Prime Inc., one of North America’s largest refrigerated, flatbed and tanker carriers, says it has achieved an 85 percent decrease rate in run-off-road and rollover accidents since deploying the Lane Departure Warning system from Iteris, a provider of vision-based technologies and intelligent transportation systems designed to optimize traffic flow and enhance driver safety. Prime also says it will recognize a positive return on its investment in just over 11 months.
Prime, based in Springfield, Mo., began upgrading the safety of its national fleet of more than 2,700 leased and company-owned trucks with Iteris’ LDW technology in early 2006. During that year, trucks not equipped with Iteris’ LDW systems traveled 328 million miles and had a combined run-off-road and rollover accident rate of 0.19 per million, or one every 5.3 million miles traveled.
At the end of 2006, Prime equipped 515 trucks with Iteris’ LDW systems. These trucks traveled 33.3 million miles and experienced a run-off-road and rollover crash rate of 0.03 per million, or one in 33.3 million miles traveled. This represents a decrease of 85 percent, a significant number considering the substantial costs associated with heavy truck crashes.
In 2006, Prime’s total cost for run-off-road and rollover accidents for trucks not equipped with LDW was more than $3 million. For the 515 trucks currently equipped with Iteris’ LDW system, Prime estimates it will save about $551,000 on an annualized basis on these types of accidents. When compared to the cost of equipping these trucks with LDW, Prime will recognize a positive return on its investment in just over 11 months.
“The initial investment Prime has made to install Iteris’ Lane Departure Warning systems in our fleet of trucks has really paid off,” says Robert Low, founder and president of Prime Inc. “In less than a year, we have seen a dramatic reduction in run-off-road and rollover accidents on the trucks we equipped with the technology, which has saved the company a considerable amount of money. We’re anxious to get all of our trucks equipped as soon as possible, so we can reduce our accident rate even further.”
“Our goal is to assist truck fleets in achieving a significant return on its safety investment through the deployment of our LDW technology, and Prime is an excellent example of how effective our system can be,” says Bill Patrolia, director of North American truck sales for Anaheim, Calif.-based Iteris. “Prime was one of the first large fleets to make our LDW technology standard. They were sold on the potential of LDW to save lives, make our highways safer and provide a positive financial return. We are thrilled that Prime has had such great success in its first year of deployment and believe we can assist more fleets in achieving these benefits.”
Prime becomes the third major fleet in the last year to report a significant reduction in LDW-related accidents since deploying Iteris’ LDW technology in its trucks. The three fleets combined have reported more than 256 million miles traveled with LDW and a combined LDW-related accident reduction of 82 percent.
Iteris has sold more than 30,000 LDW systems to the heavy truck market worldwide, representing an estimated 3 billion miles traveled per year. In the United States, there are currently 40 fleets specifying Iteris’ LDW system with a combined fleet size of nearly 20,000 trucks, and another 69 fleets with about 144,000 trucks conducting field tests.
