Managing a fleet of road-going vehicles is a complex and challenging process. Keeping up to date with ever-changing regulations, staying in control of fuel costs, insurance premiums, and maintaining safety are all demanding and time-consuming tasks.
Over the last decade, technology has played a huge role in helping to streamline the fleet management process and improve safety standards. This includes the introduction of vehicle CCTV, which has been utilized across a variety of sectors such as public transport, delivery fleets, and emergency vehicles.
Fleet managers are recognizing the important role vehicle camera and CCTV systems are playing in improving road safety, reducing accidents, and removing common hazards. In fact, a survey of 245 fleet experts by Brigade Electronics revealed that 73% confirmed that they considered vehicle safety systems to be pivotal to aiding driver visibility and preventing collisions.
While vehicle CCTV has been available for many years, improvements in functionality and usability, such as 4G connectivity, are paving the way for a rise in remote fleet management resulting in greater efficiency, reduced costs and enhanced safety for operators.
Corey Heniser, a vehicle safety expert at Brigade Electronics INC, said “Fleet managers are requiring more flexibility than ever. This is especially true when it comes to managing large fleets with multiple vehicles that are traveling state to state or across borders. By fitting vehicle CCTV with 4G connectivity, like Brigade’s MDR with BRIDGE, fleet managers are able to live track vehicles, providing numerous benefits for operators.
“This includes location tracking so that managers can find their fleet anytime and anywhere, geo-fencing capabilities so managers can identify when vehicles are entering or leaving specific areas and trigger warnings that instantly notify fleet managers of incidents. For drivers, they can also send an instant notification in the event of an emergency. All these features greatly improve the fleet management experience and improve safety both on and off the road.”
As well as supporting fleet management, fitting vehicle CCTV provides a range of other benefits. These include improving driver training, providing proof against insurance claims, providing protection for drivers who may have been wrongly accused as the cause of an incident, providing irrefutable evidence in the case of accidents and legal proceedings, and encouraging driver best practice, resulting in less vehicle damage and fewer accidents. Additionally, vehicle CCTV also helps to deter vandalism and offers peace of mind for passengers and drivers.
One company that has benefited from fitting remote managed vehicle CCTV to its fleet is Wyvern Cargo. The company, which provides distribution services and warehousing to industrial sectors, chose Brigade’s MDR cameras along with its fully managed 4G cloud service, BRIDGE. This allows data to be instantly accessed and live streamed from the recorder without having to physically enter the vehicle or wait for it to return to the depot.
Trevor Green, Transport Manager of Wyvern Cargo, said “I was immediately impressed with the quality of Brigade’s overall package. Being able to ‘dial in’ and see every angle of an incident instantly has made reporting much simpler. Details are not being missed and incidents can be reported to our insurers within minutes. The tracking feature also helps us to pinpoint the footage we need using time and location, meaning we don’t use too much data. For instance, if the accident happened at around 13:00 hours, we could locate it right away.”
