Trucking RRG subsidises new safety technology for Combined Transport
American Trucking and Transportation Insurance Company (ATTIC), a risk retention group, has provided a subsidy to help Oregon based Combined Transport incorporate a number of new safety services to its technology suite.
Combined Transport is a trucking company that operates in 48 states and Canada with a variety of divisions, including heavy haul, glass, general commodity, refrigerated, and dry van. The subsidy helped finance Combined Transport’s addition of SmartSense for Speeding for Conditions and SmartSense for Sitting Duck, from fleet management and data analytics provider Omnitracs, to its SmartDrive video-based safety solution.
As a result of implementing the SmartDrive solution, Combined Transport saw several exonerations and an 18 percent reduction in collisions per million miles, encouraging ATTIC to recommend the new SmartSense technologies. The improvement in accidents per million miles and lower loss and claim defense costs had a positive outcome for Combined Transport’s insurance renewal, it noted.
SmartSense for Speeding for Conditions measures vehicle speed against a recommended, or fleet-specified, standard for safe driving in inclement weather conditions. SmartSense for Sitting Duck detects and reports vehicles that have stopped, parked, or stalled in a potentially hazardous location, providing real-time data to assess the severity of the incident so immediate, corrective action can be taken.
Melissa Dockery, Combined Transport safety and operations manager, said ATTIC’s subsidy had made the decision to add the new solutions a no-brainer. “Seeing results from other fleets, I know we would have done it eventually, but with ATTIC’s recommendation and subsidy we were able to do it sooner,” she explained.
Jason Palmer, general manager for transportation intelligence at Omnitracs, highlighted increases in insurance premiums, nuclear verdicts and everyday driving risks. “Building on our track record of technology innovation, we developed two new features to alert drivers concerning weather and safe parking. We know these solutions will not only save fleets money, but, more importantly, save lives,” he said.
