SmartDrive Systems, a provider of driving performance systems to reduce collisions and improve fuel efficiency, announced that Goggin Warehousing has equipped its entire fleet with SmartDrive. The company is using the system to help sharpen defensive driving skills and to create a protective environment for its drivers.
“With SmartDrive, we were able to quickly realize measurable improvements in safety. Vehicle data is useful but does not always clearly illustrate the entire picture. Our people are our number one priority, and our ultimate goal is to help them get our trucks and themselves from point A to point B in a safe and timely manner. The SmartDrive program is easy-to-use and has helped our management team understand what really happened while also recognizing positive areas of driving performance.”
The company reported that the initial 90-day deployment of the SmartDrive video and data-capture safety program resulted in dramatically lower occurrences of risky driving, including speeding, stopping violations, mobile phone usage and unfastened seatbelts. Results included a 45 percent overall improvement in driving skills, including a 65 percent drop in high risk events, as well as fuel savings of 2.2 percent.
“With SmartDrive we are also able to successfully exonerate drivers,” said Bellenfant. “We have already seen several examples in which a driver was exonerated due to the video footage and the vehicle data that was available through the system. It only takes one or two instances like that to have a positive impact throughout the company, reinforcing to the drivers the protection a program like SmartDrive provides.”
SmartDrive records video and vehicle information, detecting collisions and safety critical information that increase the risk profile of the fleet, including sudden stops, hard cornering, aggressive acceleration and excessive speed. The company applies predictive analytics from its database of over 70 million driving events, along with an expert review process that identifies other distraction risks such as cell-phone usage and drowsiness, to prioritize the areas for coaching that will help reduce collisions.
