Over the years, I have spoken to many businesses that have introduced tracking solutions and with preparation the transition has been smooth overall. The real challenge has been tracking driver behaviour and educating them with the new found data and advising them in real-time of best practice and unacceptable driving styles.
Many approaches have been tried, from general meetings to get across the impact of driver behaviour to 121 meetings highlighting issues and rewarding drivers for compliance. Add to this when there are incidents, the tracking data only provides the vehicle activity with the driver providing a supporting statement. In recent years we have seen the addition of simple coloured displays to advise drivers of best driving practice plus a surge in dash-cams to provide supporting video to the tracking data. Many dash-cams have SD cards which require the video to be downloaded and then viewed to identify the supporting footage, all adding to the workload and further time pressures on fleet managers and administrators.
Innovative providers have looked to combine these technologies which is why GreenTrackGPS partnered with TrakM8. Their leading edge RH600 4G Telematics Camera combines a wealth of technologies into a single device designed to provide the driver with real peace of mind and the business with state of the art information to manage the vehicle fleet more effectively.
The RH600 has a button centrally located with a split circular coloured display around it. This is designed to provide guidance on good driving style whilst raising awareness of other alerts which are beneficial to driver safety and well-being. The central button can also be used to trigger video evidence manually plus being able to switch to and from business and private mileage where appropriate.
The RH600 is fitted with one forward facing camera with the option to add and in-cab facing camera. The in-cab facing camera is programmed to alert the driver and the fleet manager to driver distraction events. Drivers receive an audio warning while fleet managers receive an alert which can include a photo capturing the incident. The inward facing camera can also detect driver drowsiness or micro-sleeping again providing drivers with a audio alarm and fleet managers with alerts supported by photographic evidence.
The RH600 also uses its forward facing camera to monitor the distance and closing speed to the vehicle ahead and creates an event if a collision becomes likely in the form of an audio alert to the driver and notification to the fleet manager. In addition if the distance between the vehicle and the vehicle ahead is less than 2.5 seconds the driver is alerted with an amber light or red light with audio warning.
All photographic and video information is sent in real-time enabling the fleet manager or administrator to act in a cost effective and timely manner. As the RH600 is also a fully functional telematics unit, all driver behaviour data on aspects such as harsh braking, acceleration and cornering.
So not only is the fleet manager getting real-time data on driver behaviour and supporting images and video from incidents but the RH600 can also provide vehicle diagnostic data in real-time to help reduce vehicle downtime.
The RH600 really does deliver on all fronts and I can speak from experience as I have one in my own vehicle which is influencing my driving style and increasing my driving awareness. I have looked at it as a device that is looking out for me and with road traffic volumes so heavy on our UK roads it is reassuring to know that the RH600 has my back.
