Whose Responsibility Is It?

Last Friday afternoon I was reading The Age online and was confronted by this article about 3 fatal accidents on Victorian roads that all involved Trucks.

The deadly crash was one of three on Victorian roads in less than 24 hours involved trucks, sparking concerns over truck driver distraction and increasing pressure for improvements to be made to crash black spots.

The article was very distressing and the followup articles determined that atleast one of the Truck drivers was at fault.

This article isn't about laying blame at our roads, those who govern them nor trucks and the companies that operate them. But having spent 5 years selling and marketing Telematics systems within a large Fleet organisation and now directly with Geotab, it is quite confronting that:

1. Many employers don't see or admit to the risks their drivers face on the road. Even when they do, it is mainly the larger vehicles that employ Telematics and fatigue management and in some cases only because regulations require them to.
2. Biggest barriers to implementing Telematics (or similar) technology is still ROI and this perception of invading the Driver's privacy.
3. Even when the technology is purchased a very "simple system" with mapping and speed is what many companies first ask for. Monitoring driving behaviour or making improvements is generally secondary.
4. When it comes to ROI, managing the risk of accident or injury to drivers and others counts doesn't carry the weight I would have expected.

I visited and spoke with several customers last week all running mid-sized trucks and looking at Telematics services for their fleets. One of the businesses reported to having on average one accident (didn't disclose the degree) per month from their 20 vehicles. He was concerned about what was going on out on the road but had been looking at vehicle monitoring solutions on and off over several years and had done nothing about it.

Another business had a driver they suspected wasn't sleeping well at night (due to personal reasons) and feared he might be napping during the day as well as driving whilst fatigued. They wanted the equipment in ASAP (price not being an issue).

When I read about the fatal accidents I sat there wondering what "real" difference could Telematics technology have made to assist drivers avoid these incidents. I also thought about what the Telematics device in my vehicle had done to my driving behaviour. Had it really changed me over the past 2 years?

In over 20 years of having a Victorian Drivers License this is the first job that has required me to undertake a reasonable amount of driving. For me 15,000 KMs is a lot of travel (I understand that it might not compare with Truck drivers who are on the road 6+ hours per day). My Geotab GO7 device has an inbuilt buzzer which goes off when I go over the speed limit (by a certain amount of Kms) or if a take corners roughly or hit the brakes too hard too suddenly. Might sound annoying but it is a welcome reminder that I am making errors, that I otherwise would ignore unless pulled over by the Police or received a notice in the mail. It doesn't mean that I have stopped speeding, but once the buzzer goes off the first time I become a lot more aware of my speed for the remainder of the trip.

Telematics systems offer more advanced coaching than this though. Rather than just buzzing, audio alert systems can actually talk to the driver, telling them what they are doing eg speeding in a 60km zone. Cameras can also be used to record and coach drivers into better practices. There are systems that will also do the analysis and score drivers against their peers. There are many options out there.

Mobileye is a system that has been in the press lately and started its life as a collision avoidance system. The beauty of this system compared to just Telematics tracking is that it will warn you if you are speeding but most importantly it checks the distance between your vehicle and the one ahead, advising you when you are getting too close and will not be able to stop in time. Integrated into a Telematics system, employers also have an opportunity to see what is actually going on. This technology costs around $1200 to purchase and install. A bit more than a Telematics system but when you consider the excess on an accident claim, it would pay for itself really quickly.

These systems are really not that expensive when you compare them to the cost of a mobile phone. Many employers don't blink when upgrading staff to a new iPhone worth $500+. We have come to accept that mobile phones (and the regular upgrades) are just a cost of being in business. Yet spending $300 on a Telematics device that is fitted to your fleet and can generate real savings but also reduce risk of accident needs an ROI.

Maybe I have gotten this all wrong and there really aren't that many road accidents these days. According to stats from the TAC and VicRoads in 2016 we had 262 road related deaths in Victoria. We also had 837 accidents that resulted in hospitalisation that occurred during standard work hours. In 2015 (2016 was not available) there were 41 people killed in crashes involving a heavy vehicle.

One company I spoke to earlier this year asked me if they were more at risk if they did nothing or if they implemented a Telematics system and then didn't invest in reviewing their driver's behaviour? My answer was the difference was probably a couple of years extra jail time for the Directors.