May 18 2011

New Harsh Braking/Rapid Acceleration Reports

Category: Ease of use,Graphs,Identifying and eliminating speeding,New Features,New Features,Reporting,Reports,Safety — rdonat @ 9:44 pm

We have added a new report in beta to GPS Insight which details your drivers’ aggressive driving habits.

[ This report ONLY works with the GPS Insight 3900 and 4000, and if you are an existing customer, you will need to ask your salesperson or support to turn it on, as it requires a firmware upgrade to your devices, which we are happy to do remotely (over the air). ]

You run it here:

Run the new GPS Insight Acceleration Reports

Run the new GPS Insight Acceleration Reports

(Note there are both Acceleration and Acceleration Summary reports)

Here is the Summary Report, which helps you to identify your most aggressive accelerators (“gunner”) and decelerators (“braker”):

GPS Insight Acceleration Summary Report

GPS Insight Acceleration Summary Report

As always, you can sort by clicking on any of the blue column headings.  By clicking on one of the histogram graphs on the right you can compare the average acceleration/deceleration profile to a single vehicle:

GPS Insight Acceleration Histogram comparison

GPS Insight Acceleration Histogram comparison

And last, you can click through in the “Avg” columns to get detailed data about where the acceleration/deceleration took place:

GPS Insight Acceleration Detail Report

GPS Insight Acceleration Detail Report

Hovering your mouse over any address or location will then show you a map of that activity’s location.

In this case, I am accelerating very quickly to get onto the freeway from an on-ramp.

You can also (as always) export the locations to either a browser based map, Google Earth, or a spreadsheet, and scheduled the report to be sent to you automatically per your exact schedule.

With our GPSI-3900 and GPSI-4000 we will be adding more acceleration and deceleration capabilities, reports, and alerts, and will also support an accident “black box” functionality where if a significant G-force (e.g. accident) happens, we buffer and send the last 15 seconds of exact location/speed/acceleration/deceleration/direction information as well as the 15 seconds following the impact.  This should be available later in the year, but purchasing a GPSI-3900 or 4000 will ensure you have that capability when it becomes available.

Thanks,

Rob.

 

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Apr 15 2011

Do your drivers learn from their mistakes? Or keep making them?

Category: Fleet Tracking,Safety — rdonat @ 6:22 pm

I don’t drive a truck or service vehicle for a living, but I’m guessing my human nature isn’t much better or worse than most others…  To include your drivers, who have ample opportunity during the day to get distracted, try to do too much at once, and get into near-misses… Only to do the same thing shortly thereafter.

So what does this picture of me with way too much to carry (taken by my uncomprehending son when I asked him to take it with my phone) have to do with your drivers?

Me trying to carry too much at once

Me trying to carry too much at once

I was walking from my kitchen to my outdoor grill yesterday.  I had a can of ‘Pam’ under my arm, 2 pieces of fish in one hand, spice and a glass bottle of sea salt in my other hand.

I had to open the kid-proof pool door somehow rather than be smart and put something down.

What did I do?

Drop the glass full of sea salt onto the tile floor.

Almost a disaster, yes!

SOMEHOW, in a quarter second, I managed to kick it on its way down onto the carpet 2 feet away.

I averted disaster, or I would be sweeping up sea salt and glass for an hour (or in the case of your drivers doing too much at once, recovering from a crash).

What did I IMMEDIATELY DO AFTERWARD?

I picked the salt back up, put it in my hand with everything else, and stupidly opened the kid-proof door.

As I was doing it, I realized how ridiculously dumb that was, & how lucky I was 10 seconds prior not to have a nightmare on my hands.

Are your drivers learning their lessons after near-misses?

Do they get distracted, talk on the phone, speed, tailgate, slam on the brakes, and generally do other avoidable things which cause them near-misses with people or vehicles periodically?  And do they learn their lessons from those experiences?

Can you COUNT on the fact that they do?

There so many technologies out there currently to MEASURE your drivers’ performance, and whether or not they learn from their mistakes.  USE THEM!  These proven technologies are grounded in logic and business-rules, not human nature and the unfortunate human inability to learn from one’s mistakes!

If you are running a big fleet, you should be looking into ALL AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES to help ensure you know when your drivers make mistakes, and that they correct their behavior when it is brought to their attention.

Here are a few examples of technologies which can help:

  • GPS Vehicle Tracking (speeding/acceleration/braking/odd-hours/posted-speed violations/geofence violations, excessive idling)
  • Cell Phone Usage Monitoring/ (texting or talking when driving)
  • In-Cab Camera Monitoring (impact detection/recording & acceleration/braking)
  • Driver Behavior Monitoring (seat belt usage, rapid acceleration/harsh braking)
  • Electronic Driver Logs (to ensure DOT compliance)

All of these technologies are readily available.  They help you, the fleet manager/supervisor ensure that you know what is going on with your drivers, and whether or not they can be trusted to learn from their mistakes.

The downside of a catastrophic crash for your organization is clearly significant.

The amount of effort to implement technology to identify continually reckless drivers and reduce the risk of that crash is minimal, and all of these technologies have proven ROI and widespread adoption in all fleet industries.

Let technology help you coach your drivers and ensure they’re learning from their mistakes.

You’ll be safe, not sorry.

Rob.

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