When managing a fleet, safety is a huge concern. Not only do accidents pose a threat to your employee’s wellbeing, but they can have a large financial impact on your business.
When looking to reduce accidents, you should consider your vehicles, as well as your drivers. Today, we will evaluate the safety features in modern vehicles, and how these safety upgrades may save you in the long run!
The Evolution of Safety
It’s easy to take seatbelts and airbags for granted, but it’s important to remember that these basic safety features weren’t even required just a few decades ago. Many safety innovations that are the norm today used to be optional features until either the government required them or the consumer demand grew enough to include them. Some examples of these features are:
- Seatbelts
- Intermittent wipers
- Airbags
- Anti-lock brakes
- Traction control
- And many more
It’s important to know our past so we can predict our future, as many of today’s newest safety options may one day be as normal as a seatbelt.
Butler Automotive Management is at your service. Call (813) 850-0022 to schedule hassle-free service for your vehicles!
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)
Advanced Driver Assistance Systems refer to the safety technologies that assist the driver directly. They can be separated into two categories, active and passive.
Active Features
Active safety features take over a function of the car itself, from steering to acceleration, here are some examples:
- Active brake assistance
- Automatic parking
- Adaptive cruise control
- Lane centering
- Collision avoidance
Passive Features
On the other hand, passive features work more like an alert system, unable to take control of the vehicle, but directing the driver’s attention to potential danger. Such as:
- Collision warnings
- Lane departure warnings
- Drowsy driver detection
- Lane change assistance
Read More > Avoid Costly Tech Repairs
What Safety Features Do I Need?
The features you include with your fleet can differ depending on your needs and where the fleet is operating. Higher risk travel tends to warrant the most safety features.
So how do you know what to look for? Let’s ask ourselves a few questions:
- Is this tech proven effective and reliable?
- What is the overall cost/savings of these features?
- Will this require additional training for drivers?
- Must our policies be updated to cover the expected usage of the equipment?
Even if drivers are trained, an alarming percentage of drivers may not even use the features. A national study by Erie Insurance found that 30% of drivers disabled adaptive cruise control, simply because it was annoying to them!
Adoption of new vehicle technologies takes time and effort to make the transition a smooth one.
How Effective Are These Features?
Based on a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on the effectiveness of these systems, there is a huge benefit to utilizing newer safety features in vehicles. Technology like auto braking saw a 56% decrease in accidents with injuries, while even the simplest features like blind-spot detection lowered lane-changing accidents with injuries by 23%!
Of course, nothing is perfect… yet. There are many limitations to using these features, albeit rare. Adaptive cruise control may trigger deceleration when not needed, or your pre-collision braking can be triggered by any obstacle or nearby vehicle.
These are safety features after all, so they should be expected to work. With that being said, it’s obvious an ADAS is not a replacement for a properly trained driver.
Keep Your Fleet Safe
No matter your business, when your fleet is out and about it can be easy to worry. From the safety and wellbeing of your employees to the financial toll of an accident, it can be a lot to handle. Take some of the stress off your shoulders, and turn to Butler Automotive Management to manage your fleet for you!
Are you ready to make an upgrade for better safety? Give BAM a call today for convenient fleet management services anywhere in Tampa Bay! We’re at your service.
