03/01/16 by Egor Korneev.

Posted Speed Limits Violation Reporting

Speeding has a direct and adverse effect on safety. Higher overspeed incident count, time overspeed, and higher miles per hour above the posted speed limit are predictors of a higher accident rate. Transportation companies are well aware of the correlation.

Numerous fleets implement safety programs to combat speeding, while others are looking for the tools to improve these crucial statistics. In this blog, we discuss how fleets can use LoadTrek to monitor, analyze and reduce speeding, and improve safety.

Reporting and Analysis

The purpose of monitoring violations of posted speed limits is to decrease the number of instances and duration of speeding in the fleet. Fleets can accomplish the goal with a global policy, training programs, and through educating individual drivers who exhibit a propensity for speeding. LoadTrek offers three types of reports to assist safety managers.

First, the general fleet and trend analysis report enables managers to observe speeding trends for each driver group. This information is LoadTrek’s primary gauge of safety policy effectiveness, and is available as a line graph or spreadsheet.

Second, the roads of concern analysis report graphically displays problematic road segments on a map. A color gradient indicates the severity of the problem. Based on this analysis, fleets can create geofences to warn drivers to slow down on specific roads.

Third, the detailed analysis of individual drivers in groups report ranks drivers in order of violations. The safety team can use this to focus training efforts on individual drivers who need to improve their scores.

LoadTrek’s approach – Sequencing data points, and Speeding Buckets

LoadTrek continuously records the speed and position data for moving vehicles. We compress and analyze the data in near real-time, review each datapoint, filter out the erroneous entries, and then compile speeding statistics for each driver and vehicle.

Speeding statistics are organized by speeding buckets, each equal to a five mile per hour range: 1-5 mph, 6-10 mph, and so on. LoadTrek uses these speeding buckets to trigger feedback to drivers that exceed an established safety threshold.

For example, if a driver spends three minutes in 6-10 mph speeding bucket, the driver will receive an alert on the Electronic Logging Device in the cab. Drivers may also receive an alert if they exceed 5 speeding violations per hour, or travel 10 mph above the posted speed limit on a road.

Avoiding Alert Fatigue and False Violations

False violations can build distrust of reporting with drivers and safety managers. A high number of alerts can turn warnings into white noise. Each issue decreases effectiveness of the feedback. To avoid alert fatigue and ensure violation accuracy, LoadTrek has tested multiple approaches to alerting drivers while speeding.

Our first instinct was to warn drivers as soon as they violate a posted speed limit. However, we found this approach to be limiting and at times counterproductive.

For example, the primary road of travel may have a speed limit of 45 miles per hour, whereas a cross road may have a speed limit of 25 miles per hours. The difference may generate a severe and incorrect violation at the moment a vehicle drives through an intersection.

In another example, a system may generate accurate speeding alerts when a driver exceeds a speed limit by one or two miles per hour. This is a common scenario on city roads with low speed limits and multiple traffic signals. Distracting a driver with multiple warnings while they are in traffic can contribute to unsafe driving.

Slow is Safe – Using a systematic approach

Controlling speeding is a safety priority, and fleets can improve this statistic with a systematic approach.

1. Publish a company non-speeding policy
2. Post weekly trend reports on driver bulletin boards
3. Provide private feedback to drivers about their speeding performance
4. Include speeding metrics into driver scorecards
5. Consider a bonus structure for top performing groups, and top performing drivers

The end goal is to improve safety. Less speeding means fewer accidents, safer roads for all drivers, and lower insurance rates.

Slow down and drive safe!

How to access reports.

Before you can review the Posted Speed Limits Compliance reports, please note that your vehicle code versions must meet the following prerequisites:

1. LDT-100 version: 2.41.51 or later
2. LoadTrek Android version: 3.12 or later

LoadTrek is performing over-the-air device updates at this time and we expect all fleets to receive the appropriate versions within the next 4 weeks. Many of your devices may already be updated.

You can find the reports in Report Web App under the Safety group.

More information:

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Written by: Egor Korneev

Edited by: Dushan Yovovich