Regional Fuel Hauler Waccamaw Transport Reduces Insurance Premiums by 10% As a Result of SmartDrive Deployment

Family-owned, Safety-focused Fleet Turns to Video to Protect Its Employees and the Company

SmartDrive Systems, a leader in video-based safety and transportation intelligence, today announced Waccamaw Transport has deployed the SmartDrive® video-based safety program across its entire fuel tank fleet. Since rollout, Waccamaw has had drivers exonerated and the company has benefitted from a 10% decrease in its insurance rates, thanks to measurable safety improvements.

“Safety is paramount to our business at Waccamaw, so we spec our trucks with all of the safety systems we can get,” commented Michael Mason, safety and human resources director at Waccamaw Transport. “For us, video was the last piece of the safety puzzle. It was the right thing to do to protect our company and employees. As a result of our improved safety performance and the reduction in insurance rates, the SmartDrive program has more than paid for itself.”

Since 1939, family-owned Waccamaw Transport has provided fuel and petroleum transportation services to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. The company completes 42,000 deliveries of 320 million gallons annually to customer bulk plants and retailer locations, and prides itself on offering a 99% on-time delivery rate through its best-in-class fleet of drivers, operations and technology. Adhering to its “Golden Service” motto, Waccamaw touts its commitment to innovation and continuous customer service improvement as pillars of its success.

“We travel 4.6 million miles every year in urban areas,” added Mason. “With a lot of traffic, our drivers have to make numerous independent decisions every day and SmartDrive has helped with that decision making.”

Early on, Waccamaw’s management team recognized the need to actively engage drivers in plans to adopt the SmartDrive program. A proactive, thorough driver communication and rollout plan helped ensure successful deployment. This approach also helped make certain drivers were well-informed of how the video safety and analytics platform would benefit them.

“We prepared our drivers many months ahead of installation, and were very explicit in terms of what the program did, how it worked, who could review the captured video events and more,” said Mason. “We took the time to demonstrate the program, share sample videos and discuss the benefits of coaching, letting our drivers know that—just as professional athletes watch videos and learn from them—we can do the same thing to hone our skills. As a result, our drivers were accepting of the program and now view it as an ongoing learning experience.”

With the dual-camera configuration of SmartDrive Assurance Pro, Waccamaw has the visibility into the behavior of its drivers and what is happening on the road outside the vehicle. The road- and cab-facing cameras provide video that optimizes the effectiveness of driver coaching sessions, ensuring fleet managers and drivers have constructive conversations based on actual events. By having the cab-facing video, fleets can know exactly what happened in an event and can exonerate a driver when not at fault.

“Fuel transportation involves unique and inherent risk, over and above that of a typical for-hire fleet, and Waccamaw’s commitment to investing in the latest technology to ensure driver safety is commendable,” said Steve Mitgang, SmartDrive CEO. “We’re proud the SmartDrive program is now a key component of the company’s comprehensive approach and look forward to a long-term partnership to improve the safety of the carrier’s drivers, customers and the communities it serves.”

Learn from other SmartDrive customers about how deploying the SmartDrive platform has improved safety, exonerated their drivers and saved lives: https://www.smartdrive.net/why-smartdrive/customer-success.

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