Orange County, Florida, reduces collisions by 40% with Lytx

The DriveCam difference

The Orange County, Florida, government has a fleet of 2,200 vehicles. Over the years, their auto liability insurance costs rose alarmingly, due to collision claims. Therefore, the county implemented a driver risk management program, installing DriveCam^® event recorders.

As a result, management could monitor many poor driving habits, such as not wearing seat belts, following other vehicles too closely, and talking on cell phones. Since these habits contributed to collisions, the county coached drivers in fleet safety habits, using Driver Safety Program video footage as a teaching tool.

The coaching led to a 90% reduction in coachable incidents; and during the most recent fiscal year, county vehicles had an estimated 35-40% fewer collisions. What’s more, the county reduced the total cost of collisions by 74%.

All these impressive results came from using Lytx^® in their productivity and fleet tracking system.

Plus, a driver union, initially opposed to the Driver Safety Program, stopped objecting when they saw the driver safety improvements. Using the fleet video recorders, the county has successfully defended itself against many spurious auto accident claims.

All told, the Driver Safety Program has served the county well by improving the performance of its fuel management, driver risk management, driver safety, and fleet productivity systems. Full transcript below.

John Petrelli, Manager of Risk Management, Orange County Government:

“Our fleet has approximately 2,200 vehicles. Until recently, our liability claims from accidents were steadily increasing. So we started to focus on our drivers’ performance, as opposed to outside elements we couldn’t control. To help bring those costs down, we started looking for other solutions, and that’s what ultimately brought us to [Lytx] for a 90-day trial.

“The fleet video recorders enabled us to see a lot of poor driving behaviors which we addressed with those drivers through the coaching. Over the trial period, we saw a reduction of about 90% coachable incidents.

“With safety issues, you can look at trailing or leading indicators. With trailing indicators, the incident has already happened. Those indicators are great from the standpoint of going through, doing a recreation of events, and talking with that employee to help prevent future incidents.

“But we’d much rather look at leading indicators, because those identify behaviors and address them across the driver population, whether or not they’ve actually had an incident yet. And that was the primary reason we chose [Lytx]. Because we were able to take this and prevent things at the beginning, as opposed to at the end.

“We found that we had significant problems with drivers not wearing seat belts. We also had issues with following too close and rolling stops. We had an accident claim back in 2001, where a 12-year-old girl was struck by a county vehicle and was killed.

“One of the key elements in the trial was whether or not the driver was on a cell phone when the accident took place. Now we know that [the Lytx Driver Safety Program] could’ve absolutely answered that question.

“The driver was never disciplined because we couldn’t document whether he had been on a cell phone call or not—but [Lytx] would’ve really cleared up issues such as that.

“This fiscal year, we have seen somewhere between a 35 to 40% reduction in accidents, with the exception of one shock loss auto accident claim. We’ve also seen a 74% reduction in our total cost of accidents.

“When we initially implemented the pilot program, one of our unions was very verbally opposed to [Lytx]. But since they’ve seen the results we’ve gotten, we haven’t heard anything negative from them.

“The focal point is not so much the fleet video recorders themselves; it’s the fact that other people—not our drivers—are doing things they aren’t supposed to be doing. Now, with [Lytx], they’re paying the consequences of that.

“An example: we had a fire truck driving through an intersection. The truck had a green light and was doing twenty miles an hour. The drivers were almost all the way through the intersection, when they were t-boned by another vehicle. The two people in the other vehicle immediately got out and claimed that we had run the red light. There were no witnesses to the actual incident.

“Florida Highway Patrol responded, and we were able to send the video to them—which clearly showed that our fire truck had the green light and was well within the speed limit. As a result, Florida Highway Patrol cited the other individuals. Now, their insurance company is paying for the damage to our vehicle, which is pretty significant: over $50,000.

“Although you may look at the initial [Lytx] investment from a high dollar standpoint, the return that you ultimately see will far outweigh the cost. You’ll also see your driver behavior dramatically change in a very, very short time period. Plus, you’ll soon start to see your accidents decrease significantly. [Lytx] was well worth the investment, and it’s a fantastic product.”

Conclusion:

Orange County, Florida, made DriveCam event recorders the key player of its thorough driver risk management, driver safety, and fleet productivity program. The program cut the total cost of accidents by 74%, rapidly improved driver safety, and reduced overall accidents by 35-40%.

These impressive results won over initially skeptical drivers and their union, which eventually endorsed the Driver Safety Program because of its effectiveness against questionable accident claims. The company was impressed that such a technology solution could help control the costs of fleet liability insurance and reduce the total cost of accidents.