Trimble adds driver fatigue monitoring to Safety Analytics dashboard

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Updated Oct 31, 2018
PeopleNet’s Safety Analytics dashboard segments drivers into green, yellow and red profiles of risk.PeopleNet’s Safety Analytics dashboard segments drivers into green, yellow and red profiles of risk.

Trimble is adding a driver fatigue monitoring and risk management assessment to its Safety Analytics dashboard that aggregates driver data across an entire fleet to highlight drivers in need of coaching.

The new fatigue assessment was developed by Pulsar Informatics. It shows how fatigue is directly affecting individual driver behavior, and provides information about driver fatigue levels as well as historical data for coaching drivers to prevent potential fatigue risks.

Pulsar’s data show that five percent of drivers in a fleet have moderate levels of fatigue, and one percent have severe levels at any given time. Fatigued driving elevates crash risks between two and five times.

Driver fatigue is among the top causes of large truck crashes. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) estimates that driver fatigue may be an associated factor in 13 percent of accidents involving a commercial truck.

While trucking companies carry insurance coverage, if a fatigued driver causes an accident in the course of employment, the carrier can be held responsible, according to the announcement from Trimble. Similarly, carriers may also be held accountable if a fatigued driver does not follow federal regulations on rest breaks, it says.

“Driver fatigue is a top concern for fleets and by collaborating with Pulsar to integrate fatigue monitoring into our Safety Analytics dashboard, carriers will receive data to help improve driver coaching and potentially protect fleets from liability,” said Jim Angel, vice president of Video Intelligence Solutions for Trimble Transportation Mobility.

“Our Safety Analytics dashboard is designed to make risk management decisions easier for fleets by sampling data that’s already being collected and is not intrusive to drivers,” he added.

With the integration of Pulsar’s Trucking Fatigue Meter technology, the dashboard will use Hours of Service (HOS) and Trimble’s Onboard Event Recording (OER) data to identify driver sleep and fatigue risk patterns that lead to degraded performance.

Pulsar’s fatigue monitoring methods were developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Navy, U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association, NASA, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Defense and other prominent government organizations.

Pulsar has commercial products serving the aviation, petrochemical, and trucking industries; all mission critical and safety centric workplaces.

“Pulsar Informatics is excited to combine our deep expertise in fatigue risk management with Trimble’s unmatched knowledge of the transportation industry,” said Daniel Mollicone, PhD, CEO Pulsar Informatics. “Together, we can provide fleets with a unique solution to help managers identify and mitigate risks that can protect drivers and carriers while also improving safety on the road for everyone.”

The collaboration between Trimble and Pulsar Informatics was announced during the 2018 American Trucking Associations (ATA) Management Conference & Exhibition in Austin, Texas.