2022 Global Vision Zero Fleet Forum Wrap Up

Hi Friend,

We just wrapped our second annual Vision Zero Fleet Forum earlier this week, helping to create connections across industries and sectors to accelerate solutions for road safety, promote economic growth and work towards Vision Zero. This newsletter is dedicated to themes discussed during the forum – which simply wouldn’t have been possible without our sponsors and speakers. We know how busy everyone is and we are truly grateful you took the time to spend it with us.

Our Fleet Forum began the day after the devastating news about the number of people in the U.S. killed in collisions in 2021 was released with deaths on U.S. roads soaring to a 16-year high. Our work is more important than ever and TSR has a busy week ahead with our attending the Texas Vision Zero Summit on Monday where our work in Gulfton (Houston) will be discussed and the Government Fleet Expo and Conference where we’ll be moderating a panel on spec’ing safer vehicles. We also look forward to attending the 33rd Annual NYC Fleet Show where one of our “Truck of the Future” vehicles will be on display.

Thank you again for your support. As the Fleet Forum helped emphasized, the dedicated road safety professionals striving toward Vision Zero is amazing - but we have a lot of work yet to do.

2022 Vision Zero Fleet Forum Replays Available for Purchase

Thank you to all our panelists, moderators, and keynote speakers that made our 2022 Global Vision Zero Fleet Forum possible. We could not have done this without your expertise and time.

And thank you to our co-presenter, City of New York’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and to our sponsors, AB InBev, Lytx, Inc., Interstate Waste Services, Inc., and Republic Services.

Life-saving topics around road safety were discussed and connections were made.

Some key themes that surfaced over the two days were:

The need for proactive technology to end distracted driving.
Work in the community - starting with kids/teens and schools and educating them on road safety.
Positive reinforcement – Telematics and in-cab driver assistance technology are there to support the driver. Ensure that the reward and recognition element is explained rather than any potential disciplinary measures.
Trucks will always be needed to move goods but cities of the future should investigate car-less or car-light infrastructures. Less cars on the road will equal less deaths and crashes.

And there were so many more themes across the 12 sessions and 49 speakers. Below we highlight just a few of our sessions.

Driver Attitudes Towards Vehicle Safety Technology

As discussed during the Fleet Forum earlier this week, fleet Managers now have access to GPS-based telematics and in-cab driver assistance technology that is often paired with in-cab dash cameras—all of which can keep drivers and the public safe. Managers can’t always be in the cab, but now they always have a digital set of eyes on their drivers to help prevent crashes.

The problem is many drivers and even some managers are critical of the technology, significantly impacting adoption and use.

Our fantastic panel, which also consisted of two fleet managers, discussed how to better understand what makes drivers reluctant to adopt in-cab camera technology and identify what can be done to positively influence perceptions. Our “Driver Attitudes Towards Vehicle Safety Technology white paper, the first-of-its-kind research, was discussed. In it, over 500 professional drivers were surveyed and questions focused on basic perceptions of, and implementation of, technology as well as actions by management.

If you’re struggling to get your drivers to buy into in-cab, cameras, download the white paper and watch the fleet forum session.

Solving for Blind Zones and Making the Case for Direct Vision

In the U.S., trucks represent 12 percent of total road fatalities, but trucks themselves are only 4 percent of the vehicles operating on the road. Truck fatalities are this high because drivers of large vehicles have limited visibility, making it difficult to make the safest choices.

During our Fleet Forum, we dedicated two sessions to the important topic of solving for blind zones.

Learn more about our work with retrofittable solutions and redesigned truck cabs to address blind zones and reduce traffic deaths. Watch Session One of the Fleet Forum, which dealt with Direct Vision Cab, and Session Two which covered Technology Retrofits.

And we are also thrilled to announce that the Santos Family Foundation has awarded TSR a grant to support our work to make direct vision cabs the industry standard for commercial trucks.

TSR, through our Global Leadership Council for Fleet Safety, is partnering with our members and the US DOT Volpe Center to create a direct vision standard and certification so fleets know how safe (or dangerous) their vehicles are in terms of blind zones and then can plan to upgrade them appropriately. The standard and certification are built on the Volpe Center's VIEW app, a smartphone app that professionals can use to measure blind zones on their vehicles. If you’re a fleet operator, let us know if you're interested in being involved or learning more.