When Coach Canada decided to really put its Webtech Wireless Quadrant solution to the test, it never expected the data on speeding to exceed expectations. Coach Canada prides itself in its commitment to providing safe and reliable scheduled and chartered bus services throughout Ontario and Quebec as well as service via third-party carriers to New York City and beyond.

Ensuring its passengers a safe ride is key to its success, so having visibility into individual bus speeding information is likewise important. “The number one benefit of Quadrant for us is the ability to verify speed”, says Sarah Pridie, Operations Clerk in charge of driver and fleet monitoring at Coach Canada.

Speeding is Serious Business

Speeding is one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NHTSA), “In the US, the annual economic cost to society of speeding-related crashes is $40.4 billion”. Furthermore, research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that “when speed limits were raised by many states in 1996, travel speeds increased and motor vehicle fatalities went up significantly on Interstate highways in those states”.

Driver Behavior

For Coach Canada, safety assurance through speeding prevention is the best remedy it can offer. Coach Canada has undertaken a pro-active stance to ensure its drivers comply, first, with posted speed limits; and second, with company speed limits (sometimes its standards are more stringent than those enforced by highway authorities).

But rather than be authoritarian, pro-actively enforcing speed limits in real-time with its drivers is, if not welcomed, certainly respected. “We have had drivers thank us for enabling the MDT Speed Alert beep as an added safety measure for them and their passengers”, says Pridie who monitors driver behavior through Quadrant reports.

Key Quadrant Benefits for Coach Canada

• MDT speeding alerts beep to indicate to drivers when they’re exceeding speed limits.
• Two Quadrant reports provide the data Sarah needs to ensure Coach Canada’s drivers are driving safely:
  • Speeding Duration report – Uses Vsend configuration to capture length of time the vehicle traveled beyond a pre-defined speed.
  • Driver Performance report – shows data from all vehicles and highlights driving behavior issues such as hard breaking or sharp accelerations, indicators of potential dangerous behavior by drivers.

How does Sarah and Coach Canada know they’re getting ahead of speeding? According to Sarah, “Management treats it [speeding] seriously and so do drivers”. Then she adds matter of factly, “We’ve seen a 90.4 percent reduction in speeding after implementing these Quadrant Features in 2012”.

For CalVans (California Vanpool Authority), success is not measured by how it makes the news, but from its successful avoidance. While the Media may feast on stories of accidents and negligence, CalVans relaxes in the knowledge that “No news is good news”.

Originally established in 2001 with just one van, CalVans was since grown to more than 200 vanpools designed for the unique needs of commuters, students, and farm workers. By providing a cost-effective and convenient alternative to commuter driving, while meeting the needs of the State’s environmental and transportation needs, CalVans is a vital part in a growing community transportation network.

Using Webtech Wireless’ GPS/AVL tracking is part of what makes CalVans a no-news success story, because it helps prevent accidents, theft, and other bad news from filling the papers:

• Drivers, passengers, and all users of the road are safer because drivers are alerted in real-time when they speed, and speeding reports help CalVans monitor its drivers.
• Through theft prevention and driver authentication, insurance premiums are kept low.
• By providing an alternative to California’s notorious highway gridlock while helping to reduce C0² emissions, CalVans qualifies for State grants and other funding.
• Fleet vehicles last longer because the Webtech Wireless Maintenance Portal enables CalVans to pro-actively monitor engine status and schedule van maintenance.

Recently, we talked with CEO, Steve Troyer, and found out how Troyer Ventures is generating revenue to stay way ahead of its competition.

Challenge

As a leading fluid transportation company in the oil and gas sector in north-eastern British Columbia, Troyer Ventures found that it couldn’t grow with the old system. And to realize their growth potential without replacing the old system, Troyer was facing adding an additional dispatch office or even splitting the fleet, which in itself presented another host of operations challenges.

To realize its revenue generating potential, Troyer made the strategic decision to embrace an integrated technology solution.

Solution

Troyer took the unprecedented initiative to adopt a challenging integration combining the best of three different software providers: TMW, Great Plains, and Webtech Wireless’ Quadrant solution.

Better ROI

So far, the implementation is showing many encouraging trends and Steve concludes that what’s emerging shows what a great fleet management tool Quadrant is, because it has allowed Troyer to “realize better returns on our assets and people”.

How Much Better?

Steve expects benefits to increase over next 12 months with trends pointing toward a complete return on investment in the not-too-distant future. In addition, the new growth strategy leverages on improved staff efficiencies, particularly as staff re-allocations mean increased revenues for the company without increasing staff.

All of the recent concern over mobile phone use and texting while driving (and for that matter operating any moving vehicle or equipment) has reminded me once again of the study done by the VirginaTech Transportation Institute.

This was the first major study of its kind using “naturalistic” methodology − meaning that it used technology such as in-vehicle cameras and event recorders to monitor a large sample of drivers over long periods of time – reducing the possibilities that the study itself would influence behaviour.

The key results of the study, summarized in their Press Release, are being cited by the US Department of Transport as justification for the proposed legislation that could affect all transport companies operating in the US.

WebTech Wireless has always been concerned with road safety and it’s one of the reasons we’ve spent considerable resources on the development of market-leading, in-vehicle Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs).

WebTech Wireless’ MDTs can provide Text-to-Speech and Voice Recognition functionality for true hands-free operation, and in combination with comprehensive company driving policies, training and monitoring, make in-vehicle technology highly efficient and safe.