New Drivewyze Service Allows for Custom Safety Alerts, Driver Feedback

The Drivewyze platform includes safety alerts. (Drivewyze via YouTube)

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Drivewyze introduced a safety system Oct. 14 that allows fleets to add customizable driving alerts and analyze driver behavior.

The system expands upon an existing safety notifications service that warns drivers when they are approaching a risky area with audible and visual cues. Drivewyze Safety+ builds on that by letting fleets add their own notifications.

“We have the flexibility for fleets to set up a location,” Charlie Mohn, product manager at Drivewyze, told Transport Topics. “They can show an alert and then they can analyze driving behavior after that alert is shown.”

Drivewyze started as an ELD-integrated platform that provides drivers with the ability to bypass weigh stations. The platform expanded to include safety alerts and notifications for parking. Mohn said that the latest upgrades were based on feedback from fleets using the services.

“They came back with two big requests,” Mohn said. “One was more customizing for what alerts they could show that is specific to their fleet and access to the data and insights.”

Drivewyze Safety+ bundles existing services like risk zone alerts, warnings for areas with a lot of speeding citations and notifications for parking and rest stops. It alerts drivers of known areas with high crash rates, rollovers, traffic violations, low bridges and mountain corridors.

We're excited to announce our newest service offering: Drivewyze Safety+.

Safety+ brings the industry’s first customizable "proactive" driving alerts and "context-based" driver coaching features to commercial truck drivers and fleets. Find out more: https://t.co/npdj5nEuus pic.twitter.com/tcZQpXsMnM — Drivewyze (@Drivewyze) October 14, 2020

These standard alerts are based on data curated from state agencies, fleets and other sources. The curated data will work alongside the custom zones. Fleets just have to mark on the map the area that they want their drivers to get alerts for and what type of alert it is. That includes an option for “other.” They can also include a message that will pop up with the alert.

“A lot of fleets have expressed interest in things that are not on the highway system like announcements in yards where there might be a frequency of collisions,” Mohn said.

The parking alert was born from drivers having difficulty finding places to stop. It shows the real-time status of where to find parking and how many spots are open. It is currently available in nine states but the company expects more to come online soon.

“This provides a fleet with powerful, proactive in-cab notification tools before a crash or violation occurs,” Drivewyze CEO Brian Heath said.

Drivewyze Safety+ by Drivewyze

Drivewyze Safety+ also provides safety analytics to monitor driver behavior in these zones to improve coaching. Fleets can also set up analysis zones to just collect data.

“And, we give fleet managers actionable intelligence on how drivers respond to in-cab alerts — allowing for results-oriented driver training,” Heath said.

Drivewyze Safety+ went through a beta phase for about four months that included a small number of fleets. The proactive speed alerts resulted in a 27% reduction in speeding incidents for those drivers going at least 5 mph over the speed limit.

Derek Ohata, senior director of compliance at C.R. England, said: “Not only does it allow me to take control of in-cab safety messaging, it gives me access to fleetwide and driver-specific safety insights and proactive driver-coaching tools.”

The new service requires no additional in-cab hardware and is accessible through its software platform already available on more than 2.2 million ELDs. It is also available on tablets and smartphones. It can be used as a stand-alone service or as part of a bundle.

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