Telematics and Video Services Weekly Fleet Reputation Builder for September 15, 2021
I noticed this week Transport Topics had a news article about ongoing indictments for a staged crash scam in the New Orleans area. https://bit.ly/3lz0aym What is old is new; our trucking company was part of an FBI investigation of these types of staged accident scams back in the 1990s in the Los Angeles area. Fortunately, there are better tools today to defend yourself and guard your reputation.
Your company is always susceptible to these incidents; as in all things trucking, a good offense is the best defense. Protecting against insurance scams starts with good driving habit expectations for your drivers, along with a good video system to back up their actions. Video intelligence is your best defense to this type of activity. Unanswered or inadequate protection for these incidents may expose you to a nuclear award.
Unfortunately, today forward-facing cameras are not entirely adequate; the best protection is multiple view cameras. In addition to forward-facing cameras, hood-mounted rear-facing mirror cameras or other side rearview cameras are valuable. 360 video protection is best however may not be practical for trailer-mounted rear-facing cameras.
More in-cab camera systems are available with multiple camera inputs to easily accommodate the added protection afforded by rearward facing side cameras. With the added data, the best systems maintain high definition image quality and onboard data retention. It is important to have at least three weeks of video data available before overwritten. As noted above, three weeks of data dwell time is invaluable to address calls claiming a sideswipe or minimal damage accidents. Sideswipe accidents are in the article as part of the scam accidents.
If you are contemplating in-cab video systems or looking for replacements, please contact the experts at Telematics and Video Systems LLC, https://tvsanalytics.com or 952 207-6726. We can assist with evaluating this vital tool to maintain your company’s safety reputation and protect against insurance scams. Multiple input camera systems is your TVS reputation builder tip of the week!
