new drivers started a training program at Maverick Transportation (CCJ Top 250, no. 84). All had been hired with less than six months of driving experience. Similar groups have been coming to Little Rock, Ark., since August 2005, when Maverick began taking drivers straight from commercial driver's license schools. Most say the success rate of the training program is their top reason for choosing to launch a trucking career with the 1,200-truck fleet. SmartDrive's integration with third-party active safety systems captures additional data to better determine the difference between a high-risk and low-risk event. COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2013 47