By Mike Sheldrick
Fleet managers are learning to wrestle with the opportunities — and challenges — of big data produced by telematics, especially when it comes to driver behavior. And while individual companies can identify risky drivers, and institute programs to improve driver behavior, there has been very little data on driver behavior as a whole,
Now, however, thanks to Fleetmatics, a leading global telematics company, there are some interesting safety data — and analyses — available for service vehicles across the United States. Using its fleet management software, the company gathered data from 177,000 of its customers’ service vehicles, from October 2014 to October 2015.
Fleetmatics derived safety scores using its proprietary calculation based on four severe driving measurements:
- Harsh acceleration
- Harsh braking
- Hard turns
- Speeding over 80 mph
Using its severe driving measurements, Fleetmatics compiled data state-by-state for the US:
The top 10 with most severe driving incidents were: New Mexico, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.
The top 10 with the least severe driving incidents were: North Dakota, Delaware, Alabama, Iowa, Illinois, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York.
Interestingly, New Mexico, did pretty well in every harsh-driving categories, except speeding, where its drivers racked up a 350% higher harsh driving than the US. average. Louisiana drivers were the second worst. They clocked above 80 twice as often as the national average. New Jersey drivers were the least likely to speed, although they racked up bad ratings in every severe driving category, boosting them to second place overall.
The top five industries with most severe driving incidents were: Public Administration, Heavy Construction and Engineering, Automotive Repair, Retail, Hardware, Home Furniture and Equipment, and Pest Control.
Fleetmatics notes that the high score of public administration may be due to police and fire vehicles in pursuit or responding to emergencies.
Finally, Freight Transportation and Warehousing topped the five industries with the least severe driving incidents, followed by Roofing and Siding, Lawn and Garden, Food Products/Food Stores/Non-Durable Goods, and Electrical Work.
Automotive Repair vehicles performed worst in hard cornering, with four times more incidents than the national average. Not exactly an apt aphorism, but isn’t this something like the cobbler’s children having no shoes?
These are fascinating data, and whet the appetite for more. Perhaps the telematics industry could do its own crowdsourcing. With anonymized data, of course.
Fleetmatics found that 29% of its new customers realized improvements in driver behavior in just eight weeks after implementing the company’s fleet management program. That figure grew to 33% after 36 weeks.
The full report, which includes analyses of regional driving habits and industry driving habits can be found at https://www.fleetmatics.com/safetyreport\
