Why Averitt Express was Ready for a Video-Based Safety Program

While Averitt Express has long provided drivers with compliance, safety and prevention training, it recognized the need for an effective program that would help it further improve fleet safety, decrease costs and exonerate drivers from false claims. The company looked at every aspect of safety and knew video was the only way to resolve the problems they were trying to solve:

  • Reduce the number of vehicle crashes
  • Reduce litigation and claims adjusting costs
  • Improve driver skills
  • Help with recruiting and retaining safe drivers
  • Exonerate drivers from false accusations
  • Reward safe drivers

Following a pilot program in which Averitt assessed three competitive video safety solutions, it selected the SmartDrive platform, citing its advanced video capabilities and the value of a fully managed program.

“While Averitt has long provided drivers with compliance, safety and prevention training, we recognized the need for an effective program that would help us further improve fleet safety, decrease costs and exonerate drivers from false accusations.”

David McDowell, director of risk management at Averitt

Why the SmartDrive program is the Smart Choice for Averitt Express

Reinforcing Averitt’s decision to deploy the SmartDrive platform was the SmartDrive extended recording feature, which captured 98 percent of all collisions during the trial, far more than other solutions, as well as the advanced engine control unit (ECU) dashboard that visually depicts speed, accelerometer and other critical information.

Also attractive to the Averitt team was the SmartDrive SmartChoiceTM program, which offers unprecedented flexibility to choose the optimal level of video protection to fit its business needs. The fleet opted to roll out the SmartDrive Shield™ solution, which is the only true road-facing only camera combined with on-demand video offload and easy-to-use review workflow. The SmartDrive Shield product line is ideal for carriers focused on capturing every collision, exonerating when not at fault and providing drivers the ability to record issues on the road, such as delivery verification and security incidents. The SmartChoiceTM program allows Averitt the option to scale its investment by moving up to a more comprehensive solution as requirements expand.

“We turned to SmartDrive knowing its reliable video safety and analytics platform would not only enhance driving skills, but also mitigate risk and improve the bottom line.”

David McDowell, director of risk management at Averitt

Maximizing the Value of their Investment

Since deployment across Averitt’s 4,800-truck fleet began, the company has experienced a reduction in DOT-recordable accidents, increased its subrogation collections by 15 percent, seen several million dollars in liability savings and achieved an ROI the company believes offsets the cost of equipping every tractor in the fleet for five years.

With fleet-wide adoption nearly complete, Averitt has achieved significant return on investment as a result of operational efficiencies.

“Averitt is now able to capture and analyze nearly every accident, which has had measurable impact on driver satisfaction, litigation costs and safety. We’ve been extremely pleased with drivers’ reaction. Once they clearly understood the SmartDrive system can prove they did the right thing–and protects their records and livelihood–they embraced the technology. In fact, we now tout SmartDrive as part of our recruiting effort.”

David McDowell, director of risk management at Averitt

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