How to Improve Your Driver's Safety by Implementing Telematics Software

Implement Driver Monitoring Features

GPS tracking in real-time

It is now possible to track your drivers for deliveries or service appointments using real-time software that features innovative GPS tracking. Whether your driver delivers food, packages, or a service, customers are happier when the driver arrives on time.

From a business perspective, knowing that your drivers are meeting their appointment deadlines is crucial for keeping your company's day-to-day functions streamlined and ultimately profitable.

This software feature may also be integrated with customer-accessed platforms like delivery update emails, phone calls, or other contact methods. Being able to provide clients and customers with more accurate and precise delivery details means the potential for greater overall profits and increased client loyalty and satisfaction levels.

Integrate dash-cam footage with the driver behavioral analysis program

Businesses that employ drivers can now utilize specific advanced dash-cam features that are immediately integrated with a cutting-edge driver behavior analysis program. This feature gives fleet managers a much more comprehensive and swifter way to understand better what their drivers are doing at any given time.

This driver monitoring feature also gives managers specific driving-related details that expose certain driver habits that may be hindrances to safety and otherwise undesirable for the company.

Driver behavior scorecards explained

Some drivers may exhibit risky driving behavior such as regularly hard braking, forgetting or delayed turn signaling, speeding, accelerating too rapidly, not wearing seatbelts, etc.

This information allows fleet managers to identify potential driver issues to increase driver safety. The program can help fleet managers develop advanced and driver-customized training programs, allow management feedback in real-time, and provide data that can help develop opportunities for improvement shortly.

Utilize Real-Time Alerts

Telematics software can also enable your company to utilize ongoing, real-time alerts. These alerts can be updated for more detailed customer service responses, vehicle maintenance, lifetime monitoring alerts, alerts that sound in the cab when the driver has reached their safe driving limit, and more.

Based on data gathered by your unique program, these alerts are programable. For example, the fleet manager will immediately access these details when a driver runs behind due to a traffic-related or other problem causing a delay. This allows the manager to modify the driver route and delivery time and deliver updates to waiting customers almost instantly when desired.

Promote Safe Driving Practices

Ideally, the right telematics software will promote increased safe driving practices within your company's fleet of drivers. Since all businesses are different, this program should be customized to each company's needs.

Unsafe driver behaviors, like rapid acceleration and hard braking, have been shown to increase motor vehicle accidents and are generally hard on vehicles. A customized safe driving practice program can cut these risks substantially.

The program's features can include seatbelt usage tracking, traffic rule adherence by drivers, and speed limit monitoring with alerts. 

Implement Convenient Geofencing

Geofencing is another fantastic feature that can be used in your driver safety telematics software program to create virtual boundaries and alert the right department when the driver accesses these geographical boundaries.

Managers can program alerts when the drivers arrive and leave different work areas, drop-off locations, specific addresses, and more. This gives managers a real-time look at where the driver is and allows for modifications. These geofencing boundaries can be custom-designed to every shape and size, from a specific single address to certain bigger territories that may entail a portion or entire region, towns, and cities.

Geofencing features can also help prevent unauthorized use of your company vehicles, lower the chances of theft, and provide insurance companies with necessary company actions and data related to improving or ensuring driver safety standard compliance.

Integrate Driver Training Programs

A very helpful outcome of this driver safety software is that it allows management to develop customized types of training programs based on the data results shown. Some driver training measures include:

• Methods to track ongoing driver and vehicle data with driver behaviors
• Allows in-cab prompts and reinforces safe driving practices and training
• Easily accessible so every team member understands driver safety goals
• Can also promote rewards for good driving behaviors

The feature can even help encourage healthy and fun competitiveness for the best, safest drivers in the company fleet.

Provide in-cab feedback

With this program, fleet managers can provide drivers with in-cab feedback on their driving. 
Drivers can get in-cab feedback on their driving. Programmed alerts can help prompt drivers to make the right driving decisions and to follow the approved driver safety rules.

Having immediate access to feedback improves communication, encourages safe driving, and assists drivers when needed, reducing delays, accidents, and other problem scenarios.

Accident Reconstruction & Analysis

The company ultimately pays for accident expenses that fleet vehicles are involved in, which can be steep and may come with increased insurance rates and fines if the driver is found to be at fault.

To mitigate these costs, companies must prove that their driver acted safely or that other circumstances caused the accident. With this software, accident reconstruction and analysis data can be accessed swiftly. 

Possibilities with telematics software features include:

• Speed of vehicle at a specific time
• Impact force data monitoring
• Vehicle direction at a given time
• Can be used for accident analysis
• May help determine the fault
• Can be used to implement preventative actions

Ensure Regular Vehicle Maintenance

Companies can also be liable for accidents if their vehicles are improperly maintained regularly. Luckily, this software can include features that alert drivers and management that maintenance is due.

The feature can monitor data from different areas like fuel level, mileage used, temperature changes, etc., alerting the driver when it is time to fill it out.

This system can integrate with area maps showing nearby fuel stations for convenience, reducing fuel waste while looking for a suitable service plaza at the last minute.

The software can also alert the maintenance department, driver, and fleet manager for better vehicle maintenance oversight and management, which can be used for inspections, tire checks and changes, oil refills, and other maintenance tasks.

Some of this feature's highlights include:

• Engine diagnostics alerts
• Maintenance reminders
• Overall health and lifetime of vehicle monitoring
• Data to prevent mechanical-related failures
• Reduce accidents caused by neglected maintenance

Emergency Response Coordination

When an accident involving your driver and vehicle does occur, you need fast and reliable emergency response coordination. This feature can be added to a driver's safety software program to alert the driver, company fleet management, and local emergency response teams.

This helps to ensure that the driver gets the necessary assistance promptly. In addition, the feature can automatically be programmed to initiate specific accident reports, accident analysis data, and other helpful prompts that will be needed later for insurance, internal investigations, and/or court-related procedures.

Driver Fatigue Monitoring

Driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of accidents involving fleet vehicles. Consequently,  some strict rules and laws govern how long a driver can be on the road before a specific timed break. 

Paper book logs can be easily falsified; therefore, switching to online digital logs is a better option. This method can help curb driver fatigue scenarios and make it challenging to alter drive time data.

Driver fatigue monitoring features can include:

• Number of service hours tracked
• Fatigue detection technologies
• Analysis of driving patterns

Privacy & Communication

Management needs to provide ample information addressing driver concerns over their privacy before implementing this type of software because drivers may have concerns about who will have access to the technological data.

Companies need to relay the benefits to the drivers with these systems. These include faster access to emergency assistance during an accident, less time spent in traffic due to better route planning, better communication between the driver, management, and clients, improved vehicle maintenance, and better track of employee driver hours logged.

This software can be shut down when the driver can legally operate their vehicle as a private mode of transport, which is often the case for truck drivers and others who may lease or own their vehicles.

Scalability & Adaptability

An advantage of driver telematics software is its ability to adapt the features and various controls to suit each company's unique requirements. It integrates with various technologies that drivers are already familiar with, such as GPS features, digital roadmaps, and other technologies.

Find a telematics solution that can easily grow with your fleet, adapt to changing safety regulations, and accommodate new safety features. 

Continuous Improvement

Expected advances in new technologies assure that there will be continued improvement with various features and functions for telematic systems, such as those for driver safety monitoring and improvement.

Such a system can provide continuous improvement for fleets and others wanting to improve overall driver safety, streamline data, increase customer satisfaction, and make vehicle maintenance processes easier to manage.

Driver safety telematics software can also help with regular system reviews,  analyses of selected safety metrics, and the implementation of ongoing and evolving best practices to continually enhance driver safety

Conclusion

Many things can contribute to motor vehicle accidents, including fatigue, unsafe driving behaviors, poor vehicle maintenance, etc., and many companies with fleet drivers are minimizing their potential accident risks on the road by improving driver safety using telematics software.

Telematics software programs can help improve overall driver safety, promote safety culture among fleet drivers, and reduce vehicle maintenance neglect incidents. The software enhances current dash-cam monitoring and GPS capabilities, streamlines and coordinates fleet management activities, provides cost-effective feature options and can lower the risk of accidents.

Fleet managers and other decision-making parties can access the full potential of this technology to develop better driver safety and training methods that are proactive. Ultimately, this technology leads to a more cost-effective, streamlined, and safer fleet driver operation.

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