By Greg Johnson, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the Nov. 28 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
DriveCam Inc., a maker of truck-cab video recorders, announced it will buy Rair Technologies, a provider of compliance services for commercial trucking fleets.
No terms for the purchase were disclosed, but DriveCam announced that it is raising $85 million in capital from private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and would use the capital to compete in the compliance segment of trucking.
DriveCam said both the investment and the transaction should close in early December.
San Diego-based DriveCam installs video recorders behind a truck cab’s rearview mirror, where they record constantly. In the event of risky driving, such as sudden breaking or hard turns, the recorder saves that portion of the video along with the preceding 12 seconds and then uploads this recording to DriveCam servers, company spokesman Eric Cohen said.
DriveCam wants to buy Rair because the Brookfield, Wis., company offers Web-based safety and compliance services, said Cohen. These services include hours-of-service log and driver qualification file auditing, vehicle inspection reporting, drug testing, and CSA safety scores analysis, Rair’s website said.
That means buying Rair gives DriveCam a complete suite of regulatory compliance products, Cohen said.
“We are very pleased to partner with DriveCam — the market-leading provider of driver safety technology and solutions,” Welsh Carson general partner Mike Donovan said in a statement.
“DriveCam’s management team has been at the forefront of industry innovation and operational excellence, and as a result, we see the very strong momentum in the business today continuing into the future,” Donovan added in his statement.
Barclays Capital Inc. is financial adviser and placement agent to DriveCam.
In September, Rair introduced its Dashboard product, which summarizes a driver’s hours of service and driver qualification information in its database. In January, American Trucking Associations endorsed Rair’s CSA Solution product to manage carriers’ responsibilities under federal Compliance, Safety, Accountability standards.
