The DriveCam event recorder records 12-second "snippets" of video when a vehicle is subjected to a pre-determined level of g-force -- incidents such as hard braking or acceleration, hard cornering, or a collision. Photo courtesy of DriveCam.
TYLER, TX – The City of Tyler, Texas, on June 29 committed to deploying DriveCam on 110 vehicles, with plans to expand, according to Rush Akin, municipal sales director for DriveCam. This decision was made after a successful pilot on Transit and Solid Waste department vehicles.
Akin said the City realized a 56% decrease in average claims cost during the trial period and saw a return on investment in less than six months. Additionally, the City told KYTXthat it saw a 65% improvement, or reduction in recorded risky events, in the past six months. The City is also seeing an improvement in fuel economy because drivers are making less abrupt starts and stops, the news station reported.
According to Akin, the initial deployment is in four departments: Transit, Solid Waste, and two Public Works divisions: Water and Streets. Vehicles to be equipped with the video monitoring technology include medium- to heavy-duty trucks in Public Works, paratransit and fixed-route buses in Transit, and residential and commercial solid waste trucks.
The company is installing the equipment on all vehicles. The program is managed by the risk manager and heads of each department, Akin said.
DriveCam is available to NJPA members under contract #102811-DCI. Orange County, Fla., has seen success with the technology, reporting that automobile liability costs had fallen from $450,000 in fiscal-year 2007-2008 to less than $150,000 in fiscal-year 2009-2010.
