It’s often said that a person’s best friend is their dog – and it’s true. But when you’re behind the wheel, your next best friend is telematics technology that is designed to keep you safe and informed and be the best driver you can be.
If you’ve been in the industry long enough, you’ll remember when rules came in about fatigue, rest times and mandatory breaks. It mandated the need to fill in a logbook tracking work and rest times, which had to be handed to the back-office team for manual processing and record keeping.
The problem with paper is that it’s inconvenient, not intuitive, too easy to make mistakes and often leaves managing issues with work hours until it’s too late. With an electronic work diary (EWD) solution, all those worries are essentially eliminated. The solution spans an in-cab device that makes it a snap to enter your start times, breaks and when you finally clock off for the day.
Even better, an EWD removes the uncertainty around fatigue rulesets and when you should get some rest. It automatically lets you know there’s break time coming up, allowing you to plan ahead for your day and letting you pull up at a rest stop to get a good meal and coffee instead of pulling up on the side of the highway.
The next step is video telematics, a solution that uses outward and inward-facing cameras that use built-in sensors and AI-based technologies to analyse footage via advanced driver assistance metrics. This provides a third eye on the environment around and inside the vehicle to help them be safer and make more informed decisions on the road.
Video telematics works for drivers, particularly the new generation of smart cameras like Teletrac Navman’s AI-powered IQ Camera. It’s a view on the road ahead as a smart camera will warn you if you’re following the traffic ahead too closely or braking too harshly. It will also let you know if you’re showing signs of drowsiness and can alert you if you’re in danger of getting distracted.
But where video telematics benefits the most is that smart cameras can help you to understand why drivers are following closely or braking harshly. It’s all about context that it can provide beyond the data or analytics. Maybe a car pulled in front of you and slammed on the stoppers. Or perhaps an animal ran out ahead. A smart camera understands this by recording the event to back up your side of the story.
Smart cameras also have your back if an incident on the road wasn’t your fault. The camera doesn’t lie, and all the evidence can support your side of events to prevent fraudulent claims. Your fleet manager has access to the footage almost immediately through the TN360 management platform, so they have a complete understanding of what’s going on as it happens to help keep all drivers safe.
This continuous connectivity back to base via the 4G network is also an important safety tool. If there is an incident, those at HQ will know about it and can call emergency services to help because they know exactly where you are and have a pretty good idea of what has happened.
This is why video telematics and EWDs are a driver’s next best friend after their dog. Teletrac Navman’s solutions are designed to help keep you safe, support the driver through an incident, and make you a better driver through feedback by being smoother and more efficient behind the wheel.
sadly many companies use it as a big stick to brow beat the drivers for any little mistake rather than how it should be used as a safety education tool. hence why its not liked by many drivers particularly if its a company decision to fit it to the cab.
It’s all about compliance control by penalisation.. I stopped driving in 2020 and I’m only 48. I also had a transport business from 1999 to 2010 and there is no way I would drive again. Not because I’m worried about safety but over regulation and control.
Everyday day is different, fatigue can different most times and it also needs to be mandated on an individual level. Sure, for an employee this may work but for me, no thanks. Especially the cameras. The policies posted out by government are not about safety but ally what I mentioned earlier. Like do much else. Compliance, compliance, compliance or else..