B2B: Safe driving monitoring: simple trend or real instrument

The MT Conferences section did not involve the reporting or the editorial staff of The Moscow Times.

Today, in practically every modern company, the business of which is connected with the transportation of people and goods, satellite transport monitoring are used. For the last five to seven years, the transport telematics market has passed through the stage of rapid growth. And now this market offers not just equipment to control the movement of transport and fuel consumption. Presently the entire complexes of hardware and software, which include industry-specific solutions, created to meet the requirements of specific enterprises in accordance with the specifics of their activities exist.

The safe driving monitoring is one of such enterprise solutions, designed to track the driving style of the employees and to prevent accidents. The advantage of this decision is obvious to the companies where observance of transport policy is at the forefront. But not all companies, even those who work under the Western standards of business are aware of the importance of implementing these practices. Many do not seek to invest in such projects not even because of avarice, but rather the belief that they adequately monitor the driving culture. Along with it, many see an element of planting of notorious corporate standards in such undertakings. Besides not all understand what benefits satellite control of driving bring, besides road accident suppression.

I will illustrate the safe driving monitoring productivity on the example of a large project implemented by the SCOUT group of companies in 2013-2014. It is about PepsiCo — the second-largest in the world and the largest Russian producer of food and beverages with annual sales of more than $ 65 billion.

In the Russian fleet PepsiCo has about 9,000 cars, which are inevitably at risk  ofgetting into an accident. Even a minor accident involving a corporate transport entails the loss of precious time, supply disruptions, damage to property, which has a negative impact on the profit and company image Therefore, oberservance of traffic rules by all employees is one of the company's strategic goals.  

To achieve this goal, PepsiCo has several years of safe driving training for staff. But for the analysis of driver behavior in real life, a more integrated and technological approach based on satellite monitoring of transport in actual practice was required. The task to develop the relevant decision was delivered to the SCOUT specialists and to the "Active-Safety" company, which organizes trainings for corporate drivers. The result is a customized solution "Safe Driving Monitor," which allows analysis of the driver's behavior behind the wheel, to determine the manner of driving and passing information in real time to identify those whose actions are a potential threat.

During the creation of the "Safe Driving Monitor" solution, the monitoring modules were supplemented by the sensor of driving style, and the software has been possible to build individual and group reports on violations of safe driving conditions. The sensor of driving style uses indications such as a sensitive 3-axis accelerometer, which is able to accurately capture abrupt maneuvers. The speed is determined by the GPS and GLONASS with high precision. A special buzzer is activated in certain situations, for example, in cases of excess of one of three thresholds of speed, sharp acceleration and vehicle braking. The software allows not only to trace history of use of transport, but also to fix each separate violation of safety conditions. This information is used for subject communication with drivers, and also for investigation of road accidents with participation of controlled transport.

But this is not the only effect. Strict adherence to the policy of safe driving leads to the reduction of fuel consumption, increases the service life of the engine and the vehicle braking system. For example, if on one site the car will travel with the speed of 85km/h, consumption will amount to 5 liters per 100 kilometers. And if the driver passes the same route with a speed of 115 km/h, the expense will make 6,8 l / 100 km — that is 36% more than in the first case. Therefore this solution brings comprehensive benefits, and costs of its implementation are repaid within a period of four to nine months.

It should be noted that safe driving monitoring applies to any vehicle fleet, irrespective of scale and specifics of work. In the Pepsico this project covered more than 8,000 cars. But nothing prevents the implementation of similar solutions in taxi or delivery. In the first case, it is obvious that the status of a truly trouble-free carrier will only strengthen your reputation among passengers. In a case with delivery there will be much more trust from customers.

Summing up, I want to say that we are trying to adhere strictly to the traffic rules. Many private cars of our employees can be seen with stickers informing other road users on their compliance with speed limits. And it's not a fad or a corporate culture — in each case it is a personal initiative.because a culture of careful driving should be taught first of all by our own example. While satellite monitoring is simply reliable and, believe me, is more than effective assistant in such an important matter.

The MT Conferences section did not involve the reporting or the editorial staff of The Moscow Times.