Fleet operators who cannot see what is going on in vehicle cabs have a risk management blind spot, which can be solved by introducing in-cab cameras, says vehicle tracking provider Crystal Ball. 

Raj Singh, managing director, Crystal Ball

Employees exposed to risk in other areas of the workplace, such as warehouses, factory floors, workshops and yards are often monitored with CCTV now, and so the cab of vehicles should be too, dashcam provider Crystal Ball believes.

Raj Singh, managing director of Crystal Ball, said: “With a host of legal obligations relating to health and safety at work, many fleet operators are leaving themselves exposed because they have a blind spot: the vehicle cab. If a business has a duty of care policy but then avoids seeing what is going on in the vehicle, and what their employees are up to, they must ask themselves if they are avoiding an essential part of driver scrutiny.

“The majority of fleet operators have adopted telematics and continue to see the benefit of it every day when it comes to giving them real-time data on their fleet.

“In research we undertook of more than 200 fleets only 16% cited privacy concerns as a barrier to adoption of telematics. So adding on an in-cab camera to a telematics system is simple and cost-effective – businesses should go the extra mile to protect themselves, their employees and other road users.”

The devices, integrated into a 4G-enabled vehicle tracking system, can give companies an incredibly detailed picture of what happened when an incident occurs. Simply accessing video stored in the cloud could give a fleet manager evidence that their driver was not at fault, or it could provide the basis for offering further training to drivers who have not complied with company policy.

To help businesses implement an in-cab policy, Crystal Ball has complied a five-step plan (see below) to reassure employees that this is not an attempt to monitor every work journey and conversation.

Singh added: “The ‘big brother’ analogy is not only false, but unhelpful. In-cab cameras don’t record sound, so they won’t catch an employee making inappropriate comments about their boss, for example. And the footage from these cameras is wiped over within a short period of time if no incident occurs.

“What these cameras do is provide a fool-proof back-up to a driver’s version of events in the case of an incident. This could be the difference between an employee losing their job after being falsely accused of a motoring offence, or having their story verified at the touch of a button.”