Teletrac Navman reports fleets deploy technology to protect drivers

In today’s transportation industry, where fleets must defend against nuclear verdicts and fraudulent accidents, Teletrac Navman recently found that 84% of fleets are deploying safety technology to help exonerate their drivers. The company released their report, “Mobilizing the Future of Fleets: 026 Risk and Exoneration Edition” exploring what technology fleets are employing to protect their employees and assets, the impact of this technology, and why they’re using them.

“The role of telematics is evolving and taking on a more strategic purpose in fleet organizations, moving solely from a tool used for cost control and improvements, to an extremely powerful, proactive risk prevention and management solution,” said Alain Samaha, chief executive officer, Teletrac Navman. “A high percentage of fleet safety incidents are caused by third parties and other external factors, and video telematics is now the most powerful tool to provide irrefutable, contextual evidence that protects people, preserves reputations, and stabilizes margins.”

Why fleets deploy technology

In their report, Teletrac Navman found that 34% of fleets were impacted by fraudulent motor claims, while 77% agreed that increasing litigation and legal costs, especially from collisions, are concerning to the industry.

However, rising litigation costs aren’t the only reason fleets are deploying safety technology. Three out of four respondents said they were adopting safety technology to manage insurance costs. Meanwhile, just under three-quarters of respondents said they were deploying technology for driver safety and 67% said they were doing so for driver well-being.

What they’re deploying

To protect their drivers and assets, Teletrac Navman found that most fleets (84%) were using telematics technologies, while 44% were using advanced driver behavior systems to monitor, coach, and reward drivers for safer habits.

But over half were using multiple technologies at once (five or more), and three out of four were pairing telematics with dashcams for adding context surrounding accidents.

On an individual technology basis, the top safety technologies fleets were deploying included:

• 58% - Forward & driver facing dashcam
• 44% - Driver behavior monitoring
• 39% - Basic GPS tracking
• 31% - Forward-facing dashcam

While the report noted that integrating these technologies could still be a challenge, 87% of drivers responded positively after technology, such as dashcams and behavior monitoring systems, were deployed.

All the same, 65% of fleets reported that they had privacy and monitoring concerns regarding this technology, while 43% worried about budget constraints, and 31% were concerned about integrating these systems with their existing ones.

How effective this technology is

Despite these concerns, 85% of their fleet respondents told Teletrac Navman that their safety technology had allowed them to counter a general rise in insurance premiums. In fact, 65% noted that they’d decreased their premiums after implementing tis technology, with 35% of fleets reducing their premiums by over 10%, and a quarter of fleets reducing their payments by 10-20%.

Fleets also reported that this technology was helping them increase the speed of insurance administrative tasks, with 70% of fleets saying cameras and telematics data reduced the time it took to process accident claims.

Going forward, Teletrac Navman found that three-quarters of their respondents planned to purchase more safety technology over the next year, with around 40% of respondents planning to invest in vehicle inspections and maintenance software, proactive driver training and coaching, and fatigue management solutions each. One-third of fleets also said they would invest in dashcam and video telematics solutions, and 32% said they would look in to proximity sensors and alarms.