Q&A: How Safety Technology is Helping Fleets During a Turbulent 2020

FleetOwner

Fleet safety has taken on a new look and feel during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed freight patterns, reduced some highway congestion and limited safe truck parking across much of the U.S.

With a different kind of summer vacation nearing for many Americans, commercial vehicle drivers have different things to be wary of in 2020. FleetOwner spoke with SmartDrive COO Jason Palmer about this new trucking landscape and how the transportation technology company is helping fleets adapt. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

FleetOwner: What sort of trends have you seen in commercial vehicles during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Jason Palmer: Our miles driven across our installed base of customers for Class 8 trucks was up by about 15%. We were seeing across our install base of customers on the trucking side an increase in March and April of miles driven. So, we saw they were driving more, but we did see a decrease in collisions overall during that period.