Traffic accidents are the single biggest threat to vehicle fleets across the US. Period.
The average accident costs a fleet $16,500. Depending on the seriousness of the collision, those costs could soar to half a million for a single incident. The best way to stay safe is a software and hardware system to address all fleet accident management concerns.
Here’s everything to know on how these systems work.
What Is Fleet Accident Management?
There are four key areas in which a fleet management system, or FMS, can be used to prevent or manage vehicle collisions:
- Reducing the risk of accident
- Tracking any accidents that may occur
- Streamlining the process of reporting accidents
- Saving a papertrail of everything that occurred
Risk reduction features include real-time routing technology to avoid heavy traffic, and safety alerts features to reduce risky driving habits like speeding or harsh cornering.
Accident tracking features help a fleet manager respond faster. Collision autodetection is a must, as are alerts that immediately let a manager know there’s been an accident, and a frequently updated map of the fleet vehicles’ locations to help the manager know what towing company to contact or how best to complete the shipment if the vehicle is out of commission.
Finally, a system’s reporting functionality can also collect the data surrounding an accident, including dash cam footage, location, vehicle speed, impact force, and driver’s schedule.
This helps a manager quickly report an accident to insurance with the evidence they need to prove their driver was not at fault, while saving the incident report for auditing purposes in the future.
How Does Fleet Accident Management Work?
Most fleets rely on a fleet management system for their accident management needs, since the system is a one-stop-shop for everything needed to keep a fleet running.
An FMS has three components:
- The hardware, installed or plugged into the vehicle’s dashboard port
- The software dashboard that the manager uses to view the fleet’s performance in real time
- The mobile driver app that lets drivers communicate with managers while logging their hours of service.
What’s included?
The software element of an FMS is licensed on a per-vehicle per-month basis, often under a contract of between one and three years. The mobile driver app is typically available to download for free in the iOS and Android stores, but won’t work without the license.
Acquiring the vehicle hardware isn’t quite as simple. The tracking units might be included in the price of the software or they might be available to rent or own at an additional price: It varies depending on the FMS vendor. Many of the top FMS services will also work with pre-existing hardware, though the supported hardware brands will vary as well.
Do I need Fleet Accident Management?
The annual accident rate for commercial fleets is higher than you might think: Around 20%, averaged across all industries, according to Automotive Fleet. In short, driving for a living puts truckers at a greater risk of an accident than the average Joe.
Your fleet might get lucky and avoid accidents for a while, but you’ll only get more likely to face a collision as time goes on. And if you need a system for accident management, you should get it as soon as possible, as a lot of the benefits are preventative: Adding dash cams has been found to reduce risky behavior by as much as 50%, and that’s before including the driver safety features offered by most fleet management systems, like alerts for speeding, harsh braking, and collisions.
Did You Know: Deadly truck collisions have been on the rise recently The most recent statistics from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration say that the number of large trucks involved in fatal crashes per 100 million miles traveled ticked up six percent year-over-year in 2017, up to 1.56 from 1.48.
Industry
The trucking industry is a bit of a misnomer, since it encompasses a host of other industries, from delivery to construction to food services. Each one comes with its own unique needs.
Commercial shipping vehicles often span the nation, while many other types of fleets (lawn care, plumbing, etc.) stay close to home but require frequent stops.
Fleet Size
Most fleets are on the small side, with between one and four vehicles, but the largest have thousands. As a fleet grows, the economy of scale changes how useful an FMS can be in accident prevention.
A smaller fleet will likely prefer a cheaper FMS with core features but no bells and whistles, while a larger fleet will benefit from a costly but feature-rich system.
Vehicle Type
The basic FMS works for the general needs of a commercial fleet. More specific industries will have additional needs that not all management systems are designed for, however. The most common example are refrigerated freight trucks, which require a system with temperature-tracking abilities.
Some accident management solutions aren’t entirely software or hardware based: Any tanker driver transporting hazardous liquids will need emergency training on dealing with a collision behind getting behind the wheel.
Distance Travelled
Some industries need OTR (over the road) drivers, who travel long distances, while others need LTL (less than truckload) drivers, who make frequent stops to unload a portion of their load at a time rather than all at once.
Managers will use different processes to deal with an accident that is far away and in less well-trod territory than one in which they know the tow-truck delivery service by name. If the fleet stays close to home, custom alerts can help notify managers with a prepared plan.
Comprehensive routing and dispatch features are most important for a fleet that travels long distances, as the software’s ability to adjust in real time will have a larger impact on travel times.
Best Fleet Accident Management Companies
Fleet management systems offer plenty of additional features beyond just accident prevention, like fuel management and ELD compliance. But which is best for accident management? We’ve taken a deeper look at all the top FMS vendors to figure it out.
Breaking down the top services by the size of fleet they’re best for can be tough — practically all FMS vendors bill themselves as the solution for any size fleet. Still, the relative importance of certain accident management features varies depending on a fleet’s size, so there is a difference.
Small business (1-4 vehicles)
Quartix is a great FMS service that offers the core features a fleet needs. It’s also a rental service, so small one-to-four-vehicle fleets won’t be crushed with a heavy upfront fee, and fairly inexpensive, starting at under $15 per vehicle per month.
Maven Machines is another smaller FMS vendor (they raised $7 million to scale their operation in early 2020, compared to the industry-leading Samsara, which raised $300 million the year before). Their service, Maven Fleet, offers the core abilities and stellar support that a small fleet needs.
Medium Fleets (5-25)
Samsara offers one of the best suites of features around, meaning that medium-sized fleets of five to 25 vehicles will have controls and alerts to play with in order to build a custom approach to fleet management.
Samsara sells integrated dash cams that offer a crisp image, to better determine which party is at fault in a collision — as well as the safety features to ensure your own employee is not the at-fault driver!
Teletrac is another option with strong features and a dependable track record. Both Teletrac and Samsara can support larger fleets just as well, making them attractive options for a medium-sized fleet with big ambitions for the future.
Large fleets (26+)
While small fleet managers are unlikely to forget an accident report, large fleets of 26 vehicles or more face a greater number of accidents and more managers to keep track of them. As a result, the top accident management solution for large fleets must include strong reporting features.
Verizon’s granular reporting functionality makes it our top choice for larger fleets, who can benefit the most from economies of scale. Which is useful, as Verizon is one of the pricier FMS services. They offer plenty of add-ons and industry-specific integrations as well, like field management and dash cams.
As mentioned earlier, Samsara and Teletrac remain great options for larger fleets as well.
Benefits of Accident Management
For the company, the benefits of a great accident management system are clear: Fewer accidents means more money in the bank. Just a fender bender will lead to a checkup, while worse accidents may mean a totalled vehicle or a lost shipment.
Did you know? The typical work injury claim for fleets costs $21,000. A more severe accident can result in legal action, and without data, it may be tough to prove who was truly at fault. Even once it’s all over, a collision can keep costing a fleet money for years afterwards if it results in a higher insurance premium.
Samsara found that 15% of its customers saw a premium reduction after adapting the FMS, while one of their clients reported a 50% reduction in accidents as well.
The benefits to a driver are clear, too. Not only will a driver arrive at their destination faster with fewer accidents, but they’ll stay healthy. And if they do get in an accident, an automated collision alert can ensure help will be on the way within minutes.
Case Study: Central Land Council
None other than Australia’s Central Land Council, a government authority, has reported better safety and accident management due to their Teletrac Navman FMS and its ability to track vehicles in real time while registering location and vehicle speed. The 104-vehicle fleet covers over 745,000 square miles, and reported “significant savings” due to the tracking system.
“Our vehicles need monitoring 24/7 given some of our employees are working long hours which extend through the weekend. Having constant access to vehicle location in case of an emergency is critical, particularly in incidents that might involve a vehicle rollover, Australian wildlife, or if the vehicle veers off course.” ~ Felicity Wall, Central Land Council’s Manager of Technical Services
Fleet Accident Management Services
How can you know if a fleet management system can actually help your fleet in the case of an accident? Hopefully our explainers above can point you in the right direction, but here’s a quick list of questions to ask yourself before you decide which FMS might be right for your needs.
- Does the software let you manage accidents 24/7? An accident can happen at any time, day or night, so the FMS will need a great automated alert system that can register collisions and notify managers.
- How granular a feature set do you need? Larger fleets may benefit from more controls within each feature, but so might small fleets with specific needs.
- Do you need dash cams? Two dash cams (a front facing one and a rear facing one) are the norm, but larger vehicles may need two more cameras for each side as well.
- Does the software support your vehicle type? Refrigerated units and moveable assets have different requirements, which can impact a management system’s ability to keep them safe during a crash.
Granted, you’ll want to compare price quotes as well, but I probably don’t need to tell you that. Keep in mind, though: Any good fleet management service will pay for itself with all the costly accidents they’ll help you avoid.
Fleet Accident Management Process
Once you install an FMS and get over the learning curve, you’ll need one last procedure in place before your fleet has fully established its accident management process: You’ll need to figure out what steps to take, should an accident happen.
Try working out plans for responding to more severe and less severe accidents, as well as those in different regions of the country.
You won’t necessarily need to run drills, but knowing the basic steps will help you respond with more certainty when you need to. After all, the best accident management doesn’t come from software. It comes from the training and cooperation of drivers and managers working together as a fleet.
