FLEET TECHNOLOGY
Machine learning Cont.
Cameras in focus
For many businesses, fleet vehicles are among the most significant investments they will ever make. Safeguarding those assets – thus maximising ROI – is, clearly, a key consideration.
Trakm8’s RH600 Dashboard Camera is designed to help organisations best protect those fleet investment. The most advanced 4G telematics camera available globally, the RH600 represents a big step forward in vehicle camera technology for drivers and fleet managers alike. For example, the camera has been adopted by some of the most recognisable names in UK business. In shoring-up fleet safeties and efficiencies he RH600 has been proven to decrease accident rates by up to 39%; reduce insurance claims by up to 50% and decrease speeding incidents by up to 35%. What’s more, the company claims that, by using the RH600, fleets can improve fuel economy by up to 10%.
The RH600 is built on the rich data collected by Trakm8’s intelligent telematics devices, with a cutting-edge in-cab camera provision. This blend of insight and hardware makes RH600 an advanced, but cost-effective solution for the fleet industry.
Trackm8 says one of the key strengths of the RH600 is its versatility. Usable as a traditional dash cam, there’s a dual-camera function, which provides a 280° field of view, delivering valuable peace of mind and making the gathering of post-collision evidence easier than ever before. What’s more, the ultra-HD cameras provided ‘crystal clear footage’ from the driver’s perspective; a valuable tool through which to mitigate claims of poor or distracted driving.
Trakm8-RH600
Meanwhile, Trakm8 has also recently launched the ACC750, which combines a dynamic driver identification and feedback solution with the business’s wider telematics regimen.
Using the ACC750’s driver feedback display improves driver behaviour and minimises fuel inefficient driving habits, such as heavy-footed braking and revving. By rewarding better driver habits, the system allows fleets to proactively reduce fuel consumption by both providing real time feedback and tracking specific behaviour trends.
Tech back control
Today’s clients demand technology with greater control and transparency and rightly so, because every customer can enjoy the benefits of the latest retail, banking and booking sites for everything from a holiday to a tee-time. But are the same advantages being replicated in a typical B2B scenario?
Technology is at the core of vehicle movement specialist Engineius’ offering – and it is what differentiates it from the other players in the sector. Customers are offered an on-demand service that allows them to book jobs directly and replicates the online retail experience they know and love. Similarly, there is no minimum usage requirement, no licence fee and the whole customer journey is managed by Engineius.
“Our customers want to be in control. They enjoy the ability to select and book their vehicle movement in the same way they are accustomed to for their retail purchases,” says Tris Benson, commercial director of Engineius. “They expect vehicle photography and then, they want to be able to track the delivery.
“Our tech provides this transparency, delivers cost savings and the additional benefits commonly realised through outsourcing, whilst most importantly allowing them to retain confidence and control over their vehicle movements.”
Tris Benson, commercial director, Engineius
The use of the mobile phone is now commonplace, so integrated mobile phone technology allows Engineius to liaise with customers via text saving time and money. Customers can specify criteria for advance text alerts. This use of technology makes for a better experience for the fleet client, the driver and the end recipient.
On completion of a vehicle movement, customers receive text messages requesting feedback via a short survey, as do the drivers, creating ‘360°’ feedback, prompting continuous dialogue between Engineius and customers keeping them at the helm in designing and improving operations.
“Customers are empowered with Engineius’ tech, our tech enables us to provide the fleet client with an unparalleled level of transparency throughout the process”
“Customers are empowered with Engineius’ tech, our tech enables us to provide the fleet client with an unparalleled level of transparency throughout the process”
Keep a tab on your EV fleet
Geotab says its Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA) tool is powered by the largest dataset for real-world Electric Vehicle (EV) performance. Specifically, it uses telematics data to understand a fleet’s specific needs and makes considered recommendations for fleet operators considering a transition to zero emission vehicles.
With the ability to measure real-world EV performance metrics against existing fleet vehicles, the EVSA can uncover potential real-world financial savings and environmental benefits to help fleets electrify with confidence.
By analysing your fleet’s unique driving profiles and patterns, the tool is able to identify the vehicles in a fleet that are most suitable for EV replacement. That process includes providing personalised recommendations, down to the make and model of the vehicles in question. Not only that, but it can take into consideration local availability, EV performance in extreme weather conditions and financial costs related to procuring the vehicles themselves.
By using the tool, three key questions can be answered:
Which vehicles can be transitioned?
Does it make economic sense to go electric?
What are the environmental benefits of electrification?
Transitioning to electric vehicles is not the only way to reduce a fleet's carbon emissions, of course. There are many best practices, powered by data-driven insights, that are delivered through the EVSA tool, that fleet managers can use to make their entire fleet more sustainable. Fleet right-sizing, route optimisation and idling time reduction provide some of the biggest opportunities to reduce carbon emissions from fleet operations, while also reducing costs.
Geotab recently conducted a research study to better understand how compelling the ‘switch to electric’ can be for fleets. Using a de-identified dataset of driving patterns for 46,000 connected ICE vehicles across 17 European countries, the company found compelling evidence around the return on investment (ROI) and the positive sustainability impact of switching to EVs today.
A safety first
More than 90% of collisions involve human error, but one single error stands out from the rest: distracted driving. In 2019, the UK saw more than 2,500 road traffic accidents where ‘distraction inside vehicle’ was cited as the contributory factor. Shockingly, 65 of these accidents were fatal.
Commercial drivers, who receive training and are generally safer drivers, are still more at risk because they operate larger vehicles and tend to drive more miles and hours. However, unlike passenger cars, there is technology available today in the fleet segment that alerts drivers by accurately detecting risky driver behaviour and dangerous road scenarios that engender collisions. Unlike the dashcam and first generation safety AI solutions, only certain sophisticated predictive-AI safety tech has the ability to fuse internal and external risks and provide enough advanced warning time to help reduce collisions. For fleet owners, this is a path to mitigate bad news before, not after, an incident occurs.
One such solution, Nauto, can trigger alerts in real-time to help drivers avoid more than half of collisions and self-coach to reduce the frequency of risky behaviours that lead to collisions by 80%. It is designed to detect more collision scenarios and high-risk activities - like drowsiness - with up to 99% accuracy to give drivers as much as several seconds of critical extra time to help prevent collisions and save lives.
Fleet drivers are finding automatic performance improvement within weeks of deployment. The system acts like a trusted co-pilot by analysing the surroundings and understanding the driving context and fuses all these elements together in real time. Nauto is designed to give the driver a clear, real-time warning to discern whether the situation is heading in a troublesome direction or if there is the likelihood of an imminent collision over the next few seconds. All this can be done without the privacy intrusion of video cameras required for older telematics and supervisor coaching systems.
Loram Maintenance of Way, a road and rail maintenance specialist, has been using Nauto since 2018 as a solution to help eliminate distracted driving across its fleet. Since adopting Nauto, the company has seen a 79% reduction of at-fault accidents and a sizeable drop in tailgating and mobile phone usage.
