By the year 2030, a large truck or commercial vehicle accidents may be the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. Delivery of goods via large trucks is still preferred by businesses even though other alternatives are available. Enterprises usually sign up for insurance policies to protect their fleet of trucks and drivers. Aside from insurance, however, business owners with commercial vehicles may want to consider investing in the latest technologies that could minimize the risk of accidents.
What’s Available Today
Installing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in commercial vehicles is one of the most effective ways of increasing safety. There are generally four types of ADAS technologies that when used together can greatly decrease commercial vehicle accidents: adaptive, automated, monitoring, and warning.
An efficient combination of different types of ADAS in a commercial vehicle can reduce property damage, injuries, and fatalities. Ambu-Trans Ambulette, a fleet of medical transportation, experienced a 91% reduction in collision-related losses when the company installed ADAS on their vehicles.
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) technologies, just like CameraMatics vehicle camera systems that have been widely adopted by fleets, include features such as blind spot and forward video monitoring, lane departure warning, air disc brakes, collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control, and electronic stability control
Next Generation Tech
The ADAS industry is continually developing new systems and software to strengthen vehicle safety. In the near future, commercial vehicles may opt to install sensors with a wider range and the ability to sense the environment. Commercial vehicle automation will gradually increase. Integration of sensor and camera will reduce crashes and mitigate cross-traffic while mirror cameras will take the place or supplement glass mirrors for a better view.
Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) are two more innovations to watch out for. V2V will allow trucks to “platoon” or move in a convoy while maintaining a specific time gap. V2V will let commercial vehicles receive real-time traffic information that will help the driver adjust accordingly. For the drivers, a driver alcohol detection system will be on trial in 2022. Once it’s out in the market, it’s expected to save more than 9,000 lives.
Training And Education
ADAS systems can definitely reduce the risk of accidents, but these technologies are useless if drivers are totally dependent on them. Technology is not meant to replace safe driving practices.
Train and educate drivers on how to use these technologies. It will be worth knowing that ADAS systems and how they need to be operated will vary depending on the model. Incentives for outstanding safety scores or lengthy accident-free cycles can motivate drivers to maintain and improve safe driving.
ADAS technologies may be costly, but the benefits they provide for vehicle safety will be well worth the investment.
To quote Kary Schaefer, General Manager of Product Strategy and Marketing for Daimler Trucks North America, “It’s really important that fleet owners, safety managers, maintenance VPs, all understand what’s available on the market and what systems make the most sense for their operation. You’ll be able to take advantage of both the benefits from a profit and liability standpoint.”
