Oakley Transport Taps SmartDrive Video Platform for Safety, to Exonerate Drivers

SmartDrive Systems, a leader in video-based safety and transportation intelligence, announced that Oakley Transport, Inc., a leader in the liquid, food grade transportation sector, has adopted the SmartDrive video-based safety platform to improve overall fleet safety.

Since deploying the SmartDrive program, Oakley reports that it has seen a 62 percent reduction in number of accidents and a 2.1 percent increase in fuel efficiency, which equates to approximately $84 per vehicle per month in fuel expense savings at current diesel prices. The fleet has also successfully used video footage to exonerate a driver in a collision.

Recognized for its top driver orientation and training program, Oakley leaders have long been confident in the skills of the company’s driving professionals, yet remained curious about behaviors associated with on-road collisions. Through a dual-camera configuration, telematics data and expert analysis, the SmartDrive safety and analytics solution delivers the visibility and insights Oakley relies on for continuous safety and operational improvement.

“Safety has always been our top priority and rarely do I get this excited when introducing a new technology, but the success of the SmartDrive pilot program impressed the entire leadership team at Oakley,” stated Thomas Oakley, CEO of Oakley Transport. “Having the SmartDrive platform gives us confidence in our ability to comply with regulations of the Department of Transportation and other regulatory bodies, while also fulfilling the expectations of our customers and meeting the needs of our drivers. Unlike previous solutions we tried in the past, which provided video clips without any context or priority, the fully managed SmartDrive program prioritizes video for us and delivers actionable insights, ensuring our management team can direct resources quickly and appropriately to address risk.”

Oakley Transport is a family-owned and operated over-the-road and transportation services company operating in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands. With more than 500 vehicles, it has established itself as an industry leader in quality and safety, in addition to being the first liquid food grade transportation company in the world to acquire International Standards Organization (ISO) certifications 9001:2015 and 22000:2005. Its adoption of the SmartDrive platform underscores Oakley Transport’s commitment to be the best in the industry and align its dynamic safety culture to the requirements of the ISO certifications.

“The early, impressive results we achieved, along with a tangible reduction in claims costs initially led us to choose the SmartDrive platform over competitive solutions. When you look at our accident reduction rate and fuel savings, the numbers speak for themselves,” added Oakley. “This investment has helped us significantly reduce risk and strengthen our culture of safety. In fact, we’ve been so thrilled with the outcomes, we signed on early to rollout SmartDrive’s newest hardware, SR4.”

Oakley taps the SmartDrive safety score and other scorecard metrics as a basis for its new Safe Driving Performance Program enabling all of its professionals to receive up to an additional .05 cents per mile. This compensation program compliments all existing incentive programs.

Additionally, as rollout of the SR4 and the SmartDrive Transportation Intelligence Platform—with its new triggering and risk measurement capabilities—continues, the company will have the ability to fuse data from a multitude of systems, sensors and the operating environment to further boost safety and efficiency. Already, Oakley has been able to eliminate its usage of the safety critical events service from their telematics provider—saving money for the fleet.

Sensitive to the apprehension among its drivers toward the video-based solution, Oakley transitioned cautiously from pilot to fleet-wide rollout. The company used a combination of senior leaders, driver trainers, mentors and advocates to introduce the program. Crediting the successful rollout in part to support from the SmartDrive customer success team and mentorship from peer carriers that also use the program, Oakley leadership, managers and drivers are united in their commitment to leverage the technology for continuous improvement.

“SmartDrive is proud not only to be partnering with Oakley, but that the fleet has selected the new SR4 hardware. Oakley is a fleet that truly believes that safety is good for business, and demonstrates this belief with their investment in ISO compliance certification and the advanced technology they put on their vehicles,” commented Steve Mitgang, CEO of SmartDrive. “Oakley is an industry leader in their approach to driver incentives—rewarding drivers based on their actual performance in the field—as measured by the SmartDrive Safety Score. Actual driver performance is something you can only measure with video safety and something only available from our transportation intelligence platform.”

Launched March 14, SR4 is an integral component of the new SmartDrive Transportation Intelligence Platform, delivering breakthrough driving performance insights and analytic intelligence by fusing data from all systems, all sensors and the operating environment, helping commercial fleets improve safety and efficiency and manage an entirely new set of business challenges arising in the future, including autonomous driving.

Category: Connected Fleet News, General Update, News, Safety