Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/573961
8 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2015 M uch ink has been spilled regarding the tanking public perception numbers of law enforce- ment agencies in the year since the highly publicized death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Cell phone footage from several other high-profile incidents since that time only have added fuel to the fire. State and local police forces have been quick to adopt body cameras to capture first-person footage in the event a traffic stop or arrest escalates into violence. Taser, the nation's largest manufacturer of police body cameras, reported sales in its body camera divisions up 288 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to first-quarter 2014. Not surprisingly, law enforcement officers are widely accepting of the new technology in light of the public outrage against the officer involved in the Brown shoot- ing, who may have been exonerated quickly had he been wearing a body camera. In trucking, onboard video event record- ers aim to provide the same level of security and event documentation for fleets and drivers. But drivers haven't been as enthusi- astic as law enforcement. Just as the blow- back occurred from the company driver and owner-operator communities over the electronic logging device mandate, fleets often are hesitant to test the waters with a device that can be seen as yet another intrusion into a driver's life. Last February, I spoke with Tom Kretsinger, presi- dent of American Central Transport, just a week before the Liberty, Mo.-based carrier was set to announce the planned fleetwide installation of the Lytx DriveCam system by yearend. Naturally, he was a little leery about how the news would be received by ACT's 390 company drivers and independent contractors. A week after the rollout, we spoke again. After delivering a well-crafted message on the benefits of video event recorders to his company's drivers, Kretsinger reported the com- pany had successfully weathered the initial resistance. Now that the majority of ACT trucks are equipped with video event recorders, Kretsinger is encouraged by the amount of positive information drivers are sharing about the technology with their peers. "The debate that is going on is between them instead of me and them," he says. ACT provides free installation of event recorders for its 80 independent contractors and now offers them a 2-cents-per-mile pay increase if they have the systems in- stalled in their trucks. All company drivers also received the same pay increase. The results of ACT's event recorder program are stag- gering. In the first half of 2014, the company had 16 U.S. Department of Transportation-reportable accidents. In the first quarter of 2015, it had four ac- cidents, but since mid-February when it started installing video event recorders, ACT has had only one accident, and it was not the truck driver's fault. The company's Compliance Safety Ac- countability crash score has decreased from 70 to 12 this year. "Our folks feel that it has made a lot of difference," says Kretsinger. Given these results and similar experiences we've heard from other fleets that have adopted video event record- ers, it's just a matter of time before they become the norm, as companies look to better defend themselves and their drivers in the event of a non-fault accident where a jury otherwise might assume the trucking company was at fault. Equipment and installation costs for video event recorders are inexpensive, especially when you consider that just one device could save potentially millions of dollars in a favorable verdict in an injury-related acci- dent. But in an environment where fleets are fighting for drivers, how many are willing to test the waters for fear of running them off? As the success of ACT's program illustrates, it's worth potentially losing a few drivers if it nets you fleetwide safety performance benefits and a better defense in a plaintiff 's case. UPFRONT As video event recorder adoption rises, fleets try to sell safety message to drivers BY JEFF CRISSEY Here's looking at you JEFF CRISSEY is Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail jcrissey@ccjmagazine.com. How many are willing to test the waters?