Report: Safety Isn’t the No. 1 Priority for Fleet Managers as Traffic Deaths Continue

Motive (formerly Keep Truckin’) released its inaugural State of Safety report revealing a significant gap between fleet organizations’ safety priorities and their understanding of how improved safety increases productivity and profitability.

While 95% of fleets believe that safety is a priority, it’s not the top priority according to the survey of more than 1,000 fleet/transportation managers and business owners. In fact, improving safety ranked behind other priorities like increasing revenue and minimizing expenses.

The research underscores persistent issues businesses that operate commercial vehicles are grappling with – including an uncertain economic outlook and increases in dangerous and fatal safety incidents.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows traffic deaths reached a 16-year high in 2021, with truck crash deaths jumping 13% year over year. In 2021, transportation incidents were the most frequent cause of work-related death, leading to the loss of nearly 2,000 lives.

Motive’s new State of Safety report also revealed:
*Accident avoidance drops to the bottom line. When asked what benefits their businesses experienced after implementing dashcams, those surveyed listed visibility into driver performance (57%), fewer unsafe driving behaviors (54%), insurance savings (45%), and fewer accidents (43%) as the top four outcomes.
*Safety is a profit center, not a cost center. Data from the Motive State of Safety Report coupled with FMCSA data on the average cost of a large commercial vehicle crash found that fleets that have implemented an AI-powered safety solution to prevent crashes saved anywhere between $91,000 and $1.72M in 2022. And the survey found that more than half (52%) of large fleets surveyed say they have saved over $10,000 by implementing a safety program, while 20% of firms have saved over $100,000.
*Fleets are underinvested in safety but plan to ramp up spending in 2023. 40% of organizations said they were underinvested in driver safety initiatives and technology in 2022 with 8% responding that they were drastically underinvested. But investment is expected to increase this year with 71% of respondents planning to invest in new tools to improve safety in 2023.

In addition to the release of its State of Safety report, Motive also recently announced a series of innovations that expand the functionality of its leading Driver Safety Solution to combat worsening safety conditions. The new AI capabilities further improve the unrivaled accuracy of the Motive AI Dashcam by adding new types of safety and risk triggers that improve protection for drivers and reduce liability for customers.

“Our inaugural State of Safety Report indicates that organizations think they need to choose between safety and profitability,” said Jai Ranganathan, Chief Product Officer at Motive. “But, as our customers know, fewer accidents, less safety events, and decreased insurance premiums deliver savings and drive efficiencies that drop to their business’s bottom line. We are constantly improving our AI Dashcam and the new AI capabilities that we just unveiled will help further our mission to increase the safety, productivity, and profitability of the businesses that power the physical economy.”

New AI Dashcam capabilities from Motive include:
*Improved collision detection: Detects collisions with industry-leading accuracy, providing fleet managers with real-time video visibility within minutes. Enhancements enable fleet managers to take swift action as well as provide evidence in the case of litigation.
*Stop sign violation: Identifies stop signs and detects if a driver fails to come to a complete stop. Rolling stops are frequently ticketed and they are one of the leading causes of accidents.
*Driver distraction: Detects and alerts drivers when they are looking downward due to eating, drinking, smoking, drowsiness, cell phone use or general inattentiveness.
*Unsafe lane changes: Alerts drivers when they are swerving, weaving, or switching lanes at high speeds as well as adherence to the road lanes, regardless of lane type.
Camera obstruction: Detects any camera obstruction or improper installation, whether road-facing or driver-facing, and alerts the driver and fleet manager instantly.

According to the latest safety results from the Motive platform, fleets with Motive AI Dashcams across the majority of their vehicles and that frequently coach drivers, had 50% fewer accidents compared to all active Motive fleets. Similarly, from a 2022 study, fleets with Motive AI-powered dash cams that frequently coach see outsized cost benefits with up to 10X return on investment in the first year. The Motive AI Dashcam detects unsafe driving behavior with unrivaled accuracy and alerts drivers in real time through state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms and a leading-edge AI processor.