The video above comes from one of the SmartDrive 360 four-camera platform units in around 80 of the Connecticut-based 250-truck Bozzuto’s fleet. Says Tom Halpin, transportation safety manager at Bozzuto’s: “In the words of the driver,” one of Bozzuto’s most senior, “‘I don’t know if [the motorist] fell asleep or was distracted.’ It was mere inches in a near miss,” which you can see in the side view in the right frame.
As the motorist begins to enter the Bozzuto driver’s lane from the right, the trucker takes the necessary evasive action into the left lane briefly. The motorist “literally missed our truck’s drive tandems by an inch or two,” Halpin says. “Our driver did a good job staying out of that.” In the immediate aftermath, “our driver was fearful the motorist was going to get tagged by oncoming traffic” on busy I-91 in Connecticut, where this occurred, Halpin adds.
The video has been played “in front of our entire driving fleet,” Halpin says, one among others that Bozzuto’s has pulled out for driver-commendation purposes. “A lot of companies are quick to discipline” with video systems, “but not to recognize safe driving. In our meetings, we don’t focus on the bad too much. The drivers know who’s been coached” as a result of incidents captured on video. “We talk about the good things in bigger meetings.”
Drivers recognized thusly not only get to “take a bow” but also “get a little bonus in the form of a gift card.”
The history of the SmartDrive 360 four-camera platform Halpin traces in part to driver recommendation. After the grocery-distribution operation’s drivers had gotten accustomed to the two-camera (forward- and driver-facing) system still in most of the fleet’s trucks as Bozzuto’s transitions to 360, many drivers noted “it’d be great if we had cameras down both sides for drivers hitting trailer tires.”
Halpin presented the idea to SmartDrive, and “next thing you know we were doing the beta testing for the 360 platform.”
