By Kevin Anderson, Marketing Communications Specialist, Safe Fleet
January 22, 2025
AI is Everywhere
At this point in history, the applications of Artificial Intelligence, AI, in the work truck industry seem boundless; from making routes more efficient, to forecasting maintenance issues, to helping limit emissions.
But what about its impact on the health and safety of workers and vehicle operators?
Though initially met with wariness from workers regarding automation, safety is where AI has its highest calling of all. At this very moment, there are solutions that focus on improving the well-being of work truck operators from the insides of warehouses, to loading docks, and on the road.
Let’s take the distribution stage of a supply chain, where there are numerous chances for workers or drivers to get hurt, and analyze how AI will affect this group.
Improving Worker Safety
Historically, warehouse workers have been exposed to potential injuries due to the physical nature of their jobs and their proximity to loaded forklifts with large pallets and poor visibility—to the tune of a 30% forklift-related accident rate. Now, with the influx of AI-powered cameras that give alerts for potentially dangerous behaviors and expose the blind spots inherent in forklifts, the paradigm shift can begin.
Forklift drivers who previously lacked spatial awareness and blind spot visibility will now have sharp insight into the environment around them, as these systems detect pedestrian and vehicle movements in the area surrounding the vehicle.
These systems will also help curb high-risk behaviors and costly mistakes associated with drivers of minimal experience. The data obtained from the systems can be used by managers when it’s time for job assignments, assuring that the forklift operator with a better track record is at the helm of the vehicle, thus saving what could have been millions of dollars in injuries or property damage.
Enhancing Driver Safety
AI-enabled systems that help drivers pull in and out of loading docks multiple times a day are also coming to market, improving the safety of vehicle operators, workers in the loading docks, and pedestrians in the vicinity.
With some of the largest blind spots on the road, tractor-trailer, box truck, and step van drivers have small margins for error when reversing. The new AI backup camera systems will allow for more precision when maneuvering, fully expose the blind spots, and even go as far as identifying an object and its distance away from the vehicle with audio and visual alerts. Similar systems will aid drivers as they’re on the road, where a few seconds of distraction can lead to accidents that cost upwards of $100,000.
The new breed of AI driver-facing cameras are identifying distracted drivers with facial recognition software that track eye and body movements to provide real-time alerts, stopping accidents before they occur. With the data obtained, these systems offer fleet managers insight into the cab areas of large commercial vehicles that will contribute to coaching and establish a culture around safety. These same systems also harness data from the front-facing cameras when incidents, such as speeding, front-end collisions or tailgating, occur so that they can be analyzed later. Mobile DVRs compatible with AI-powered systems will be crucial for data storage and recall in these situations.
The integration of AI into 360° camera systems that protect every angle of a vehicle’s exterior has also made significant progress, with customized aftermarket solutions bringing features like object recognition to the forefront. Combined with proximity warnings and visual alerts, they’ll grant drivers the accurate awareness necessary for both highway driving and movement through crowded city streets. These tools are invaluable in the fight against rear-end collisions, sideswipes, and underride crashes, on roads shared with pedestrians, passenger cars, cyclists, electric scooters, and other commercial vehicles.
There’s More to Come
In terms of what AI can bring to the table, this is only the start. Machine learning allows systems to be “taught” how to be more precise as time goes on, making them even more powerful and even able to forecast dangerous incidents.
With that kind of ability, the future for work trucks can only get safer from this point on.
About the author
Kevin Anderson is a Marketing Communications Specialist, focused on copywriting, editing, content creation, and social media for Safe Fleet’s commercial vehicle brands, where the latest AI-powered systems are being engineered for practical work truck applications.
