Despite some initial (and understandable) reticence on the part of fleet owners and managers, there is now a growing consensus among commercial fleet operators that adding in cab cameras is an essential part of their overall fleet safety strategy. But “in cab cameras,” often referred to as “dash cams,” can mean a variety of different things. For example, there are road-facing and driver-facing cab cams, and some providers offer multiple camera options to provide views behind or on the sides of larger trucks and fleet vehicles.
According to an article called “The Growing Benefits of Video Telematics” in Fleet Equipment magazine, the most significant source of ROI from installing a driver cam system is exoneration from wrongdoing in legal cases. One company that started capturing in cab video in their fleet vehicles, the article notes, reported that the savings on litigation from one collision offset the cost of the service for the entire fleet for one year.
But there are other benefits as well for fleets that choose to install driver cameras. For one thing, in cab cameras can be useful in keeping trusted drivers in their seats, as costly accidents can be grounds for termination for commercial vehicle drivers. Driver cameras are also extremely useful as a coaching and training tool. Many times even veteran drivers aren’t aware of some of their own bad habits, which can be ingrained over years and years of driving. But some of these bad habits, such a hard braking or cornering, unnecessary acceleration and using mobile devices while driving, can lead to serious accidents. 80% of all collisions in the U.S. are caused by distracted driving.
Camera systems allow fleet managers to review driving events and evaluate driver performance, and also review with employees to train them on best practices and company safety standards. For some customers, ROI will be achieved over a longer term, with a reduction in “incidents” and/or violations that leads to better safety results fleet-wide, lowered insurance premiums, lower fleet maintenance costs, etc. But there’s no doubt that more and more fleets across the country are seeing a dramatic difference in their company-wide safety performance and awareness after in cab cameras are installed.
InSight offers multiple vehicle driver camera options with its LiveCam solution, which you can read more about here.