New Technology Is Helping Drivers and Fleet Owners to Stop Speeding and Start Saving

By Jonathan Hubbard, co-founder and CEO, SpeedGauge

Nothing frustrates a driver more than receiving speeding tickets, and nothing upsets a fleet owner more than preventable costs. Technology, however, has found a way to help drivers do a better job of avoiding blue lights in their side mirror and alleviate unnecessary maintenance and repair costs for owners that often result from speeding.

The true financial impact of speeding becomes apparent in an analysis conducted by SpeedGauge. The company has a proven technology that helps drivers monitor their performance to reduce high-risk behavior and helps owners improve fleet safety and increase efficiency.  The study found that vehicle speed is the single most significant operational cost variable directly attributable to driver behavior, noting that how fast truck drivers choose to drive corresponds directly to the rate and cost of truck crashes, maintenance prices and fuel consumption.

For instance, the analysis estimated that direct and indirect costs from crashes attributable to speeding in the U.S. were nearly 2 cents a mile on interstates and up to 5 cents a mile on other surfaces, while speeding can increase maintenance costs by up to 1.5 cents per truck mile across all types of roads. Speeding by 10 mph increases fuel consumption costs by as much as 1.8 to 6.7 cents per mile.

Fleets can shrink these expenses and lower the incidences of speeding without any equipment upgrades or downtime by leveraging their GPS systems to do more., SpeedGauge’s research has found that its monitoring service, when added to a standard GPS tracking system, improves road safety by as much as 67 percent and reduces speeding violations by an average of 40.3 percent. The same platform that benefits fleet owners allows drivers to show their worth to managers by showcasing their safe-driving habits.  Most fleet owners use this technology to reward their best drivers, as well as to educate those most prone to speeding incidents.

Besides boosting the fleet’s bottom line, technology can also help propel fleets to higher ratings in the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program, launched late in 2010 by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.  Fleets with SpeedGauge, for example, have produced CSA scores that are 30 percent better than those without this technology.

Today, thousands of fleets across the United States, Canada, Australasia and Western Europe are adopting technology to reduce speeding and the accidents it can cause, and they are enjoying its results in many ways. In Australia, for example, a “chain of responsibility” law holds company owners and fleet managers responsible for the actions of their drivers, so they have a direct, legal interest in cutting down on speeding. In the U.S., SpeedGauge works with insurance companies to offer steep discounts to fleets that deploy its technology and fleet owners have been thrilled with the results.

For example, Kelly Peeks of Inland Intermodal Logistics Services in Memphis, Tenn., said that, after applying speed monitoring technology for six months, “it has very effectively lowered speed events by more than 67 percent. The ability to cross-reference an event with a map helps to successfully drive the point home with our drivers. We emphasize that our job is to get the driver home each day and that these events show he or she is taking risks that his or her family does not deserve.”

In British Columbia, Canada, Ralph Bowler, driver supervisor for Lomak Bulk Carriers, reported that the technology “is incredibly helpful and insightful. It allows me to monitor our drivers’ performance for speed and their compliance. With our old system, I had to manually search through hundreds of pages of data, now I get a daily email every morning that’s succinct, convenient and easy to review, allowing me to better manage my time.”

To learn more about how technology can put the brakes on speeding, visit www.speedgauge.net.

Jonathan Hubbard is co-founder and CEO of SpeedGauge, the leading provider of business intelligence and location-based analytics for the trucking and insurance industry.