If I were to talk to anybody in the industry about [Lytx] Drivecam, it's something that I would highly recommend.
Problem
- Driver incidents were increasing year over year
- The challenges of the motoring public and driver fatigue needed to be addressed
Solution
- Installed the Lytx DriveCam® safety program across the entire fleet
- Used the DriveCam® safety program as one of its biggest training tools for road safety
Results
- Retained the best drivers and improved overall driver safety
- Received an award for fleet safety in the liquid tank and vacuum division
- Exonerated drivers after incidents
- Saved time with DriveCam program custom reports that were sent directly to Cox Petroleum
The DriveCam difference
Founded by Hiram and Mary Cox in the 1960s, Cox Petroleum Transport is a third-party logistics carrier headquartered in Bakersfield, California, serving the western United States.
With a fleet of more than 100 tanker trucks and trailers, Cox Petroleum is responsible for hauling a variety of petroleum products for all major oil companies, including Arco, BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Tesoro, and Valero. Some of the materials Cox transports include gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, lubrication oils, crude oil, and fuel oil.
As transporters of petroleum fuels and oils, Cox Petroleum drivers must be extremely agile and flexible, able to guide tractor-trailers into spaces with mere inches of clearance.
The Cox Petroleum fleet is in nonstop motion, hauling twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year—that’s a lot of opportunity for collisions. In 2008, Cox grew concerned that the number of driver incidents was increasing year over year.
Taking quick, decisive action, Cox implemented a DriveCam program test installation, and it worked so well that installing DriveCam event recorders throughout its fleet was a natural next step. After all, when something works, it works.
Between 2008 and 2009, even the most optimistic member of the Cox team didn’t expect that at-fault incidents would drop dramatically, from twenty-six to five—a decrease of 80 percent! You can’t argue with that kind of success, and the DriveCam program has been a must-have for Cox Petroleum Transport ever since.
Tom Davis, Safety Supervisor, Cox Petroleum Transport:
“Cox Petroleum is a petroleum transportation company. We load and deliver petroleum products from refineries in various areas to customer retail stations.”
Lloyd Ponder, Terminal Manager, Bakersfield:
“Each driver goes to the refinery, loads their own truck, and then delivers to the site and offloads their own truck.”
Tom Davis:
“The technology we have in our trucks that separates us from most of our competitors, of course, is [Lytx] DriveCam. We do work for Exxon Mobil, for Chevron, Arco, BP, Tesoro, Conoco, Phillips; and in fact they appreciated the fact that we have had [Lytx] DriveCam in our trucks as something we have mounted or installed in every company-operated vehicle.
“We make sure that every driver understands that safety is going to be a priority. In addition to fatigue, you have to really watch your drivers and make sure that mentally that they are ready to get into this truck.
“They’re in traffic trying to get to the delivery location and it gets harder even from that point because now you are going from open roads and freeways to a delivery station where drivers, in most cases, are dealing with just a few inches of clearance.
“The reason Cox Petroleum decided to go with [Lytx] DriveCam is because our incident rate was just continually on the rise. We actually ran it on a test phase in some of our vehicles and liked the results that we were getting from it. It’s unreal how much of an improvement we have seen on the road.
“In 2008, our at-fault motor vehicle accident count was twenty-six. Going to [Lytx] DriveCam in 2009 we took that twenty-six at-fault and reduced it to five. In approximately 14 million miles in 2011, we had two at-fault accidents. That’s a lot of miles to put on the road and to have just a few accidents that you are at fault for, it shows that our drivers are definitely doing something right.
“[Lytx] DriveCam is actually one of our biggest training tools as far as road safety goes out there.”
Lloyd Ponder:
“We had a driver one time driving on the 405 and he was switching lanes and a car ran into the front of him after he had controlled his lane. From the DriveCam video we found information that exonerated him from being at fault.”
Tom Davis:
“As far as management change itself, there really wasn’t added work. It actually made our job easier. You can set the online program up to actually send you reports on everything that you’re looking for, so it saves time.
“For the last two years in a row now Cox Petroleum has been awarded first place among fleet safety, Liquid Tank and Vacuum Division—and we credit a lot of this to drivers’ increased awareness and safety out on the road.
“If I were to talk to anybody in the industry about [Lytx] DriveCam, it’s something that I would highly recommend. With [Lytx] DriveCam it gives clear evidence of exactly what happened in an accident. [Lytx] DriveCam is a great training tool for us here at Cox Petroleum. It helps us improve driver safety out on the road and in turn, keep good drivers in the fleet, making sure that we have the safest drivers available.”
Conclusion
For Cox Petroleum, the investment in driver safety with the DriveCam program has paid for itself time and time again, as drivers are exonerated from incidents in which they otherwise might be blamed.
Seeing video of an incident from the outside, as well as the inside of the vehicle cab, offers a fresh, often surprising perspective on driver events. The DriveCam program takes the unknown out of incident reporting—instead of relying on witnesses (if they will even come forward), Cox relies on the impartial eye of DriveCam’s event recorder to report the facts and only the facts.