One of the issues we have highlighted at commercialvehicle.com is the growing trend for firms to have on-board cameras as well as vehicle tracking solutions.
The potential of the market size is huge and one of the first firms to offer a combined vehicle tracking and vehicle camera option is Surrey-based Intelligent Telematics.
Indeed, demand is such that they have now expanded their operations to use 3G forward facing cameras in other countries.
The firm says that with growing numbers of van fleets, as well as HGV operators, looking to reduce their running costs, enhance safety of their vehicles and drivers as well as protecting against fraudulent insurance claims, means there’s more demand for their products.
The firm has even opened four new offices recently to boost its presence in North America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The firm’s operations director, Craig Lovell, said: “3G vehicle cameras are still an emerging technology but we are seeing strong demand from a wide range of fleet businesses.”
He added that the company is now looking to experience rapid growth.
Intelligent Telematics offers 3G camera and tracking technology
The firm is offering its IT 1000 3G camera to customers and, from what we have seen, it is a sophisticated piece of kit which offers accuracy and lots of useful data which can be used with their tracking software.
Intelligent Telematics says its camera is 16 times more powerful than anything else in the marketplace.
From a demonstration, there’s no doubt that the 3G camera offering is impressive and customers can expect clear footage of near misses and of accidents involving their vehicle.
The system detects harsh braking or an impact and the footage is immediately captured and uploaded to the firm’s secure network. The client is then emailed and sent a text message alert about the incident so they can view the footage immediately.
One of the attractions for using such camera technology is that it offers fleets more control over the drivers of their vehicles and helps to boost road safety and, as a result, help reduce insurance costs.
Another benefit for installing tracking in vehicles is that it improves driver behaviour and underlines the firm’s duty of care; Intelligent Telematics says the same can be said for the installation of its camera with its tracking solution.
Intelligent Telematics can provide proof of a vehicle accident cause
All footage that has been uploaded can be viewed at any point in the future and will provide proof of what really happened in an incident, and that includes harsh driving events.
One of the first firms to take up this 3G camera solution is Carlson Vehicle Transfer (CVT) who provide logistics for the car industry.
They’ve taken on the technology from Intelligent Telematics to help reduce their accident rates, reduce insurance costs and improve driver training.
They are now fitting the cameras to 142 vehicle transporters to help capture incidents.
Another reason for the installation of cameras is that the firm was using SD-cards to capture such events but they were experiencing a high level of failure rates on the cards which meant that data was either being corrupted or lost.
The managing director of CVT, Karl Richardson, said: “We are committed to using specialist equipment and the latest technology to reduce both accident frequency and our insurance costs.”
Another firm to sign up for a trial of the combined camera tracking technology is DAF Trucks as part of a road safety initiative over the next year.
As we have highlighted, the Intelligent Telematics’ camera works in conjunction with the firm’s tracking service which is a fairly comprehensive offering.
Telematics data from Intelligent Telematics
It includes telematics data of a live GPS feed, G-force measurements as well as detailing the speed of the tracked vehicle.
Access to the data is by a web browser which also includes live and historical GPS tracking information.
When combined with an instant video recording offering this is an impressive solution.
There’s a suite of reporting capabilities for the tracking element and this software can be adapted to suit the business needs and can be developed for a fleet’s future requirements also.
Their tracking data will provide the usual reports such as trip and driver behaviours, idling and speeding reports as well as time spent on site.
There’s also access to a vehicle’s out-of-hours usage (to help with those HMRC requests!), a geo-fencing alert as well as timesheet reports.
Camera and tracking technology from Intelligent Telematics
The camera and tracking technology is professionally installed and is paid for monthly so there’s a data allowance which enables European roaming too without additional cost.
The firm offers a three-year warranty as well as training and support in using its package.
Essentially, the combined offering from Intelligent Telematics is comprehensive and easy-to-use. With its warranty there’s also a peace of mind that the camera is a failsafe product.
With many fleets in the UK still suffering from a high rate of ‘crash for cash’ claims, it’s only a matter of time before growing numbers of insurers request that cameras are fitted to vehicles.
Once this trend begins, commercialvehicle.com can predict, then all commercial vehicles in the UK will be fitted with cameras and tracking technology.