Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/339482
24 | Overdrive | July 2014 video witnesses directly prior to the incident and the four seconds following. Connected to the cellular network, they upload the clip for review by DriveCam staff. If something in the video rises to what Melton and DriveCam have determined is a coachable event, it's sent to Melton. As many as nine of 10 saved clips she receives, says Buchanan, "show that the driver was doing everything right." If someone spots something the driver might not have been aware of, the driver is notified. "They might not realize it from a habit perspec- tive," she says. Buchanan offers the example of a hard-braking and evasive-maneu- ver event that shows a driver not maintaining an adequate following distance. Once the eight seconds leading up to it on video are re- viewed, "the driver then never has a hard-brake event again. You know he's increased his following distance." The SmartDrive system operates similarly to DriveCam's, but the most common setup records 10 seconds prior to and 10 seconds after any triggered event, says representative Adam Kahn. The unit's control box typically is mounted "discretely under the dash," he adds, with the road-facing camera near the center top of the windshield. Depending on the fleet, the driver-facing camera may be mounted with the road-fac- ing one or detached and placed elsewhere. Food and retail-products wholesaler and distributor Bozzuto's Inc., based in Connecticut, installed the Smart- Drive system throughout its fleet in 2011. The hope was to correct driver errors that led to moving violations, hurting the fleet's Unsafe Driving Be- THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST Soaked in our proprietary 9-cleaning-agent formula, these extra large 10" x 12" wipes are built to withstand vigorous scrubbing and your toughest messes. BIGGER. STRONGER. Knocks out dried paint, grease, tar, ink, food and drink spills, scuff marks, dirt, and other tough messes. TOUGHER. TOUGHEST WIPES ©2014 Federal Process Corporation. All rights reserved. tubotowels.com Look for Tub O' Towels ® at leading retailers, including: Untitled-7 1 6/3/14 10:19 AM SmartDrive's Adam Kahn notes a lack of utility for an independent own- er-operator's use of a dual-camera system. "They are using dash cams for personal protection and exoneration" in the event of an accident, he says. But with 10- to 20-truck fleets running direct customer freight, a video-based driver improvement tool such as SmartDrive starts to make more sense, Kahn says. "Your shippers overall are becoming more cognizant of CSA scores and the risk/liability of contracting with a car- rier that may have an above-threshold score," marked by a golden triangle in a Compliance, Safety, Accountability category of measurement. Use of a video-based system, Kahn says, can be a way to improve safety scores or, at the least, show the ship- per some active involvement in safety improvement. Del Lisk, with Lytx's DriveCam op- eration, notes that given the growing ease of wireless transmission of the large amounts of data that make up video events, utility of such systems, even for independents, could well increase. "So much of the online automation is becoming more practical for a smaller fleet," Lisk says. The Drive- Cam review of small-fleet videos may result in sharing only safety-critical coachable events that rise to high severity level. Since the company owner often is wearing many hats, the information presented for review "needs to be really slimmed down," Lisk says. "It's like if I had 15 minutes to put attention to something today, where should I put it?" Lisk and Kahn believe costs are rea- sonable for smaller fleets. DriveCam's consumer product is available for a $50 monthly service charge, Lisk says: "Even the best owner-operator can become a better driver. In that applica- tion, [video would] be a self-coaching tool. If they have a close call, they can then go online and learn from it." Independents stand to benefIt less Video_Cameras.indd 24 6/26/14 9:54 PM