The Benefits of Truck Tracking and Monitoring
Autonomous Electric Van semi truck car driving on a highway with technology assistant tracking information, showing details.
Tracking and monitoring of trucks and other heavy vehicles can be an important tool for fleet managers, compliance officers and business owners. Accessing real-time vehicle data such as location, driver behaviour and events can bring value to any organisation.
The most popular form of truck tracking is in the form of GPS tracking. This method can bring many benefits to a business, such as being able to locate the vehicle or ensure that a driver has taken the most fuel-efficient route. There are many fleet tracking products on the market today, with many of them offering GPS-only solutions for truck tracking. While these are great options, they are also limiting and could prevent you from getting the most out of a tracking and monitoring system.
Video monitoring can bring a whole other layer of safety and accountability to your heavy vehicle business. By viewing, searching and analysing real-time and historic video footage, you can increase business efficiencies.
Video Monitoring for Heavy Vehicles – More Than GPS Tracking
Video tracking and monitoring isn’t a new concept. Truck dash cams have been a popular option for many years, but these cameras generally only capture footage from a couple of angles, limiting their usefulness to accidents and emergency scenarios. By recording video footage from multiple angles around and inside of the vehicle using IP or analog cameras, you can capture a complete view of all vehicle activity.
Asgard is a cloud-based platform for viewing and analysing live and historic video footage. Unlike other solutions on the market, footage is automatically uploaded to the Asgard system and does not require manual intervention. Key event markers can be inserted in the video metadata that enables fast search and playback. The triggers for these event markers can include time, location, g-force, relay contacts, vehicle status, driver status, and each event can be configured to accurately mark the required video. The video footage will automatically be categorised and searchable in the portal. The system’s advanced search capabilities allow you to search via event, location, vehicle or time and date. You can even watch footage in real-time.
With video-based truck tracking and monitoring, you can bring clarity to every aspect of heavy vehicle transport and operation. While GPS tracking will only give you basic location data, video monitoring brings visibility to every action taken, and is therefore much more valuable.
What Can be Captured by Video Monitoring?
The key areas that heavy vehicle video monitoring seeks to capture are safety, driver behaviour, security and vehicle/equipment operating events. Some examples of driver behaviour include fatigue driving, mobile phone use, smoking, distraction, unbuckled seatbelts, driver exception and wearing sunglasses. Monitoring truck drivers brings accountability and the ability to correct behaviours if need be. It can also help to fulfil Chain of Responsibility (CoR) obligations.
Vehicle events can include things like left or right turning, braking, reversing, lane departure, impacts, bin lifts, theft or vandalism and other customised events. These events can even be used to provide hard evidence of proof of service, or regulatory compliance. For instance, a waste management company could provide evidence that a residential bin has been emptied by searching via street address and providing timestamped video footage of the bin lift occurring.
Being able to capture, store and search these events brings certainty and clarity to heavy vehicle businesses.
Why Choose Video Truck Tracking Over GPS or Dash Cams?
There are many benefits to tracking trucks and other heavy vehicles using video monitoring systems like Asgard. While GPS tracking will only provide you with location and other basic information like speeds, video monitoring provides visibility to the entire operation of the vehicle. It can be used to provide evidence of operations, safety and compliance. Video-based alerts can be configured to provide an extra layer of control to fleet managers and business owners.
Like GPS systems, dash cams offer minimal functionality and do not provide an overview of all vehicle and driver activity. While dash cams may be useful in some situations, multi-angle video recording is much more versatile and offers a complete solution for heavy vehicle management.
Video monitoring really stands out against alternative options due to its capability for business analytics and reporting. Because video events are automatically uploaded and categorised, the Asgard portal can be utilised to improve business efficiencies and visibility.
Which Kinds of Vehicles Can Benefit from Video Monitoring?
Truck tracking and video monitoring is not just limited to vehicles undertaking goods transport. Any kind of vehicle can benefit from a video monitoring system like Asgard, but especially those providing essential services.
Multi-angle video monitoring is a popular choice for waste and recycling organisations where providing proof of service and analysing events such as bin lifts can be extremely useful. It can also be used by council services across street sweeping, landcare, property maintenance or road maintenance.
Emergency services vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks and police cars can also benefit from multi-angle recording to capture every minute of activity. Asgard can be used for real-time scene viewing, incident reporting, alerts and evidence of equipment theft or damage, tech support and remote viewing of hazardous situations like landslides and fallen power lines.
Mining vehicles and other heavy mobile assets can also benefit from video monitoring, especially in remote and rural environments where on-site supervision may not be possible. Mining vehicles often have very restricted vision for the driver, and cameras can provide all-around views on in-cabin display, eliminating blind spots.
Goods transport vehicles can benefit from Asgard to promote safe driving, monitor and prevent fatigue driving, delivery compliance and theft prevention and recovery.
Asgard for Mobile Asset Video Monitoring
Asgard is a cost-effective, cloud-based portal for viewing and searching live and historic video footage. It is compatible with Hikvision NVRs and DVRs, and IP and analog cameras. It can be fully standalone or integrated with existing vehicle systems. The system can be used for verification of work performed, compliance to work procedures, theft and vandalism detection, driver fatigue and providing evidence of any safety related incidents.
Contact the team at Step Global today to enquire about Asgard for your organisation.