More Truck Fleets, Insurers Videotaping Their Drivers
Burney Simpson
More trucking firms and their insurers are signing up for a videotaping system that monitors truck driver behavior and San Diego-based Lytx Inc. is reaping the benefits.
Lytx reported that it added 57,000 subscriptions-in-service (SIS) to its DriveCam and RAIR Compliance Services program in 2014, and ended the year with 200,000 subscriptions and nearly 1,300 government and commercial clients. Each SIS is a vehicle using a Lytx video system.
This year, Lytx reports more than a half-dozen trucking fleets and several insurance companies have signed up for its DriveCam program, including:
- Seattle-based MTR Western with a fleet of 160 motor coaches;
- J&R Schugel Trucking with 450 company drivers and 150 contractor-operators;
- Barney Trucking with 250 dry-bulk hauling tractors;
- Aggregate Industries with 1,300 vehicles;
- Carolina Casualty and Canal Insurance Co. began offering DriveCam to their fleet clients.
The foundation of Lytx’s DriveCam program is a small video system with multiple cameras that is mounted in the vehicle cab above the rear view mirror. Cameras focus on the driver and toward the street, recording driver behavior and street activity, according to Lytx videos.
If there’s an accident or an event like hard braking or a sharp turn occurs, the taped video is sent via wireless network to the trucking company, the firm that contracted the driver, or Lytx.
The recording can be used to determine whether the driver caused, did not cause, or helped avoid an accident or unusual event.
Lytx can also use the recording to analyze the driver’s performance during day-to-day driving, and to create a scoring system for good and bad driver behavior. Each driver then has a score that rises or falls depending on a slew of factors, from accidents, to unnecessary gas use, to texting, or other behavior the fleet operator seeks to track.
A fleet that uses the DriveCam system can use the score and the videos for driver coaching. Lytx’s Risk-Predict program tracks behavior to find the driver in a fleet that is most likely to cause an accident.
The RAIR Compliance system serves U.S. Department of Transportation-regulated fleets. It monitor driver logs, vehicle inspection reports, driver qualifications, and drug testing.
Lytx says that truck fleets that use its combined services see payback on their investment in six months due to reduced collisions and lower fuel and maintenance costs. Privately-held Lytx doesn’t release its financial results though it claims that 2014 was its third consecutive year with orders of more than $100 million. In 2013, Volvo Group Venture Capital made an undisclosed investment in Lytx, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.