Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Minnesota Trucking Association’s annual Safety Conference and was struck by how Con-Way Freight has effectively leveraged technology to vastly improve their safety record and fuel consumption.
The three things that stood out the most to me were their use of EOBR’s, collision avoidance systems and truck camera’s to capture information useful in coaching opportunities of drivers. For instance Con-Way uses their EOBR system to train the drivers on proper shifting (greatly improving their fuel consumption). The collision avoidance system has allowed them coaching opportunities in the areas of proper following distance and rear end crash avoidance, typically one of the most devastating and expensive claims, as well as lane deviation, avoiding side swipe type claims. Finally, the in cab cameras are being utilized to coach on following distance, by hard break alerts, as well as giving the motor carrier and their insurance carrier a clearer picture of what really happened when a claim does occur.
Though all technology has its limitations the opportunities presented here for cost savings to the company (ROI), opportunities to coach, improve and retain your current driver’s force (driver turnover mitigation) and most importantly save lives, far outweigh any limitations.