A fleet safety program is a coordinated, strategic initiative that combines video-based safety technology with consistent coaching to improve driver behavior, reduce accidents, prevent false claims, and lower costs. Keep reading to learn how to build an effective fleet safety program from start to finish.
rise in large truck fatalities in the U.S. from 2016 to 2017
of fleet managers say that safety is their top concern
fewer safety incidents at companies with strong safety cultures
Before you begin, invest in technology that provides the visibility and data needed to enable a robust fleet safety program. The NSTSCE found that video-based safety solutions—which include dash cams as well as telematics for real-time GPS tracking—reduce safety-related events by more than 50% on average.
If you haven't invested in a video-based safety solution yet, check out Samsara’s complete video-based driver safety platform, which includes AI Dash Cams, real-time GPS tracking, and online driver coaching tools. It’s trusted by thousands of fleets, and in a recent survey, 90% of Samsara customers said that our technology helped improve safety within their fleet.
How to select the best dash cams
Read more about the benefits of dash cams and how to select the best technology for your fleet.
Learn moreAfter you’ve invested in a video-based safety solution, rolling out a successful fleet safety program requires thoughtful change management. The key to success is planning ahead: identifying problem areas, writing down your goals, and creating a clear timeline that your team can follow.
Most fleets create a safety program because they have a specific problem or pain point they’re eager to address, like a rise in at-fault accidents or noticeable increase in risky driving behavior. If you’re not sure where to start, review all of the safety-related incidents your fleet has experienced in the last six months—including accidents, claim payouts, and behavioral issues like distracted driving or speeding—to see if you can identify any patterns. If you have a telematics system like Samsara installed that can detect safety-related events, this technology should be able to help you identify recurring driver safety issues.
Although writing down your goals may seem like an unnecessary formality, it’s widely accepted as a best practice for change management. In fact, an often-cited study found that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals just by writing them down. Your goals should address the problem areas you identified above. For example, if your insurance premiums have increased, you may want to create a goal of reducing your at-fault accident rate. Whether you aim for a 5% improvement or 50% improvement will depend upon the severity of the problem and the difficulty of changing that specific behavior. Aim for goals that seem achievable but ambitious, and know that you can always adjust your goals in the future.
DECREASE your at-fault accident rate
MINIMIZE costs associated with auto claims, property damage, and insurance premiums
EXONERATE innocent drivers from false claims
DECREASE your CSA scores
IMPROVE driver retention and customer satisfaction
CREATE a safety-first culture
An implementation timeline can help you organize your efforts, align internal stakeholders, and ensure an efficient and successful deployment. When building your timeline, make sure to include phases (like “installation and training”) as well as key milestones (like “all safety managers and drivers fully trained”). Then, identify key milestones that you’ll need to complete before moving to the next phase, so you can proactively prioritize the milestones that matter most. If you have a large team, it may also be helpful to schedule a regular meeting to track progress and stay accountable to your plan. Below, explore our interactive timeline to get an overview of key phases.
Before diving into implementation, it’s important to align key stakeholders around the phases of your rollout. For most fleets, rolling out a video-based fleet safety program consists of four phases:
Once you have selected a technology partner, spend some time defining your goals and designing an implementation plan. This phase is all about identifying problem areas and pinpointing behaviors you want to target (like speeding or distracted driving). You should also identify needs from partners and align internal stakeholders around a clear timeline.
Once your team is aligned on your implementation timeline, it’s time to execute on your plan. This phase usually involves deploying your hardware (either with in-house technicians or via a third-party installer) and configuring your dashboard. You may want to create custom admin roles, so only certain supervisors have access to dash cam footage.
Once your hardware is deployed, it's essential that you get buy-in on your program from your entire team—including safety supervisors and drivers—through transparent, clear communication. Keep scrolling for more information on training and communication, including tips for getting driver buy-in on dash cams.
Once you have established consistent driver coaching workflows, you can begin to introduce additional elements to your program to maximise ROI. Safety-based rewards, for example—like bonuses, gift cards, or plaques—are a great way to increase driver engagement, decrease risky behavior, and even improve driver retention. This final phase is ongoing and usually includes measuring the ROI of your safety program.
The next step in building a successful fleet safety program is getting internal buy-in from your team, including executives, stakeholders, and drivers. Transparent communication is key—especially if you’re introducing dash cams for the first time. Before deploying your hardware, consider holding a company-wide meeting to introduce your new program and answer questions. Then, after deploying your hardware, take a phased approach to training your back-office team and getting buy-in from drivers.
The key to training your team efficiently and successfully is to do it in phases. At Samsara, we use a “train the trainer” approach; by empowering your core team and supervisors first, they can then train your field staff and drivers. If your safety managers are headquartered in different locations, consider bringing them together for an in-person training session to learn how to use your new technology.
If you previously completed a trial of Samsara, build your training session around the workflows you found most effective during your trial period—like assigning safety-related events to specific managers for review. The goal of training is to evangelize a consistent safety policy that your entire team can enforce.
Drivers are often skeptical about having a dash cam in their cab. This is completely normal, but getting their buy-in during driver training is key to the long-term success of your fleet safety program. In fact, the NSTSCE has studied what sets excellent fleet safety programs apart from the rest. The answer? A shift from top-down control to bottom-up engagement. They found that the most effective fleet safety programs are initially led by management, but as drivers become more proactive and invested, their engagement is what drives significant safety improvements.
We’ve helped thousands of customers successfully roll out video-based safety programs. Below, check out our top nine tips for getting driver buy-in on dash cams.
Overcome initial driver wariness with these tried-and-true best practices from our customers.
70% of employees say they’re most engaged when senior leadership communicates openly about changes. Before deploying any hardware, hold a Q&A session with drivers. Create an open forum where drivers feel comfortable asking questions and raising concerns, and make sure to explain your company’s new safety goals so that drivers understand where the change is coming from.
Emphasize that dash cams are not meant to be a “spying” device. Explain that footage will only be uploaded to the cloud when a safety-related event—like harsh braking or turning—is detected, and assure drivers that only certain administrators will have access to the footage. Provide additional printed collateral and take-home information so drivers know there’s nothing to hide about the technology.
Show drivers that you’re not afraid of the technology by installing a dash cam in your own vehicle. Then, identify one or two drivers who are well-known across your fleet, and ask them if they would be willing to install dash cams in their cabs. Once they have experienced the dash cams for a few weeks and see that they are helpful rather than harmful, ask them to share their experiences with other drivers.
Successfully exonerating drivers is the most powerful way to get skeptical drivers supportive of dash cams. If you have an example of a near miss or not-at-fault collision that was captured during your trial, share the footage with all of your drivers. If you haven’t captured a good example yet, you can use one of the sample clips on our website.
Explain what will trigger verbal or written warnings versus probation or termination, and define zero exception behavior, like driving under the influence. Make sure to come to an agreement with drivers before deploying your hardware, so there are no surprises once you start coaching. Consistent, unbiased enforcement of corrective actions is always important but particularly critical if your drivers are part of a union.
79% of employees say they work harder when they feel recognized, and 83% say that rewards make them feel more engaged with their job. After deploying your dash cams, introduce a rewards program as soon as possible. Gamifying driver safety scores and offering rewards (like bonuses, plaques, gift cards, or company swag) doesn’t just improve driver behavior—it helps drivers feel like they’re benefitting from the dash cams, too.
If dash cams are only ever associated with negative events—like distracted driving or speeding—drivers will learn to dislike them. Make sure to recognize and reward the moments when dash cams capture footage of drivers responding appropriately, like braking to avoid a collision when they’re cut off. Consider sending a weekly or monthly email to all drivers that highlights footage of excellent driving.
After deploying advanced dash cams with features you can toggle off and on—like in-cab voice coaching—it can be tempting to turn on every feature at once. This can be overwhelming for drivers, causing them to become frustrated with the dash cams before they’ve had the chance to see their benefits. For the first 1-2 weeks, keep all optional features toggled off. Introducing optional features in stages can result in higher long-term ROI.
Consider offering removable camera covers that drivers can use to block the dash cam lens when needed. Camera covers can make drivers feel more comfortable having a dash cam installed in their cab—especially long-distance drivers who utilize a sleeper berth. Plus, proactively offering a removable camera cover minimizes the chances that a driver will permanently damage the hardware.
Driver coaching is the backbone of any fleet safety program, but studies have shown that driver coaching is most effective when combined with data from a telematics system and video footage from dash cams. Building a consistent, data-driven driver coaching workflow into your day-to-day operations is the key to improving driver behavior, reducing accidents, and ultimately lowering safety-related costs.
Revisit your goals to determine which risky driving behaviors (like harsh braking, speeding, or distracted driving) you need to address. Then, help your back office focus on what matters most by setting up alerts, so fleet safety managers can immediately coach drivers on targeted behaviors. For example, with Samsara, you can set up real-time SMS or email alerts for a variety of safety-related events—including harsh acceleration, harsh braking, and rolling stops—as well as speed, so you can be notified when a vehicle exceeds a certain speed limit.
Feedback is most effective when it’s delivered in a timely manner, especially for drivers who run long routes and may forget about harsh events by the time they are brought in for coaching. Make sure to choose a dash cam (like Samsara’s AI Dash Cam) that has a speaker and can play in-cab messages for things like harsh braking, speeding, and unbuckled seat belts. For maximum effectiveness, wait 1-2 weeks after installing your hardware before turning on voice coaching so drivers don’t become overwhelmed.
Some risky driving behaviors are more serious than others. Determine what requires a short conversation and what requires something more serious, like an in-person meeting. Maximize your impact by regularly coaching all drivers in group sessions and reserving 1:1 coaching sessions for drivers who dip below a predetermined safety score threshold. Then, document your best practices and give coaches standardized scripts for responding to different types of harsh events, so that coaching isn’t biased.
of commercial vehicle accidents are caused by driver error
fewer accidents occur when driver coaching and dash cams are used together
of employees work harder when they feel recognized
of employees feel more engaged when they get rewards
One of the best ways to maximize the impact of your fleet safety program is to introduce driver performance rewards—bonuses, plaques, gift cards, or other incentives that are awarded to your safest drivers. Rewards are a great way to incentivize safe driving, share the benefits of a safer fleet with your drivers, and improve driver retention. Although you can introduce a rewards program at any time, the earlier the better; rewards are extremely helpful for getting driver buy-in and creating a positive safety culture.
A driver safety score is a single number that aggregates data from your telematics system to summarize the overall safety of each driver. Dohrn Transfer Company uses Samsara’s driver safety scores—which are automatically calculated based on a combination of different safety behavior metrics, like harsh braking and speeding—as the foundation of their rewards program. By tracking and gamifying driver safety scores, they have reduced safety-related events by 88%.
Read case study
Countless studies have shown that when an activity is more fun, people are more likely to do it. For example, when taking the stairs becomes a game, 66% more people choose to take the stairs rather than an escalator. This is called “gamification”—and it plays into human psychology in a way that’s extremely effective. In the Samsara Driver App, for example, you can turn on gamification to create a virtual leaderboard that ranks drivers by safety score. This makes it easy to see top performers, encourage friendly competition, and motivate drivers to improve their ranking.
To maximize engagement, the rewards you choose should be attractive and relevant. Make sure you customize the incentives to fit your company culture. Remember that each prevented accident represents thousands of dollars in saved costs, so allow drivers to share in some of those savings by rewarding top performers with monetary gifts, special privileges, or other prizes. Depending on your team, consider announcing the winner during team meetings, creating a safe driver “wall of honor” in the break room, or even sending a congratulations email company-wide.
Gift Card
Wall of Honor
Invite-only breakfast with leadership
Company-branded gear
Company-wide recognition
Extra vacation days
Samsara offers a complete video-based solution for improving fleet safety and reducing costs.
