University of British Columbia study concludes a statistical certainty about inconsistent driving behaviour contributing to a greater chance of accidents.
MARKHAM, ON, July 14th, 2021 – FLEETMETRICA, a company focusing on data analytics in trucking, commissioned a study completed in June, 2021 by UBC graduate students. The study probed into the impact that driving behaviour has on accidents for drivers of large commercial vehicles. It uncovered that the presence of “off-normal” (a statistically-based measure of inconsistency) driving behaviour was a key factor in predicting the eventuality of accidents, especially as it relates to speeding and harsh braking. This factor was a major explanatory factor for trucking accidents for all companies studied.
Behaviours for speeding and harsh-braking have long been linked to accidents. A 2019 study by the US Governors Highway Safety Association, pointed to speeding as the number one causal factor of accidents resulting in a fatality whenever a truck was involved. The findings by this UBC study took the risk of speeding behaviours to a whole new level by predicting the likelihood of accidents more precisely.
The UBC study shows that monitoring how stable a driver’s performance is for these specific driving metrics is as important - if not more important - than how often these behaviours occur. The presence of inconsistent driving was determined to be a strong predictor of the risk of accidents.
Today, most fleet managers monitor driving behaviour by establishing company-wide policies for various driving behaviour metrics and ensure drivers follow them. This most recent study suggests that a fleet should also establish thresholds for each of the metrics, for each driver, so they can identify individual signs of uncharacteristic driving behaviours — which can only be detected by statistically analyzing the data.
Tools for monitoring inconsistent driving behaviour are already available to fleets, such as Fleetmetrica’s web-based driver scorecard, that incorporates this method of safety monitoring as a standard feature in their solution. Making these results available through web-based applications and dashboards to both drivers and managers makes monitoring for inconsistent driving behaviour simple and effective.
Lawsuits, substantial monetary damages, and loss of reputation are all at stake when accidents occur – not to mention the loss of lives. Given the study’s findings of the impact monitoring for inconsistent driving has on predicting accidents, it should be a top-of-mind priority for fleet owners and safety professionals interested in mitigating these outcomes.
Fleetmetrica’s solutions simplify the process of managing critical and time-consuming activities relating to key business issues such as safety, compliance, fuel, and driver satisfaction and retention. Fleetmetrica automates the analysis, presentation and monitoring of telematics data across disparate telematics suppliers through scorecard programs.
