By Richard Peak, director at Nextbase, on the future of fleet and driver safety and the technologies that will make the difference.

Richard Peak, director at Nextbase

Keeping drivers safe and vehicles secure is becoming more and more difficult, but help is at hand from new technology.

The job of managing a fleet is, of course, incredibly complex, but if you were to distil it into two main objectives, they would probably look something like this. Number one, keeping your drivers safe, and number two, keeping your vehicles secure.

In the year to June 2022, there were over 130,000 casualties and injuries as a result of driving in the UK. Herein lies the problem with that first objective, with commercial drivers spending so much time on the roads, even the most skilled and experienced driver is likely to be involved in an incident at some point.

On the other hand, over 58,000 vehicles were stolen in 2022, an 18% increase on 2021, with many more break-ins and other kinds of thefts occurring as well. It is a worrying increase and points to a significant challenge for fleet managers in tackling ever more sophisticated criminals.

Luckily, as with many other areas, technology will make, and has already made, a significant difference. In fact, 37% of fleet managers say that driver safety is the main reason they use telematics.

While we may all be familiar with current technology such as dashcams, location trackers and telematics, these can broadly be seen as reactive technologies. Helping to find a vehicle once it has been stolen, or analysing a crash once it has happened. At Nextbase, we have been working tirelessly to flip this on its head, technology that helps prevent crashes and cars being stolen.

So, what can drivers expect in the way of help from technology this year, next year, and in the years beyond?

Driver safety

Much of what constitutes driver safety comes down to practices and policies implemented off the road, or at least not on the job. I am talking about limited driving hours, proper training, vehicle maintenance and realistic target setting. There are, however, tools on the way which will help drivers when they are on the roads.

One area of development is in the driver assist technology that has long been in development. This can be as simple as a cruise control, which has been around for years, up to the self-driving cars that, I’m afraid to say, we are still some years away from.

The next year or so will see this take a big leap forward, not only in terms of the technology itself, but its availability and accessibility. While some top-of-the-range new cars have features such as lane assist and automated braking built-in, there is a massive market for similar driving assist features to be added after market. Imagine an Amazon Alexa or Google Nest for your car. One which can warn you of upcoming hazards, that you can ask to find a new route, or just change radio stations. This technology is coming to dashcams and could provide a relatively inexpensive way to give your drivers a helping hand, without having to upgrade a whole fleet.

With the increased demand for new drivers, especially of HGVs, the ability to dial into the vehicle, with access to video and sound, also provides a key area where training, advice and guidance can be given. This is another technology that the coming innovations in dashcams are focusing on.

Fleet security

Making sure that your fleet stays secure is an obvious priority, and again, a big part of that is doing the little things right. Statistics suggest that nearly half of all car thefts in the UK are carried out when vehicles are left unlocked. It is not patronising to make sure none of your fleet gets added to this statistic.

In terms of technology that is coming to prevent this, there are some important developments on the horizon.

The ability to check in on the condition of a vehicle at any time generally depends on its location and the proximity of its driver. This will soon not be the case, with technology allowing fleet managers and drivers to monitor vehicles and the surrounding areas in real time, and even to warn anyone getting a little bit too close for comfort with live audio.

This leans into the mantra that prevention is better than the cure, but with tracking technology becoming more sophisticated and harder to spot, finding stolen vehicles is also increasingly a realistic prospect.

The job of a fleet manager, and these two key areas, will never be easy, but technology is coming that will at least remove a few areas of concern, something I am incredibly excited by.