Best Practices for Getting Your Drivers On Board with AI Video Dash Cameras
Welcome to the ConnectedOps Visionaries podcast. I’m your host, John Carione. Today’s episode is a little different, and much shorter than usual. Rather than the typical interview format, I’m going to share what I call a “connected insight.” These special episodes will deliver actionable insights and best practices that you can immediately put to work in your business.
You may know that April was distracted driving awareness month. Throughout the month, you likely heard about a variety of solutions you can install in your fleet vehicles to reduce distracted and other risky driving behaviors. AI video dash cams, for example, can significantly reduce accidents, violations and can even your insurance rates as well as payouts on legal claim and fuel costs.
While the technology is important, realizing its full safety potential takes driver buy-in. And that’s what I want to talk about today – best practices you can use to gain the buy-in of your drivers when you install AI video dash cams in your vehicles.
Regardless of their proven safety benefits, some drivers will associate cameras with ‘Big Brother’ style surveillance, when in reality they serve as an impartial eyewitness that offers real-time coaching to reduce risk and on-demand evidence that can exonerate drivers from false claims.
To get your drivers on board with AI video dash cams, here are 8 steps to a successful roll out:
Number 1: Start with a small pilot of the technology. Just Choose a few of your most engaged drivers and let them trial the AI video dash cams for several weeks. The pilot can accomplish a few things:
- For one Your drivers will get comfortable with the technology and their endorsement is critical to getting the rest of your team onboard.
- Second You’ll identify driver questions and concerns and be able to address them proactively.
- And finally You’ll capture real-world examples of the cameras in action – like preventing even a near-miss accident or exonerating a driver who wasn’t at fault in a collision
Step 2: Review, adjust and re-communicate your safe-driving policy. AI video dash cams provide a host of new events to track – risky behaviors like phone use, smoking, drowsy driving, lane departure and following too close. Ensure your drivers know the exact thresholds that trigger an event, how events contribute to their scorecard and the consequence for an infraction.
Step 3: Balance your driver coaching program to share positive examples of safe driving in addition to correcting negative behaviors. The balance makes it clear that your goal is truly on improving safety and not punitive.
Step 4: Commit to complete transparency. Bring your drivers together in an open forum and share a detailed overview of the camera. Invite your drivers to share all questions and concerns.
Step 5: Establish an ongoing communication channel. The first meeting will reveal initial questions, but more will come up in the days, weeks and months after the cameras are installed. Continue to capture and address questions, taking action to adjust policies and procedures when necessary. This will demonstrate your commitment to safety – and to maintaining a great driver experience.
Step 6: Adding a gamification element to your safety metrics and scorecards can help get drivers to embrace new technology and your safety goals. Offer rewards in the form of recognition, bonuses, gift cards or company swag. Rewards, combined with a leaderboard creates friendly competition and more positive associations with your safety program.
Step 7: Celebrate every success. Immediate safety metrics and goals are important, and it’s just as important for your drivers to see the broader protection that comes with AI dash cams. When the camera prevents an accident – or the video exonerates a driver not at fault in an accident – make sure your entire team knows it.
Number 8: Share the business savings that come from AI video dash cams – and how those savings benefit them, as well. Explain how the cameras can slow escalating insurance costs and claim payouts that throttle company cash flow and profitability. Linking the cameras to business health underscores the importance of the program – and shows how the savings can fund fleet enhancements and reward those committed to safe driving.
I hope these tips have been helpful. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to capture them all now, I’ve got a short guide you can download that outlines them all with even more tips to help make your safety program a success. You will find a link to download the guide in the show notes. Have a great day!