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September 23, 2022

Save money. Save lives. Video-based safety for every fleet.

Recap: First Solera Fleet Solutions webinar

According to the NHTSA, approximately 9,560 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the first quarter of 2022. That’s up about 7% from the first quarter of 2021 and represents the highest number of first-quarter fatalities since 2002. Additionally, both the 2018-2020 data and the 2021 data they released earlier this year indicate the percentage of fatalities attributable to crashes involving large trucks for those years ranges from 12% to 15%.

If all these numbers hold true, that means we’re looking at between 1,100 and 1,500 deaths due to large truck crashes in the first quarter of 2022 alone – despite the ongoing proliferation and improvement in both occupant protection and automotive safety technologies. And it’s not necessarily the truckers’ fault. Truck drivers are increasingly operating in a volatile environment where nearly every other driver on the road is becoming more and more distracted and/or aggressive.

The answer to reducing collision frequency and severity as well as mitigating overall liability seems simple: strong defensive driving practices in conjunction with other preventative internal measures. However, a comprehensive and effective safety program is no small feat. That’s where video-based safety comes in.

During our recent first webinar introducing Solera Fleet Solutions, we discussed how valuable video-based safety can be for fleets of every type and size. Jason Palmer, vice president, Global Product Operations and Strategy for Solera and previous COO of SmartDrive, covered how video-based safety can help protect your drivers and your bottom line. He highlighted four important features:
• Flexibility
• Real-time coaching
• Event-triggered video
• Managed service

Flexibility is important for more than customizing your video-based safety program to your fleet’s exact needs. It also makes the program scalable. Small fleets can start out with only a road-facing camera and on-demand video, then add things like multiple external and in-cab cameras, identification of high-risk driving, coaching programs, and custom rules.

Real-time in-cab alerts use AI to actively engage the driver and combat distractions, fatigued driving, and unsafe driving behaviors such as insufficient following distance, inappropriate speed, and hazardous lane changes in the moment. The footage can then be used in a personalized post-trip coaching session to help drivers further address and mitigate risk, as well as recognize commendable driving behaviors.

Event-triggered video empowers you to configure a program based on specific rules and policies. Instead of sorting through hours and hours of video footage and telematics data to find a specific event, the system prioritizes and captures only the events you deem important. This can be particularly useful in court cases, where having the specific video of that event can mitigate fault for or even exonerate your driver.

A managed service that includes manual review of your event video increases the efficacy of event-triggered video and real-time coaching by validating or identifying an exception to what computer vision and AI detects. Adding a managed service to computer vision helps answer big questions like, “Was my driver safe, or just lucky?” while also ensuring you eliminate false positives. Plus, the expert review team analyzes, scores, and prioritizes your videos without putting the burden on your in-house team.

Solera Fleet Solutions offers all these features and more in our video-based safety solution, SmartDrive. Our mission with SmartDrive is to reduce collision frequency and severity to save lives, save money, and protect your brand – no matter the size or type of your fleet. If you want to hear more from Jason about how SmartDrive accomplishes this mission, you can sign up to view this webinar on-demand. For more information about Solera Fleet Solutions please contact us here or speak with your sales representative.

Our next webinar in the series took place on September 21 and covered how to optimize asset and driver operations with intelligent trailer management. You can view that webinar on-demand here.

Register now for the next webinar in the series. We hope to see you there!