Damien Penney Vice President at Lytx Europe, discusses how fleet managers can empower their most important assets by placing technician safety and empowerment at the heart of their programs.

More and more, fleet managers are empowering their technicians with the tools to make good decisions that help them stay safe on the road. This means sharing ‘big picture’ insights about behavioral trends to watch out for, but also deploying in-the-moment vehicle alerts that allow technicians to self-correct in the case of a momentary slip-up behind the wheel.

By placing technician safety and empowerment at the heart of their programs, fleet managers are focusing on their most important assets. A technician who self-corrects risky driving behaviors is in the best possible position to help keep the fleet on track during high volume or challenging times.

THE POWER OF IN-THE-MOMENT ALERTS

Fleet managers know that even the most experienced and safest drivers may be subject to a periodic slip-up. When that happens, it’s important to help those behind the wheel get back on track as quickly as possible. Unlike traditional telematics which only tells you the what, powerful technologies such as machine vision and artificial intelligence (MV+AI) are now being used in order to tell the why and provide drivers with a little extra assistance.

Machine vision essentially acts as a smart set of eyes that scan and recognize both the internal and external environment of the vehicle. This includes the ability to identify distracted driving behaviors such as mobile phone use, eating, drinking, smoking, or failure to wear a seat belt. While MV identifies the issue, AI determines how risky that issue is and whether it needs to be flagged to the technician or manager.

An experienced technician may have a perfect driving history but, on their first day back after a long break, forget to click their seatbelt as they pull away from the depot. Much like a friend sitting in the passenger seat, MV+AI will kick in, cueing an audio alert that will enable the technician to self-correct their driving in a matter of seconds.

Fleet managers can also use this approach as an opportunity to reward good behavior. For example, video footage may reveal a technician reacting quickly to a momentary lapse, minimizing potential risk and avoiding any escalation.

PUTTING THE TECHNOLOGY IN THE HANDS OF THE TECHNICIAN

As well as reacting in the moment, it’s important that technicians have the opportunity to review their overall driving style. This includes spotting any risky behaviors that may be sneaking in over time.

One of the ways this can be achieved is by giving technicians condensed video clips of their driving to review at their leisure after their shift. In the moment, a driver may not have registered that they were following the vehicle in front too closely for example. However, the sight of themselves on video exhibiting potentially risky behaviors is a direct and effective way of communicating this. A technician will become more aware of their actions, placing the risk more firmly in their consciousness as a result.

One of the biggest benefits of self-review is that it’s something that technicians can do independently. There is no need to wait for a formal coaching session to be scheduled and any question of implied blame by a supervisor is avoided. In terms of technology, technicians can simply log on to a computer or mobile device anywhere that there’s a cellular connection.

SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE

As a manager, understanding the bigger impact of these behaviors is also important. You need to be able to predict and manage future collision risk exposure to your fleet by analyzing past data.

For example, you might uncover a trend that shows technicians who work back-to-back shifts are more likely to be distracted by texting, food or drink while driving. This would be the starting point for taking a closer look at what’s going on. In this case, perhaps the technician is not taking breaks and eating while driving, and possibly texting or making phone calls while driving from job to job in order to multitask. Maybe they are facing pressure to get more site visits done in a shift and might be cutting some safety corners.

The more quality data you have, the easier it becomes to see these trends on a bigger scale – and feel confident that they are accurate. At Lytx, our database is meaningful because it consists of more than 120 billion miles of driving data from more than one million commercial drivers and technicians worldwide. This grows by more than 140,000 new driving events each day, further training and improving its algorithms.

For safer fleets, we need these insights to be shared properly. As well as providing managers with reports detailing incidents of risky driving, it’s essential that we place technicians themselves at the heart of the process. By placing some of this power into their hands, we can increase co-operation, share the responsibility, and have an approach to fleet management that is altogether more agile and responsive. Only then we really achieve lasting behavior change that sticks.

Lytx can help empower your technicians to be safer. Learn more at Lytx.com.

This post was originally published on Lytx.com by Damien Penney Vice President, Lytx Europe.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Managing The Mobile Workforce @ www.fieldservicenews.com/digital-transformation
• Learn more about Lytx  @ www.lytx.com
• Find out more about Detect and Prevent Risky Driving with Lytx @ youtu.be/F1B1jEWcLAY
• Read more about Lytx on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/lytx
• Follow Lytx on Twitter @ twitter.com/lytx

Lytx^®, a leading provider of machine vision- and artificial intelligence-powered video telematics, analytics, safety, and productivity solutions for commercial, public sector, and field service fleets, today announced several new technology capabilities that build upon its ability to quickly, comprehensively, and accurately identify driving risk.

Using precise, cutting-edge technology, this new driver-powered approach to safety is a simple, but powerful way for drivers to be more proactive and accountable for their own improvement, while giving management the necessary visibility and data to effectively monitor and intervene if needed.

THE NEXT GENERATION OF DRIVER-POWERED SAFETY

Lytx is adding a number of new capabilities to its safety offerings in support of this driver-powered approach, including:

• "Inattentive" trigger, which uses proprietary machine vision and artificial intelligence (MV+AI) to detect when the driver's attention may be unfocused or the driver may be experiencing a condition such as fatigue or drowsiness without the reliance on an accelerometer event
• Real-time in-cab alerts for five different risky driving behaviors: cell phone use, eating and drinking, smoking, no seatbelt, speeding, and inattentiveness
• Behavior duration reporting, which uses MV+AI to track and quantify both the duration and percentage of drive time a driver was engaged in a risky driving behavior, providing a more holistic view of persistent risk

With these new MV+AI-powered updates, when an event is detected, the DriveCam^® Event Recorder will issue a real-time in-cab alert to help drivers recognize and address their own risky behaviors and self-correct in the moment. Depending on the behavior, the alert will include a light and/or spoken phrase. With Lytx's ability to detect more than 60 driving behaviors with greater than 95% accuracy, its in-cab alerts are some of the most precise and actionable in the industry.

Drivers will also have access to new check-in tools allowing them to review their own video and performance after-the-fact, including behavior duration. This gives a new perspective on past events and supports long-term retention on lessons learned during a drive. If desired, managers can stay informed by subscribing to push notifications and reports on pertinent information.

"Fleets today are looking for reliable technology that allows drivers to quickly improve in the moment and with little or no manager intervention," said Lytx President Doron Lurie. "A driver-powered approach to safety empowers drivers to take charge of their own safety, while freeing up precious manager time that can be redirected to other areas of the business. Backed by award-winning technology and a proven strategy that has helped hundreds of thousands of drivers safely navigate billions of miles, fleet managers can be confident in this approach and can track progress along the way to respond to any critical events or incidents and intervene as needed."

THE RISK DETECTION WITHOUT RECORDING VIDEO

Lytx is also broadening its safety solutions with Risk Identification Without Recording, an innovative new configuration for its already best-in-class DriveCam Event Recorder. Using Lytx's ultra-precise MV+AI, DriveCam is now able to detect patterns of distracted or unwanted driving behaviors inside the cab without recording video of the driver.

This new configuration is designed for fleets who opt to disable in-cab video recording, allowing them to benefit from significantly greater in-cab risk detection, while respecting driver privacy. Drivers can receive the added benefit of Lytx's expanded in-cab alerts based on risky behaviors that are detected, but not recorded, enabling in-the-moment action for greater safety overall.

"For more than 20 years, Lytx has made an unwavering commitment to developing cutting-edge technology, and we are continuously innovating to incorporate that technology for greater safety and productivity enhancements," said Lytx Chief Technology Officer Rajesh Rudraradhya. "Leveraging our unmatched scale, deep expertise and advanced AI architecture, we have evolved from using AI to provide only video snippets and counts of risky driving behaviors to offering a full view of each and every drive with precise continual behavior reporting. The advanced driver first innovations announced today will help fleets and drivers identify and eradicate risk at levels never seen before, while ensuring every fleet can take advantage of the power of Lytx MV+AI to cut through the noise and focus on what matters."

These new capabilities announced today are part of Lytx's safety solutions and are configurable to suit each fleet's unique workflows and priorities. To learn more about driver-powered safety and see in-cab alerts in action, watch this new video.

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Further Reading:

• Read more about Managing The Mobile Workforce @ www.fieldservicenews.com/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Learn more about Lytx  @ www.lytx.com
• Find out more about Detect and Prevent Risky Driving with Lytx @ youtu.be/F1B1jEWcLAY
• Read more about Lytx on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/lytx
• Follow Lytx on Twitter @ twitter.com/lytx

Study says next five years will see significant uptake across both continents.

A new report is forecasting a substantial growth in the number of active video telematics systems across Europe and North America over the next five years.

The research carried out by M2M/IoT market research firm Berg Insight says the installed-base of systems will exceed four million units by 2024 across the two continents.

Helping Field Service Professionals

Last year (2019) the number of active systems reached almost 1.6 million units in North America which, the study says, is a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.7 per cent, a trend which should see the active installed base reach more than 3.2 million units by 2025.

In Europe, during 2019, figures for telematics solutions at came in under 0.5 million. In line with a CAGR of 16.1 per cent, the study expects this figure to reach close to one million systems by 2024.

The study categorised the large array of companies delivering such solutions which ranged "from specialists focused on video telematics solutions for various commercial vehicles, to general fleet telematics players which have introduced video offerings, and hardware-focused suppliers offering digital video recorders and vehicle cameras".

In the former category, the report cites Lytx as one of the "leading video telematics players in their respective categories", acknowledging the firms high number of subscriptions as the highest in the sector, which in 2019 reached over 600,000 devices and protected 1.3 million drivers.

The report's introduction argued that camera integration is one of the key trends in the fleet telematics sector, justifying its forecast of the combined number of devices across North America and Europe will exceed four billion by 2024.

Growth continues for market leading provider of video telematics.

Lytx^® announces results from 2019 that reflect the company's continued success and industry leadership. According to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, Lytx has 60% share of the total video safety market - more than triple the share of its nearest competitor.

Brandon Nixon, Lytx chairman and CEO, said: "2019 was a phenomenal year for Lytx by any measure. It has been over 20 years since we created the first technology in the video telematics space. As we enter this new decade, our future is brighter than ever."

"Anyone can capture video from a vehicle," Nixon continued. "But we have billions of miles of data and experience across thousands of fleets that enable us to make an effective behaviour-change tool for fleets of all sizes. We decipher millions of hours of driving data a day and use it to deliver meaningful insights to clients that make a difference for their business. That's why more and more fleets are turning to Lytx. We understand the challenges they face day-in and day-out and innovate to exceed their expectations."

Innovation Fuels Client Success

Driving Lytx's growth and continued success is the company's relentless focus on customer-centred innovation, particularly in the fields of machine vision and artificial intelligence (MV+AI). Clients credit the company's advanced technology, commercial grade hardware, configurable and flexible solutions, all-in-one telematics offerings, exceptional customer service, and superior return on investment as the key differentiators that lead them to deploy with Lytx.

Today, more than 4,000 organizations, with fleets of all sizes and across all sectors, are experiencing the benefits of Lytx first-hand. In 2019, nearly 25% of new customers were fleets who switched to Lytx after using another video or telematics solution. The company also increased its base of protected drivers by 300,000.

A One-Stop Video Telematics Leader for Versatile and Converged Solutions

Lytx's product portfolio, which the company introduced in February 2019, is now established as the most robust, configurable, broadly adopted, all-in-one video telematics fleet safety and productivity solution on the market.

The Lytx Video Platform and DriveCam® Event Recorder are unmatched in capturing capability, built-in computing power and clarity of view. Lytx monitors billions of miles of driving data annually – processing video through both MV+AI-powered algorithms and validated by professional reviewers. This approach mitigates unnecessary information for clients and increases accuracy while exposing more risk and delivering specific incidents and insights directly to fleet managers' dashboards. Lytx clients receive the information they need to succeed and improve — no more, no less.

Mugundhan Deenadayalan, senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said: "Lytx's diverse range of industry-first solutions, advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence systems, industry best practices, customisable product portfolio and unparalleled customer service have taken the company to a new level of excellence in the industry.

"Its practice of putting the customer first, developing superior science and technology, and leveraging the power of data and analytics to innovate and craft solutions is proven to improve driver behaviour, safety, and operational efficiency, thereby saving lives."

Looking Forward to 2020

In January, Lytx announced it had received the largest-ever investment in video telematics from global private equity firm Permira. This investment values Lytx in excess of $2.5 billion.

Lytx's ability to turn vast amounts of data into roadway insights through MV+AI only furthers its market leadership and competitive advantage in the $30 trillion global transportation economy. With over 120 billion miles of roadway data and the fastest-growing database of commercial driving data powering its advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, Lytx is uniquely positioned to continue leading the industry in 2020.

"The precision of our technology is unmatched in the industry. With the scale of our data, we can train our cameras to see and recognize anything of value to our clients," Nixon said. "The power and capability of our MV+AI technology only scratches the surface of its future potential. It presents a massive opportunity for our clients as we continue to fine-tune our offerings moving into this next decade. The number of ways we can help improve fleet operations are boundless." 

 

 

Video telematics provider also unveiled the UK’s most dangerous roads

 

Lytx^®, a provider of machine vision and artificial intelligence-based video telematics, analytics, productivity and safety solutions for commercial, public sector and services fleets, has revealed the top fleet risky driving trends in the U.K.

 

Lytx's database contains more than 120 billion miles of driving data from more than one million commercial drivers worldwide, capturing over 64 million risky driving events globally each year.

 

According to data for the UK, the top five observed riskiest behaviours for fleet drivers are:

1. Improper following distance
2. Late response
3. Mobile phone use
4. Driving without a seatbelt
5. Failure to keep an out*

 

*Defined as failure to maintain proper space around the vehicle so that drivers have ‘‘an out’’ or escape route should the unexpected occur.

 

Lytx found these behaviours are directly related to potential collisions, proving that the elimination of habitual risky driving behaviours can have an immediate and lasting effect on the frequency and severity of collisions and near collisions a fleet experiences.

 

For example, a driver who follows the vehicle in front of them too closely – this being the most prevalent risky driving behaviour – is approximately 40% more likely to have a collision in the next 90 days than a driver who ensures proper following distance.

 

Similarly, a driver who demonstrates late response to a potential hazard is 80% more likely to have a collision within 90 days than a driver who responds within a proper time frame.

 

Lytx’s research also unveiled some of the U.K.’s riskiest roads, where incidents caused by dangerous driving are most likely to occur. These include:

1. Dartford Crossing on the M25 (Pictured).
2. Junction of the A45 and A46 near Coventry.
   
   

“The best way to eliminate risk in your fleet is to combine proven video telematics with driver coaching, as shown by the impressive improvements our clients across the UK continue to experience,” stated Damian Penney, vice president and general manager for Lytx Europe. “Video insights paired with personalised coaching helps eliminate risky driving habits and is what makes the difference between a good driver safety programme and a great one.”

 

We want to empower our clients with more than just data, but actionable and coachable video events that can improve driver safety, reduce claims costs, and help make sure every driver returns home safely,” Penney said. “We are proud of the strong safety results our clients achieve, knowing we’re helping prevent injuries and save lives.”

Leading tool hire company experienced a 56% reduction in overall risk year-over-year...

Brandon Hire Station, one of the U.K.’s biggest tool and plant hire companies, has significantly improved its drivers’ safety records after installing video telematics and analytics solutions from Lytx. Collisions and risky driving incidents fell by approximately 56% in one year, while following-distance events were down almost 75%.

Lytx^® is a leading global provider of machine vision and artificial intelligence-based video telematics, analytics, safety and productivity solutions. The company has also helped Brandon Hire Station to improve driver safety and use video evidence to make it simpler to resolve insurance claims in the event of an incident. Harnessing Lytx video, Brandon Hire Station can provide drivers with a video clip of exactly what went wrong during a risky event, which allows for a more productive and personalised conversation.

Over a twelve month period, Brandon Hire Station saw the following improvements:

• 56% reduction in overall risk frequency and severity

• 77% reduction in following distance <1 second
• 74% reduction in following distance 1-2 seconds
• 46% reduction in collisions
• 31% reduction in late responses
• 25% reduction in other distracted driving incidents

 

Increasing the safety of your field service workers

“Our drivers have responded brilliantly to the introduction of Lytx,” said Stuart Conway, fleet manager at Brandon Hire Station, and highly commended ‘Commercial Fleet Manager Of The Year’ at the 2019 Commercial Fleet News Awards. “Overwhelmingly, they saw it as investment in their safety and their future and in the safety of other road users too. I’d like to think the very strong results we’ve already achieved are only the beginning.”

As well as implementing its video and analytic capabilities, The Lytx Driver Safety Programme has delivered prescriptive and customised coaching insights to Brandon Hire Station’s fleet managers. Lytx leverages video, motion and engine control module (ECM) sensors to present a superior and accurate view of risk, with greater than 95% accuracy across more than 60 risky driving behaviours – helping to filter out the noise and helps fleets focus on what’s most important.

“One major factor in our decision was that Lytx reviews the 12-second clips captured and uploaded by the cameras, and only sends us what we need to see,” Conway said. “Some of the other systems send you 15 hours of footage a day and we simply don’t have the capacity to go through all of that.”

Brandon Hire’s safety improvements were recently recognised when the company was awarded Commercial Fleet News’ 2019 Most Improved Fleet. The company has also achieved silver accreditation from the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS), and is aiming to achieve gold accreditation soon.

Moving forward, Brandon Hire Station is looking to develop its driver training further, as the company fully implements Lytx’s best-in-class Driver Safety Programme.

Earlier this summer we introduced you to three companies that we felt were set up to bring some significant value to the field service sector. Now as we look forward to 2020 here are three more companies that could potentially help drive your field service business forwards..