The Mobileye® 8 Connect™ collision avoidance system provides many benefits to fleets, with perhaps the most important being its use as a powerful tool for driver coaching and training. Designed to work in conjunction with the new Mobileye Connect Platform, the combination of the two means the tools are there, all that’s needed are some tips and tricks on how to use them to build a safer fleet.
It’s All About that Base
The first step in improving fleet safety is to establish a baseline, determining how safe your drivers are without a collision avoidance system. Mobileye 8 Connect makes this easy by enabling a pilot mode. When a vehicle is travelling in this mode all the standard warnings are recorded but not shown to the driver. For instance, if a driver is following the vehicle in front too closely, the collision avoidance system will record a headway monitoring & warning alert but will NOT alert the driver.
How Scoring Works
During the phase of establishing a baseline, every route taken by a vehicle is recorded by the Mobileye Connect Platform and at the end the driver is given a score. This score is based on the number of alerts and incidents triggered by the vehicle during the trip. This score gives greater negative weight to behaviour that is considered more hazardous. For example, more weight is given to headway monitoring & warning as tailgating is considered one of the most dangerous driving behaviours.
It’s Not Me, It’s You
Okay, now that we have a baseline, it’s time for the real work to begin. One of the most important issues you may face is driver resistance. It’s natural that drivers are reluctant to accept monitoring; no one wants someone constantly looking over their shoulder. Remind drivers the Mobileye 8 Connect system is not recording them but instead identifies potentially dangerous situations and warns drivers to take action.
It’s important to clarify that the ultimate goal is to protect the driver, and others on the road, by making them aware of their own driving behaviours. Many of us have ingrained driving habits that need to be pointed out to us before we can work on correcting them.
You can prepare yourself by reading some case studies and viewing video interviews with drivers who have enthusiastically adopted Mobileye collision avoidance technology.
Game On!
Educators have long realised the benefits of “gamification”: turning educational or work tasks into games. There’s no reason why the same principle can’t be applied to fleet drivers.
You can start by sitting with each driver individually and retracing the routes, or a selection of the routes, taken by the driver using the “Trace” feature of the Mobileye 8 Connect Platform.
Then after meeting with the drivers, announce a competition to see who can improve their driving scores the most – with a prize for the winner. Over the next two weeks, track your drivers’ scores, at the end of which announcing the winner in a way that will be noticed within your organisation.
You can have competitions for a range of improvement including:
1. Best Driving Score
2. Divide into teams for best team driving score
3. Driver who triggers fewest X alerts (this is especially useful if there is a particularly dangerous habit you are trying to reduce)
While these competitions may cost you in prizes, with the average repair costs of a truck following an accident ranging from $15,200 to $39,850 AUD[1], avoiding just one crash will probably pay for an entire years' worth of prizes.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time?
By keeping track of where and when alerts are triggered, the platform will also help you isolate areas or times that are problematic in general. For example, if many of your drivers are triggering harsh cornering incidents at a particular turn, this indicates a collision-prone area of the route. You can then either redirect drivers to avoid the area or advise all to take extra precautions in that spot.
Toward a Safer, Smarter Fleet
The Mobileye Connect Platform was designed to help you create a safer fleet while maintaining a high level of morale among your drivers. Of course, the benefits of road safety for drivers seem obvious, but it’s still important to generate enthusiasm about these programs among your drivers. Cultivating a supportive attitude will boost the effectiveness of the program and make your life a lot easier.
And if you’re looking for more ways to help your fleet you may want to check out:
1. The 5 Biggest Headaches Fleet Managers Face – And How to Deal with Them.
2. Making Time to Live – How Collision Avoidance Provides Drivers with Life-Saving Seconds.
3. Dash Cams and Collision Avoidance Systems – Is Video Recording Enough?
Be sure to contact Mobileye for more information on how you can use our technology to make your fleet safer and more efficient.
[1] Litchfield, F. (2017). The cost of road crashes in Australia 2016: An overview of safety strategies.
