There’s no denying that accident detection saves lives. With technology now equipping vehicles to send distress alerts, call ambulances, and immediately report vehicle incidents, it’s no surprise that response times are getting better.
Many fleet tracking solutions companies claim to have impeccable accident detection technology. They can send alerts to operations units, cell phones, and authorities. They’ll track, to the minute, the time and nature of the accident.
At GFI, we’re not satisfied with impeccable accident detection. Detecting an accident is too late. Why just detect something when you could have prevented it in the first place?
Here are 3 ways that our fleet tracking solution helps prevent driving infractions, incidents, and accidents.
Road Speed Detection
Our fleet tracking modems use two methods to determine the appropriate speed that a driver should be moving at. The first method is using posted speed limits in urban centres. The second is that the modem can read surfaces to determine whether the driver is on a paved or gravel roadway, and determine the appropriate speed based on that information.
This feature is particularly useful for fleets that work in rural areas, including oilfield and transport companies. This feature is also not available in all fleet solution systems. GFI is proud to include it in ours.
This means that your driving history on Latitude is accurate at all times, ensuring your driver is following the posted speed limits, and speed limits appropriate for the conditions. This data can be used to monitor driver performance. By monitoring your drivers ability to stay at or below the posted speed limits, you can eliminate vehicle speeding infractions.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety revealed a study that found increases in driver speed directly correlated to a rise in fatalities in motor vehicle accidents. By eliminating speeding, you can greatly reduce the risks of both fatal and non fatal accidents.
Driving Habit Detection
In the same way that monitoring appropriate driving speeds helps eliminate the risk of driver accidents, so does monitoring driving habits such as hard accelerations, decelerations, and sharp turns/corners.
A driver who demonstrates consistent aggressive driving habits, such as hard braking, can be trained and corrected to reduce the risks associated with those behaviours. Hard brakes can indicate drivers following too closely to other vehicles, not paying attention to their surroundings, or not driving appropriately for the conditions of the road.
This kind of preemptive detection can help identify areas and times when traffic becomes heavier, more erratic, and more likely to result in an incident or accident. Knowing these details can result in driver behaviour modification that will sculpt your drivers into a road aware, defensive driving, safety minded fleet.
In-Cab Buzzer
Safe driving begins at the source: the driver behind the wheel.
While it is important for your operations team and dispatchers to know about the safety concerns of drivers in their fleet, it is more important for drivers to know about the safety concerns in their own behaviours and habits.
By supplying an in-cab alert system, manifested by a buzzer that sounds when the vehicle is over speed limits or detects aggressive driving, the driver is made aware of areas of concern.
In rural areas where speed limits aren’t posted, a driver may not be aware of the legal speed limit. If they exceed the limit determined for the road type, the buzzer can let them know where they need to be.
Most drivers know when they decelerate too quickly, or take a corner too sharply. The vehicle typically informs them in the way it handles. However, a buzzer can also make them aware of how frequently they may be making these errors, and encourage them to proceed with more caution in the future.
Accidents on the road can’t be eliminated entirely. Whenever other drivers are present there is always a risk that someone, even if it’s not your driver, will make a mistake that results in a collision or incident. However, you can ensure that your fleet is engaging in driving habits that prevent, or eliminate, your driver from causing them.
If you’re not sure how to reduce the infractions, incidents, and accidents in your fleet, we can help. Click to request a free, no obligation, two week demo to start catching the habits that are contributing to your fleet safety concerns, and start driving safer.