Driver safety is one of the most important responsibilities of a fleet manager or fleet owner. With that in mind, if there were simple steps you could take as a fleet manager/owner that would prevent driver distractions, would you take them? One company, ORIGOSafeDriver, focuses on distractions from cellphones—something every fleet driver owns and could be tempted to use while on the job. Matt Sheffer of ORIGOSafeDriver shares why the company is a benefit and a helper when it comes to driver distractions.
MWS: WHAT IS ORIGOSAFEDRIVER, AND WHAT SPARKED THE IDEA BEHIND IT?
SHEFFER: ORIGOSafeDriver was born out of personal experience. One of the founders of the company was rear-ended by a distracted driver. He went to work developing the most effective cellphone safety solution on the market. Our team of engineers and developers have now brought that solution to the market with a passion for reducing cellphone-related crashes, damage, and most importantly, fatalities.
MWS: HOW DOES ORIGOSAFEDRIVER WORK?
SHEFFER: We have taken a proactive approach to disabling the driver’s screen when the vehicle is in motion. The solution works by pairing telematics hardware that syncs with a mobile app, once your driver’s vehicle goes into motion, it disables the screen. All a driver has to do is log in to the app once and can remain logged in. No further action is required to make the technology functional.
MWS: WHAT BENEFITS DO FLEET MANAGERS GET FROM USING THE SYSTEM? WHAT BENEFIT DO DRIVERS GET FROM IT?
SHEFFER: With our proactive cellphone safety solution, not only will you prevent cellphone-related crashes, but you also change drivers’ behavior. Crashes can be detrimental to companies. Aside from injuries or fatalities, crashes can have widespread financial impacts. These include increased insurance premiums, lawsuits, lost productivity due to downtime, and damage to brand reputation.
As far as drivers, I believe the biggest benefit is a change in driving behavior. Our solution has active coaching. Meaning if the driver tries to interact with the phone, they receive audible coaching from our hardware. I can say from personal experience, having ORIGOSafeDriver has made me a better driver. Having safer drivers on the roads doesn’t just benefit the company and the driver, but everyone else on the roads.
ORIGOSafeDriver is also configurable to your cellphone safety policy. We are able to either allow or not allow Bluetooth calls depending on the company’s policy.
MWS: WHY IS THIS SYSTEM A BETTER CHOICE VS OTHER DISTRACTED DRIVING MONITORS?
SHEFFER: What sets us apart from other solutions is our approach in being proactive vs reactive. Certain devices are able to let you know that an infraction or dangerous activity has happened but hasn’t actually prevented it from happening. With our hardware and app, we are actually able to prevent drivers from cellphone distractions.
The other big differentiator is our hardware. Our hardware allows us to transmit data through it vs the driver’s phone. And that is a big deal because if it were to pass through the drivers’ phone, it could potentially drain the battery or cause excessive data overages for the driver.
Other benefits to the hardware include the active coaching, which I mentioned before. Another benefit is what we call “authorized drivers.” With our technology you are able to pair a specific driver with a specific vehicle. If a driver tries to drive a vehicle with our solution installed, they have two minutes to pair the app with the hardware. If that doesn’t happen, the fleet manager or administrator of our system receives an SMS notification and can take appropriate action.
MWS: CAN ORIGOSAFEDRIVER INTEGRATE WITH EXISTING TELEMATICS SYSTEMS?
SHEFFER: We are currently integrated with Geotab, an industry leader in telematics. Through Geotab’s platform and reporting dashboard, you are able to see reports, vehicle location and more from one dashboard in the MyGeotab fleet management platform. By integrating Geotab’s open APIs, ORIGOSafeDriver allows fleets to gain visibility into unsafe driving habits, including if a driver tried to use their phone, how fast they were going, and the exact location an infraction may have occurred. Some companies integrate with telematics only at the reporting level, however using the ORIGOSafeDriver-IOX we can physically integrate with the Geotab GO device at the solution level to provide unified data.
An example of the benefits of unified data is if one of your drivers has a hard-braking event, you don’t have to wonder if that incident was caused because they were distracted by their phone. Through our integration with telematics, customers can see if there was a direct correlation between distracted driving and a braking event.
MWS: WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON FOR ORIGOSAFEDRIVER?
SHEFFER: Cellphone usage continues to be one of the most dangerous activities you can do when behind the wheel.
We are always looking at ways to improve our solution. Most of the features that we are working on are driven by our customers. We will continue to work with them to develop new features that will help companies protect their fleet, brand, and most importantly, their drivers.
For More Information
Matt Sheffer is the director of business development at ORIGOSafeDriver. Find out more about ORIGOSafeDriver, visit www.origosafedriver.com or reach out to Matt directly at matt.sheffer@origosafedriver.com.
