Safety on the Roads through Technology
Evolving Technology
We live in a world where technology constantly evolves, bringing new experiences to our personal and working life. All these changes can sometimes make it difficult to decide what technology is best for you, and even more so best for your clients.
We have a lot to thank technology for, it has provided us with some incredible tools with many different functions. Vehicle safety is one of those. We see more vehicles on our roads these days than ever before, including an increase in logistics vehicles. What can technology do to promote the utmost safety for these vehicles, the drivers and other road users including pedestrians?
Direct Vision Standard (DVS)
Direct Vision Standard (DVS) is a new legislation that came into force on the 1st March 2021. Aimed at HGV vehicles who enter the Greater London area to reduce and eventually eliminate fatalities and serious injuries from RTA’s involving heavy good vehicles.
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Many fleets have added additional safety solutions to their vehicles to bring in line with the minimum star rating to receive a DVS Permit. One required solution for the permit is additional cameras, but the question is why not upgrade to recording cameras?
Live View vs DVR
You’ve decided that yes you would like a camera solution that records, so next question, how would you like to retrieve the recorded footage? Here are 2 options –
- Live View – access historic or live footage anywhere from your desktop, laptop or device.
or
- Non-live DVR – remove the hard drive from the vehicle and upload the footage to view
How to choose?
Both solutions provide Fleet Managers with the tools to access footage which could be vital in the case of an incident.
Live View provides an easy to use system that can be accessed anywhere. It can set up alerts, view multiple vehicles, downloadable footage both live and historic. Software updates and settings can be changed remotely. Aside from increasing vehicle safety, the live camera system will act as a deterrent from thieves.
Support efficiency within the fleet added protection to both your drivers and the general public.
Non-live DVR works similarly, the difference being the need to remove and plug the hard drive into your system to retrieve the footage. Whilst still offering additional safety for your fleet, this solution requires more time and can delay vital information, for example, if your driver is involved in an accident you won’t be able to check the footage until the vehicle has arrived back to the yard.
Another solution to promote vehicle safety within any fleet.
So although it could be argued that the better option is Live View, this would incur higher costs than the non-live solution. With that being said, Live View can save time which in turn makes this a cost-effective solution.
By prioritising the safety of your fleet, you’ll be protecting your drivers and other road users.
