Who is SmartDrive?
SmartDrive delivers groundbreaking solutions that make it easy for fleet managers to take control - advancing driver safety and fueling operational savings. SmartDrive records comprehensive video-based data from the road, thoroughly reviews operational and safety performance, and provides the recommendations and tools for fleet managers to easily respond and deliver savings - all through an easy-to-use managed service. SmartDrive Systems is based in San Diego, and employs over 300 people worldwide.
What is SmartDrive Safety?
SmartDrive Safety creates safer drivers and reduces collision frequency and impact by recording, measuring and managing fleet driver safety and by assessing causality in collisions.
What is SmartDrive Operations?
SmartDrive Operations is an add-on solution to the flagship SmartDrive Safety program. SmartDrive Operations reduces wasted fuel through idling, excessive speed and off-hours or off-route usage, and maps routes and tracks vehicles to ensure appropriate and productive use of vehicles.
Who can benefit from SmartDrive?
SmartDrive serves large fleets across many verticals, including waste, delivery, beverage, transit, utility, and bulk transport. As fleets grow, fleet managers are challenged in maintaining control over the inherent risks of the road. SmartDrive helps fleet managers keep an eye on the road, improving driver safety, reducing collisions and insurance premiums, and even their fuel and maintenance costs.
How does SmartDrive create safer drivers?
SmartDrive makes it easy for fleet managers to know what's really happening on the road, and coach drivers to improve performance. SmartDrive keeps detailed records of all driver coaching sessions, and tracks the performance of individual drivers over time. Effective fleets continually use SmartDrive to reinforce positive safety behaviors among their drivers.
How does SmartDrive help resolve claims?
Information available at the scene of a collision is often inadequate, resulting in lengthy and costly accident reconstruction. Companies benefit from the ability to capture video and audio to protect drivers against fraudulent claims and security threats. This technology has been proven to reduce vehicle damage, worker's compensation, and personal injury claims by over 50 percent, protecting both their employees and their bottom line.
How does SmartDrive compare to other driver safety programs?
SmartDrive is one of a small number of companies that leverage video event recording and live expert review as a way to gain a clear picture into road events and coach drivers to improve performance. SmartDrive is also the only company that enables managers to access video clips, powerful event filters, integrated maps, and simple driver coaching tools via a secure web-based portal - the SmartDrive Response Center.
What benefits does SmartDrive bring to companies?
SmartDrive's Safety improves driving behavior, saves lives and fuels operational savings. Benefits include:
- Reduce collision frequency by up to 50%
- Exonerate drivers from fault when collisions occur
- Decrease liability, physical damage & workers comp
- Quickly and accurately resolve claims and reduce fraud
- Improve fuel efficiency through reduced speeding
- Protect your drivers and your community
Idling, excessive speed, off-hours or off-route usage, hard braking, and rapid acceleration all factor into fuel expense and are captured by the SmartRecorder and made available for coaching. SmartDrive Operations specifically monitors wasted fuel events and provides objective data to use to coach drivers to improve efficiency
Is SmartDrive Safety a surveillance system? Is it similar to other black box companies?
No. The SmartRecorder only saves 30 second video clips when it is triggered by sudden G-Forces, such as sudden braking, swerving, or a collision or by exceeding speed thresholds. In contrast to a surveillance system, which saves 100 percent of captured video, the SmartRecorder System saves less than 1 percent of the video it records.
What benefits does SmartDrive Safety provide insurance companies?
SmartDrive provides valuable services to insurance companies. SmartDrive helps them improve their customers' safety, reduce risk, save lives, and even save money on legal expenses and fraudulent claims.
How does SmartDrive Safety benefit insurance companies' clients and self-insured?
Insurance losses for commercial auto represent $20 billion annually in the U.S. alone. Fleet owners, distributors, and corporations are challenged with the complexity of minimizing risk and reducing insurance premiums where accident and driver records provided after the fact are insufficient in determining and predicting driver risk. With SmartDrive Safety, unsafe acts can be measured and benchmarked for the first time, representing a true breakthrough in loss control. Video accounts of what occurred also help expedite the claims process and mitigate fraudulent claims. Our program is simple to deploy and administer and is 100 percent web-based, using a standard web-browser.
What benefits does SmartDrive Safety bring to drivers of company vehicles?
SmartDrive helps professional drivers become better at their jobs. The SmartDrive team works with customers and their drivers to identify and improve safety. SmartDrive does this by having experts review, score and categorize every recorded incident. SmartDrive also provides in-person expert training at customer sites. SmartDrive helps determine fault in the case of an accident by saving 15 seconds before and 15 seconds after the SmartRecorder is triggered. These recordings are often used to protect and exonerate professional drivers.
What does the SmartRecorder capture? Can someone retrieve video beyond a 30-second triggered video recording?
The SmartDrive video event recorder captures video, audio, speed, and location for events. The video captures what happens inside and outside of a vehicle during an event. The system is attached to the windshield behind the rearview mirror and contains a forward and inward facing dual lens camera with a full 280 degree vantage of the front of the vehicle, inside the cab, side and rear windows. Each event is recorded for a total of 30 seconds, 15 seconds before and after each incident.
The system operates similar to a DVR or Tivo system by continuously recording into a temporary memory buffer. After 15 seconds, the recorded video is erased unless the camera is activated. Each unit does have a driver operated "manual button", which allows a driver to record video in 30 second increments should a driver want to record an event.
How do I access the videos and coaching process?
The SmartDrive Response Center is available at www.SmartDrive.net. Choose the client login option and login to our secure and proprietary customer portal. All of the information on your drivers is aggregated, analyzed and prepared for your use by SmartDrive. You can access personalized event lists based on your company safety policy, leveraging powerful event filters. Video clips can be reviewed and queued for coaching in one click. The coaching process allows coaches to capture resolution and driver history.
How many videos are stored on the SmartRecorder?
The SmartRecorder holds about 200 video clips. On average, drivers first using the system trigger anywhere from 5-15 videos per day. This drops significantly to 2-10 videos per day once drivers are accustomed to how the SmartRecorder works and quickly adjust their driving habits to minimize its activation.
How have drivers reacted to SmartDrive Safety?
Once drivers understand the event-driven nature of the system, they are receptive. Nearly every professional driver has faced situations where their recount of an event could not be independently corroborated. In reality, the majority of accidents (up to 75 percent), are caused by non-professional drivers.
The system exonerates the professional driver by providing visual proof of fault in disputes and quickly builds the strong appreciation and loyalty of the driver. In addition, drivers realize that the program is there for their protection. Because the driver has the ability to manually activate a recording, they have added protection for security threats such as carjacking, robberies, unruly passengers or pedestrians, and road rage. Manual recording is also incorporated into everyday work practices, such as recording a locked gate making a pickup inaccessible or recording a traffic delay that will impact a driver's schedule.
Has use of SmartDrive exonerated any fleet drivers from collisions that were not their fault?
Yes. SmartDrive has exonerated many drivers from liability. Many professional drivers realize that most accidents are caused by non-professionals and find great value in the "manual button" where they can purposely record incidents where other drivers or pedestrians are at fault.
How does the program integrate with my existing IT infrastructure or in-vehicle technology?
The system operates independently from your existing IT infrastructure or in-vehicle technologies. No IT resources are required to administer the service. SmartDrive Safety service is what is known as "Software-as-a-Service" or "SaaS". Similar to Salesforce.com, the SmartDrive service is accessed using a standard web-browser on any computer in any location.
Will SmartDrive Safety tax my already busy managers or require me to hire additional personnel?
No. Because SmartDrive personnel conduct the expert review of the videos, managers are able to focus only on the specific, high-priority events or trends that call for his or her attention. Total unsafe driving acts fall off dramatically in the first three months (typically by two-thirds) and because the measuring is constant, managers are able to sustain safer driving. And SmartDrive makes it easy to coach, saving fleet managers and supervisors significant time vs. ride-along or other safety programs.