iTECH: Cab Cam Keeps an Eye on Safety

This story appears in the February/March 2013 issue of iTECH, published in the Feb. 18 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

In-cab cameras, or dash-cams, aren’t all about roadside arrests or crazy stuff on Russian highways (such as the video of a Eurasian elk in the fast lane). There’s a pretty strong safety angle, too, at least for the trucking industry.

Improving safety and reducing costs are always two of the top priorities for carriers, and some companies are achieving both goals through the use of cameras in the cabs of their trucks.

Motor carriers are finding that they can improve safety and cut costs with video cameras mounted in the cabs of their trucks.

Cameras mounted on the windshield capture video footage of accidents and other driving events, improving safety by giving carriers video footage to coach drivers, or cutting costs when a carrier has video evidence that its driver did not cause an accident, thus avoiding liability claims.

Cargo Transporters, Claremont, N.C., began experimenting with camera technology in 2011 by installing video-event recorders from DriveCam Inc., San Diego, in 30 of its cabs. The initial trial was so successful that the truckload carrier installed the devices in its entire fleet of 450 tractors.

The video recorder attaches to the windshield, behind the rearview mirror. It has two cameras, one facing out to record everything in front of the truck and one facing inward to record driver actions. It also has an accelerometer and a GPS unit to collect data on speed, location and direction. Even though the device is continually recording, drivers are not under constant surveillance, because data are saved only when the device is triggered to capture information surrounding an event.

What triggers an event? “Some type of risky driving, such as sudden braking, sudden acceleration, a swerve or a collision,” said Eric Cohen, DriveCam’s senior marketing manager. “Given that the device is always recording, it’s able to go back and retrieve the eight seconds before the event. It also includes the four seconds after the event, so you get a total of 12 seconds.”

Drivers know an event has triggered a video capture whenever they see a red light flashing on the device. “That tells the driver that he’s doing some type of risky driving,” Cohen said. “The video data is saved and transferred via our cellular network to our review center.”

DriveCam posts the video events on a secure website to which company managers can log on and see what happened, and then sit down with the drivers and coach them on what went wrong and what they need to do differently when they go back out on the road, he explained.

Traffic incidents are down at Cargo Transporters, and Dennis Dellinger, president of Cargo Transporters, said he thinks the DriveCam technology is one of the reasons. “The presence of the camera in the vehicle heightens the drivers’ attention to what they’re doing. They’re less likely to take the risks that they had taken before.”

“We used the DriveCam technology at first as more of a training tool, to be able to coach driver habits,” Dellinger said. “We found out that we needed to work on some things as simple as buckling up. We had safety campaigns as a result of things we learned from the footage.”

LTL carrier Pitt Ohio, Pittsburgh, is also using cameras in the cabs to promote safety, with technology from Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Elyria, Ohio.

Pitt Ohio, which employs about 1,500 drivers and has around 1,000 power units, has the Bendix AutoVue system and SafetyDirect by Bendix in about 240 cabs now and plans to add 135 more this year. “We’re purchasing new equipment this year, and it will be on all of our new equipment,” said Jeff Mercadante, Pitt Ohio’s safety director. “Our goal is to equip all of our power units with this system.”

The AutoVue system has been available for several years for use as a stand-alone lane departure warning system, marketed by Iteris Inc., the transportation infrastructure IT provider. Bendix bought the product from Iteris in August 2011. AutoVue uses an outward-facing camera attached to the windshield that senses whenever the truck veers out of its lane without the use of a turn signal. If that happens, the driver hears a noise that sounds like the tires are running over a rumble strip.

“We started using the lane-departure warning technology about four years ago,” Mercadante said. “At first, it takes a little getting used to because it’s a change to the drivers, but once the drivers have it, they seem to like the system. It teaches them to be better drivers because you’re always maintaining your position in the middle of those two lines.”

Pitt Ohio added the Bendix SafetyDirect and began collecting video data in 2011. “This new technology that captures video data takes us to another level,” Mercadante said. “It’s useful as a training tool. We look to keep our fleet as one of the safest in the industry. This is new technology that allows us to do that.”

Bill Patrolia, national account manager of electronics group customer solutions for Bendix, said events may be triggered by lateral motion, changes in speed or G-force. “There’s a sensor in the camera that measures G-force. If you exceed 0.5 Gs, an event is triggered. We capture 10 seconds before and 10 seconds after the event is triggered.”

In contrast to DriveCam, which transmits data on its own cellular network, the Bendix devices in the Pitt Ohio tractors transmit data through the company’s mobile communications system, supplied by PeopleNet, Minnetonka, Minn.

“We capture both the video and the ECM data,” said Jim Angel, product manager at PeopleNet. Engine control module data include speed, the gear engaged, engine speed, brake activity, accelerator pedal position, ignition switch status and GPS location.

“We send all of it over to Bendix,” Angel said. “The customer receives an e-mail with a link that is connected directly to that event. The data is displayed by Bendix on a dashboard. Customers can easily view all of the relevant data plus the 20-second video that shows what happened at the time of this event. This all happens in near real-time.”

Even though some drivers detest having a camera in the cab, many others welcome it, because the video footage can provide conclusive evidence when the facts around an accident are in dispute.

“We hear a lot from the trucking industry about accidents that aren’t the trucker’s fault,” said Emad Isaac, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Rand McNally. “Cars cut in front of trucks; they come around from blind spots, and such. But unfortunately in North America, there’s a ‘guilt by profession’ mentality about the trucking industry.

If there’s an accident that involves a truck and a car, there’s almost an immediate assumption that it’s the truck’s fault. One benefit of the in-cab camera is that it’s an impartial judge. It’s going to record what happened. If the truck driver is at fault, then that’s what will be recorded, but if the truck driver is not at fault, this is documented as well.”

Dellinger at Cargo Transporters testifies to the power of video documentation. “In the event of an accident, various parties and witnesses see it and remember it differently, but the camera tells the truth,” he said. “Any time an accident occurs, we contact DriveCam, and typically we can have footage within an hour of the time the event occurs. Sometimes, we’re seeing what took place before the accident has even been cleared. We’ve had occasions where lawyers have dropped their clients after we provided them with the DriveCam footage from the accident.”

Mercadante at Pitt Ohio tells a similar story. “This technology has helped us avoid liability for accidents that were not our fault,” he said. “Sometimes, cars have come into our lane and hit our vehicle. The video that captured the event showed all the details behind the accident. Their claims that we hit them were not true, and we had video evidence to back us up. This has happened in a few different cases, and some of these were substantial claims that we avoided.”

Mercadante points out that capturing video footage of accidents can also reveal the remarkable skill that some drivers exhibit when faced with situations that require split-second responses. In two examples, Pitt Ohio drivers managed to avoid hitting occupied vehicles that were overturned on the interstate. “The video captured everything,” Mercadante said. “We’re very proud of the way our drivers handled these life-threatening situations.”

There may be more uses for camera technology in trucking coming soon. Rand McNally’s Isaac sees potential for using cameras to collect important information on the road as the trucks travel. “Rand McNally provides map data based on the best information available when we go to press or release software, but things change — construction, road signs, detours, and more. So having these mobile sensors out there in the field will give us an opportunity to collect changes. It’s going to take a little bit more work, but that’s where I think the technology will be heading,” Isaac said.

Christian Schenk, senior vice president of product strategy and market growth at XRS, Eden Prairie, Minn., pointed out how the cameras on mobile devices can be used to facilitate system logins.

“On our Android platform right now, customers with certain Samsung devices, such as the Galaxy S III, can use facial recognition software to log in,” Schenk said.

“There are advantages to using facial recognition. If a driver doesn’t have enough hours to haul a load, the system will recognize that and prevent a login,” Schenk said. “We can also use it as a reliable source for allowing a driver to start the engine. This means that we can ensure that only John Smith operates tractor 261 on Tuesday. Of course, it also saves time. We want to make life easier for the driver. It’s a small token, but being able to just hold the phone up to your face instead of logging in every day saves the driver a little bit of time.”