AutoZone, Ocean State Job Lot and Shaw Discuss Fleet Safety with AI-Powered Video
Today’s video technology for fleets is light-years ahead of where it was even just a decade ago. More fleets are deploying intelligent camera systems and forward-facing cameras as part of their safety programs, demonstrating that artificial intelligence (AI) powered video saves lives, mitigates risk and improves safety for drivers.
At Trimble Transportation’s 2022 Insight Tech Conference + Expo, we had the chance to hear from experts at AutoZone, Ocean State Job Lot and Shaw Industries Group Inc., about how they’ve deployed Video Intelligence across their fleets as a key element of their integrated safety program strategies.
Coaching Tool
According to Jeff Smith, senior manager of transportation and logistics at Ocean State, “the whole purpose behind safety programs and beyond is to be able to coach drivers to be better.” Smith said that Video Intelligence allows safety teams to revisit risky behaviors, coach the driver and decrease the likelihood of an incident happening.
Smith explained when you have video evidence and can point out risky behaviors to a driver in a coaching session, it takes away any ambiguity. “The video really takes away the pushback that you're going to get from the drivers from a realistic standpoint,” Smith stated. After a coaching session using video evidence, drivers will often take accountability for their mistake and share that the coaching session made them a better driver going forward.
Smith also shared that Video Intelligence offers safety managers the ability to archive and easily access stored content, which can then be used to document training sessions and coaching demonstrations. Having back-end video tools available to document safety training helps with risk mitigation and management.
Kacy Morales, systems compliance manager at AutoZone, explained that drivers are more open to using the technology because they’ve seen the reduction in serious collisions and the improvements in driver safety that are tied to intelligent video – which can ultimately improve retention. “Everybody is after the same thing,” Morales said. “Everybody wants to keep every driver that they can.”
Terry Henry, systems administrator at Shaw, shared how videos have a dual purpose as both a coaching tool and a way to exonerate drivers. He said they’ve used exoneration videos as examples of how to do everything right in a collision situation.
Exoneration
Morales explained that Video Intelligence has become “a huge part of our daily operations.” When her safety team gets a call that there’s been a collision situation, they can pull video within minutes of the incident, send it to officers on the scene and exonerate the driver in real time. “That's been a huge change for us,” Morales said.
Morales also shared she’s seen a shift in the culture around video systems with drivers. Some drivers that were originally apprehensive about the video program rolling out are now asking to see events that triggered the camera, and are more open to it.
“It's had a huge impact on us, safety culture-wise,” Morales shared. “I can't recall the last time that we had to call in legal counsel to respond to a serious collision, because we have had the video to instantly tell us the story.”
Ocean State’s Smith shared that “to be able to show that video of exoneration at a safety meeting really helps with buy-in to the program and get the drivers comfortable with it. It’s a tool to use for their own benefit as well as the company’s.”
Machine Learning
Smith explained that one of the benefits of AI video is that in addition to having access to all recorded videos, users now have the machine learning on the backend looking through the videos to help categorize them. This can help safety managers prioritize higher-priority safety issues or identify a new category that might be presenting issues for fleets. “With the machine learning,” Smith said, “you get the best of both worlds.”
Morales stated she’s most interested in driver-facing AI technology. The benefit she thinks will make the biggest difference is when the automated technology prevents a potentially dangerous situation, such as recognizing distraction or fatigue and then setting off an audible alert to let the driver know. “To me, that is what makes driver facing AI technology a truly great tool,” Morales shared.
You can learn more about Trimble’s Video Intelligence™ and discover how video can be a key element of a fleet's integrated safety program strategies here.