Kroger Stores Cut Collision Rates in Half

Kroger Stores, which has a dedicated fleet of 1,200 vehicle involved in 1,300 daily deliveries, has reported that it has cut its collision rates in hand.

Helping to improve safety has been an exception-based video telematics program that combines video capture of road incidents such as hard braking or sudden swerving, data analysis of those incidents, and personalized coaching insights to improve driving behavior.

Within four months, the company reported a 50 percent reduction in collisions, a 71 percent reduction in handheld cell phone use, and an 82 percent reduction of Driver Unbelted incidents,” said Kroger Safety Manager John Lobenberg.

Reducing Driver Unbelted incidents is critical, because drivers who don’t wear their seat belts are, according to the data, 3.4 times more likely to get into a collision than those who do.

To make the improvements, Kroger utilized the Lytx DriveCam program.

Lobenberg conducted a two-city pilot and it helped him prepare for the full-fleet roll out. Among his key learnings:

There’s a lot more risky behavior going on than he thought, from big risks like distracted driving to minor risks. “About 15 percent of our drivers represented 80 percent of our risk,” Lobenberg said.  Key lessons learned:

• It only took about a week for drivers to forget that the event camera was there.
• Having driver coaches is of utmost important – “they’ve been there and they’re listened to.” That said, not all coaches selected have the same skill level and will likely need coaching themselves.
• An unanticipated benefit was reduced maintenance costs, especially with tires, because drivers were no longer “bouncing off curbs.”
• Video proved to be a high-value piece of evidence to exonerate drivers.

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