Fleet Technology: Life-Saving Success Stories from The Road

How Canada Cartage is improving safety and reducing cost through a connected fleet.

On June 28, 2022, Simratpal Mundi is driving on a two-lane highway in rural Southwestern Ontario, returning to the Canada Cartage terminal just outside Guelph after a full day of deliveries. It’s 6:20 p.m., traffic on the highway is light, and visibility is perfect – a beautiful, sunny evening in June.

Simratpal is driving 75 km per hour, and his truck is centred in his lane. In the oncoming lane, a dark blue station wagon is safely approaching. Suddenly, Simratpal jams on the brakes of his 53-foot rig. 

Why?

According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 90% of traffic accidents involving a car and a commercial truck are caused by the car. Often the causes of the accidents are cars driving in a truck’s blind spot, unsafe merging in front of trucks, or turning left in front of a truck.

However, during investigations by police and insurance adjusters, the cause of an accident can come down to the motorist’s word versus the trucker’s word.

In 2022, Canada Cartage invested in the installation of Omnitracs’ SmartDrive® in-cab camera systems across their fleet. The technology provides an unbiased account of what happened before, during, and immediately following an accident or driving incident. The video protects the driver and the transport company from wrongfully being blamed for the accident. It also avoids demerit points, damage to the Company’s safety profile, higher insurance premiums, and long, drawn-out legal battles.

Let’s return to Simratpal on the highway. 

When he suddenly jammed on his brakes, the SmartDrive® camera system initiated and, within minutes, sent a 20-second MP4 video via email to Simratpal’s manager and the Company’s director of safety. The video captures what happened 10 seconds before the hard braking and 10 seconds after the brakes were applied. 

The video tells the whole story – the perfect driving conditions, the light traffic, the truck’s speed, and the exact location. It shows the approaching blue station wagon. And then, we see the reason the brakes were applied and the incident was captured. 

As the approaching blue station wagon is almost upon Simratpal’s truck, a white VW Golf suddenly appears on Simratpal’s left, speeding head-on toward the oncoming car. Simratpal jams on the brakes, and the video shows the white VW swerving in front of the truck and narrowly missing the blue station wagon by just a few feet.     

The Company recognized Simratpal for his alertness, quick thinking, and defensive driving skill in preventing what could have been a catastrophic three-vehicle collision. Had there been an accident, Canada Cartage could have provided the video to police and insurance investigators to validate what happened and who was at fault.

The Company also uses the SmartDrive® system to individually coach drivers on how to improve. Much like a sports team uses video review after a game to improve their play, Canada Cartage drivers can see the video review of a situation where they made a driving error, so that they can improve the next time they are on the road. Besides hard braking, the cameras’ video is initiated when a truck accelerates too quickly, speeds, makes a U-turn, does an erratic lane departure, or if the truck is following too close to a vehicle ahead. The Company uses analytics to compile the most common driving errors and uses this data to tailor safe driving training programs at orientation and in ongoing safety meetings. 

In-cab cameras are just one aspect of Canada Cartage’s connected fleet strategy. To learn more about how the Company’s technology improves productivity, reduces cost, and improves customer service, contact us at info@canadacartage.com, or at 1-800-268-2228 extension 2.