Why SmartDrive 360 Was a Smart Decision

Boyle Transportation knows a thing or two about safety. Having heavily invested in safety technology for years and seeing the positive results, they knew they wanted to take safety to the next level with video. But, not just road-facing and cab-facing cameras. They knew that to fully understand what’s going on, both in the cab and on the road, they needed video around their vehicles. They looked at multiple video-based safety providers but were impressed with the connectivity of the SmartDrive® program with other systems on their trucks. “SmartDrive was the only provider who could connect to all of our active safety systems in the truck,” commented Mike Lasko, manager of safety and quality at Boyle Transportation.

SmartDrive 360 was the answer. “Whenever there’s an incident and the job is to put together the pieces of the puzzle to know what happened, you need all the facts,” continued Lasko. “We knew we needed in-cab and forward-facing cameras, but side-view helps fill in the missing pieces since so many instances don’t always happen in front of our vehicles. It’s one more opportunity for an exoneration.”

Prior to acquiring SmartDrive 360, Boyle had previously installed Meritor Wabco, Bendix and Omnitracs technologies and was getting data. But, it wasn’t enough. “Having raw data was OK, but it wasn’t sufficient. We’d have to figure out what the data meant,” commented Lasko. “It was fine to know that there was a hard brake, but what caused that hard brake? We needed to know WHY the driver slammed on his brakes. What was his behavior? The other driver’s behavior? There was no context.”

“Video gives us context. We now know exactly what’s going on around the truck and it provides a great training opportunity. So many times, we find it’s the bad habits of other motorists. Having a 360-degree view of an incident – coupled with active safety – provides us with coaching opportunities and continued training with our professional drivers.”

When asked about his drivers’ reactions to installing cameras in their cabs, Lasko responded that he had no driver pushback. “Far too often, commercial motor vehicles are assumed to be at fault, even though crash statistics indicate the exact opposite. Video evidence of a crash can eliminate a lot of guesswork and speculation. Many professional drivers in the industry are already utilizing their own dashcams, but were happy to have a managed system to capture everything around their vehicles and provide more opportunities to exonerate themselves from false claims.”

Lasko went on to comment about results he’s seen since installing video cameras in, and around, his vehicles. “The video has exonerated us! We see alot of scary driving habits of other motorists. Our professional drivers face immense challenges every day. With 360, we now know what happened when an incident occurs alongside our trucks. We can now prove we weren’t at fault. Our drivers are happy about that.”

360-Degree Video Insight

With 35% of collisions being side and rear incidents, the enhanced visibility down the sides of the vehicle and trailer provides insight to the situations drivers face every day – ensuring maximum protection of drivers and fleet assets. And for those fleets facing mystery damage or theft, additional cameras provide added protection when and where you need it most.

Automatic Triggers. Automatic Downloads.

SmartDrive 360 is an optional service that accelerates your visibility into driving-related incidents, risk and compliance violations by automatically providing you with video from up to four cameras. When a vehicle with SmartDrive 360 performs a risky maneuver, video from all four cameras are captured and automatically off-loaded from the event recorder – making that video available in line with the standard SmartDrive safety service.

Now, with SmartDrive 360, fleets have near-instant access to video, providing quicker insight and more information, so they can resolve issues and keep their driver and vehicle protected – and on the road.

Michael Lasko has been working in transportation for over 15 years. He began his career as professional driver before moving into operations and safety management. Michael joined Boyle Transportation as the Manager of Safety and Quality in August of 2015 and prior to that was the Safety Manager for New Penn Motor Express. He had previously worked for Panera Bread as the northeast Distribution Manager and was also the Chairman of Panera Bread’s Transportation Safety Committee. Michael graduated Summa Cum Laude from Bristol College and also attended Bryant University.

• Posted by adam
• On 30 August 2017