So what’s going on here?
On the surface it would look like getting cameras makes you have more accidents. But what’s actually going on is that once fleet operators start experiencing accidents, they also start buying cameras.
That’s great for the future but it means that you are left unprotected for what’s already happened. That’s a bit like buying car insurance after you’ve had an accident! First of all, this is often too late, as they have already lost money from the accident which could have been avoided if cameras were already installed. For some fleets, especially smaller fleets, one major accident could be enough to put them out of business or at least make a major dent in their profits.
However, whatever reason our customers decided to install vehicle cameras, once they are in, we see an interesting trend emerge.
Proper use of Vehicle Cameras
Before you even have an accident, vehicle cameras can save you time and money in areas such as driver/driving behaviour, reporting/training, accident reduction and even fuel savings.
We have found that customers that fully integrate the cameras into their compliance/safety protocols, rather than simply having them on the vehicles and never looking at them unless there’s an accident, enjoy significant savings. But how?
Let’s imagine that you are experiencing 5 accidents per year across your fleet. You install cameras and for future accidents it helps you defend a number of those claims. It can also help speed up the claims process. OK, all good so far.
You now start noticing a reduction in the incidents of near-misses and in your accident rate.
If you think this sounds far-fetched then you need to look at customers like Dynes Auto Services who shared that after implementing this type of approach, they were able to catch 73% more non-compliance and infractions (speeding, use of mobile phone, erratic driving). They then used this in a retraining program and saw major reductions in re-offences, including an 89% reduction in mobile phone use while driving.
Overall, this led to a 32% reduction in accidents/incidents that has saved them 49% in claims and legal payouts.
We then look at McCulla, who implemented a similar program and enjoyed similar results, but went one step further and used the footage to help drivers see how they were driving erratically. This delivered a 3% saving on their yearly fuel costs. Simply being able to view and download footage of harsh acceleration and braking and review it with the drivers in question eliminated future poor driving habits.
They report the video review as more meaningful than simply presenting the data to drivers. These savings can equate to €50,000 to €100,000 in a mid-sized fleet, which could cover the cost of the CameraMatics system many times over just by itself!
What about ROI?
When you started reading this, you possibly never thought that we could talk about Return On Investment for a vehicle Camera System. But we can.
Obviously if you simply use the cameras for accident reporting, then you have to wait until an incident occurs before you can calculate the ‘savings’. But when you do what Dynes and McCulla do, you see your savings start to rack up.
In fact, our customers report ROIs from as low as 3 months, with the average being between 6 months and 8 months. In real terms for a mid-sized fleet, our customers report savings of between £130,000/€150,000 and £180,000/€200,000 per year!
Don’t wait, start saving money today!
So, given the risk of not having a vehicle camera system and the huge additional benefits of having them, why wait? As humans, we sometimes tend to wait for something bad to happen before finding a solution. Not having vehicle cameras on your fleet is a risk you shouldn’t take. But we hope we have shown that vehicle camera footage along with CameraMatics platform can deliver significant, tangible savings!
