Lytx Shares New Insights on Risky Driving Trends Among Distribution Fleets

- Lytx distribution clients reduced instances of unsafe following distance* by 60% from 2018 to 2019

- Distribution-fleet drivers were observed eating or drinking while driving 50% more often than other industries

SAN DIEGO — May 14, 2020 — From its unmatched database of 2.56 million risky driving events captured from distribution fleets in 2019, Lytx^® today released new insights into distribution industry driving trends.

Lytx’s findings include the five risky behaviors seen most often among distribution drivers, most improved driving behaviors, and insights on how distribution industry driving habits compare to those of other industries.

This data was captured from fleets of all sizes and types within the distribution industry, including food and beverage, moving and storage, and gas and petroleum distribution fleets, among others. It is part of an ongoing series from Lytx highlighting key behavior trends seen across the nine industries that utilize its video telematics technology with the goal of informing and supporting ongoing safety efforts in the industries it serves.

The data will be released twice weekly through May 26 here: https://www.lytx.com/en-us/industry-benchmark-data.

Most Prevalent Risky Behaviors in 2019

• Late response**
• Driver unbelted
• Smoking
• Cellphone/device observed
• Food/drink observed

Most Improved Behaviors from 2018 to 2019

• Following distance* – improved 60%
• Late response** – improved 22%
• Posted speed violation – improved 30%
• Cell phone/device – improved 19%

Behaviors may appear on both the "Most Prevalent" and "Most Improved" lists. This demonstrates that even with significant improvement, fleets and drivers should stay vigilant and maintain awareness to keep those behaviors trending downwards.

How Distribution Fleets Stack Up Against Other Industries

Lytx compared the prevalence of behaviors seen in distribution fleets against behavior averages of fleets across all of its other protected industries. Comparatively, distribution fleets stood out in the following areas:

• Food/drink, which was observed 50% more often
• Driver unbelted, which occurred 26% more often
• Failure to stop*** or incomplete stop****, which occurred 15% less often

Common risky driving behaviors observed within a fleet, as well as benchmarking data from fleets both inside and outside of a specific industry are helpful metrics for understanding industry-specific challenges, guiding safety efforts and then measuring success. To better identify and address top areas of driving risk within their individual fleets, thousands of organizations use the best-in-class Lytx Driver Safety Program; these organizations experience on average up to 50% reduction in collisions and up to 80% on associated claims costs as a result.

Distribution Collision Insight

Lytx also found that drivers observed falling asleep or drowsy represented 64% of medium-impact, fixed-object collisions among distribution fleets in 2019. While “falling asleep” and “drowsy” are not among the most prevalent behaviors in the distribution industry, they are far more likely to lead to a collision.

“There is no magic pill for eliminating the risk of tired drivers behind the wheel, but a great first step is to implement a fatigue management plan (FMP) that outlines causes, controls and strategies for both preventing and dealing with fatigue on the road in order to keep drivers safe,” said Del Lisk, Lytx’s vice president of safety services. “If you don’t have an FMP, a great place to start is to review the free template available from the North American Fatigue Management Program.”

About the Data
These insights were derived from Lytx’s proprietary database of distribution driving data from 2019, including 2.56 million risky distribution driving events captured last year. For comparisons across industries, Lytx calculated behavior averages from its global database, which contains driving data from trucking, utilities, concrete, construction, service, transit, government and waste industries. Lytx maintains the fastest-growing proprietary database of professional driving data in the world, currently surpassing 120 billion miles of driving data. The data is anonymized, normalized and in instances of behavior prevalence, is generalizable to distribution fleets at large.

About Lytx
Lytx^® is a leading provider of video telematics, analytics, safety, and productivity solutions for commercial, public sector, and field services fleets. Our unrivaled Driver Safety Program, powered by our best-in-class DriveCam^® Event Recorder, is proven to help save lives and reduce risk. We harness the power of video to help clients see what happened in the past, manage their operations more efficiently in the present, and improve driver behavior to change the future. Our customizable services and programs span driver safety, risk detection, fleet tracking, compliance, and fuel management. Using the world’s largest driving database of its kind, along with proprietary machine vision and artificial intelligence technology, we help protect and connect thousands of fleets and more than 1.3 million drivers worldwide. For more information on Lytx telematics system, visit http://www.lytx.com, @lytx on Twitter, LinkedIn, our Facebook page or our YouTube channel.

*Following distance refers to a risky driving event in which the distance to the vehicle directly ahead was approximately 1.5 seconds and note increasing for at least 4 consecutive seconds.

**Late response occurs when a driver was not distracted, yet responded late and abruptly to a readily visible risky situation ahead.

***Failure to Stop occurs when a driver failed to stop at a stop sign or his/her speed remained above 5 mph.

****Incomplete Stop occurs when a driver was below 5 mph and the vehicle did not come to a complete stop or a stop at a stop sign or while turning right at a red light.

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