10 reasons you need vehicle tracking

/in , /by

There’s lots of benefits of tracking your vehicles that are used for work, so we’ll get straight to it, here are our top ten reasons for adding trackers for your vehicles.

Lower insurance premiums
Most insurance companies will lower your insurance premiums and general overall insurance costs if you have trackers in your vehicles, this is by far one of the best and most straightforward benefits of adding vehicle trackers. Insurance companies calculate the premium you pay based on an estimate of risk and because of being able to track your vehicle. That is if it was stolen and there is a magnitude of other reasons too. Many of those reasons we’re about to discuss. insurance companies will lower your premiums if you have trackers installed.

Find stolen vehicles
This leads onto our next point and one of the most obvious points. Tracking your vehicle means you can locate it should the vehicle be stolen, you’ll be able to locate it yourself and pass the location onto the Police or other relevant authorities for them to retrieve the vehicle for you. Vehicle theft is and always has been a big problem. It shouldn’t be something which is overlooked or considered “not a crime these days”. It very much is a huge problem, especially as it contains petrol, can be used by others, and may even contain goods.

Know when workers are taking breaks for their health and safety
Another benefit is a legal and legislative benefit. Vehicle tracking shows where your vehicle is and how long it has been moving or not moving for. You have legal responsibilities to your employees to make sure they take breaks and are not driving or working too long. This is applicable under the law of the country you’re driving in. Currently in the UK this is applicable under both UK and EU law. Employees will be understanding of usage of trackers for this reason. After all, it’s for their benefit and their health and safety.

Item / inventory location
If you are a firm which delivers goods, you may need to know the exact location of those goods at any time. Items are therefore never accidentally lost. Tracking for this reason is very important. How will you answer the question “where is my item?” if you do not know.

Speed monitoring
Another benefit regarding employees is that many tracking systems also monitor the speed your drivers are going. This is an added layer of control and health and safety, to make sure your drivers are not putting themselves and others at risk.

Maintenance
Maintenance of trackers is easy and usually handled by the company that provides or installs them. Do not be put off. Another angle for maintenance is the maintenance of vehicles, it shows you just how long a vehicle has been on the road and after general wear and tear, trackers will help you manage the maintenance program of your vehicles.

Efficiency
This leads us onto another point, in general it helps you run your business in an efficient manner. Any process, tool, platform or whatever it may be that can help your business run smoother will result in a more profitable business with happier customers and employees.

Fuel efficiency and saving
And yes, fuel efficiency too! Track how far your vehicles are travelling and how much fuel they really need!

Benefits outweigh cost
One final point is that any costs associated with vehicle tracking are outweighed by the magnitude of the benefits above. It is simply a risk you cannot afford to take.

Features of vehicle tracking explained

/in , /by

It is clear there are many benefits to having vehicle trackers, but many also have questions about the features of vehicle trackers. Whilst there are variations, there are a set of standard features which apply to many types of trackers. In this article, we will talk through a range of different features and we will explain what they mean. You may not require all the features, but it is worth looking through some of the core features available. It is good to consider some of the different features that are out there, so you know what you need in the end. Let us get started.

In the article we will also evaluate why it is important to have CCTV in your vehicle too. We want to stress why both tracking and CCTV are beneficial when combined.

Real time tracking
This is where your vehicle, such as a bus or coach is tracked in real time. This means the actual location is tracked by GPS in real time. You will be able to see the exact location as your vehicle moves.

Route playback
This means you can play back the exact route the vehicle took and see the exact roads and locations the bus used.

Waterproofing
Some are waterproof, this may be beneficial in some cases as it means if your driver has an accident and let’s say the vehicle then ends up in a lake, the vehicle can still be tracked. All waterproofing does have some limitation of course.

Over speeding
Most track speed and in some cases have speed tracker alarms which indicates when a vehicle is over speeding. Such as doing 80 miles per hour in a 60 mile per hour zone.

Resistance
Most are shock resistance for example in accidents.

Discreet
Most are discreet, your drivers will forget they are even there.

Reports
Reports can usually be viewed in a few different formats and can help with timesheet and mileage calculation

Driver scoring
Many trackers offer a score on your driver based on their driving.

CCTV
Whilst vehicle trackers do not have CCTV, a top is to have vehicle CCTV too. Let us evaluate some of the benefits of having vehicle CCTV too.

As mentioned at the start of the article, we will also review below, the importance of having CCTV in your vehicles too.

Insurance
Again, a huge and fairly of having CCTV on your bus or coach is for insurance reasons. Insurance costs are driven down by having CCTV in the vehicle. It is important as we currently still live in a ‘claim culture’.

Health and safety
Should anything happen, evidence is needed for any investigation. Should there be an accident or incident, CCTV will be able to help you pinpoint exactly what happened, who is responsible and thus provides information management teams need to make decisions.

Capture anti-social behaviour
Easily capture any anti-social behaviour, vandalism, and damage against your vehicle.

Final word
It is important to have both trackers and CCTV. We hope this article helps you understand the features of tracking and why you need CCTV too. We want to stress again the combination of CCTV and trackers will provide a strong return on investment compared to having neither, which could end up being very costly. Information is king, intelligence is important. Without it, it can be difficult to make decisions.

Do also remember there are laws in which having trackers and CCTV helps you support, but there are legal considerations of their use.

Vehicle CCTV system – benefits and reasons why it must be installed in your vehicles

/in , /by

Vehicle CCTV systems have lots of benefits that are beyond the rationale of installing to capture social behaviours. Every day, these advanced digital video recording solutions are becoming more popular as they are used to capture high-quality video evidence that are retrieved easily and used against any fraudulent accident claims from the passengers and other road users.

Operators are beginning to realise the benefits of having mobile bus and coach CCTV equipment. Most customers use the system to monitor driver’s behaviour and the safety of their passengers.

BENEFITS OF VEHICLE CCTV

Vehicle CCTV has proven to help protect the lives of people and fleet assets, due to accident rates and incidents falling as a direct relation. Its recording delivers encryption level data which is used against the false claim and protect the integrity of the business.

No matter the nature of your fleet, vehicle CCTV installations of between 1 – 16 cameras improves drivers’ behaviour, eliminates blind spots, and also delivers a return on investment.

Vehicle CCTV is fast becoming a staple inclusion of regulatory compliance. Some systems are set up to provide drivers with “an extra set of eyes” to view areas on the vehicle that is not accessible from the driver’s seat. This is vital for commercial and specialist vehicles. The mobile DVR system ensures that LVGs, HVGs and commercial vehicles can capture and record blind spots, such as at the rea of the vehicle or front nearside where cyclists tend to be.

Apart from the above benefits of vehicle CCTV, below are the list of the key benefits you can get when you install vehicle CCTV on your bus and coach.

  • Vehicle CCTV has dedicated video playback encrypted software to view incidents
  • Prevents against theft and vandalism
  • Reduce insurance costs and prevents fraudulent insurance claims
  • Protects drivers and passengers
  • Increases efficiencies, productivity, and safety through better driving

Another benefit of installing a reliable vehicle CCTV system is that when there is a crash involving a third party, the video footage can be downloaded quickly and exported to a recipient for instant viewing. The vehicle CCTV system helps in proving liability and to make claims resolution process faster with less stress for all concerned parties.

Vehicle CCTV captures all that is happening within the range of its camera. It provides a full record of what happened in case of any crash. These records can be presented to the insurance company or police as evidence. It comes in handy for fleet management with its GPS location ability. Vehicle CCTV systems captures footage from all angles. Because of the values that vehicle CCTV system offers, Government and organisations are taking this initiative seriously and costly steps to put an end to vandalization and accidents.

For information on Vehicle Security Solutions systems, please contact us on 01562 881010 or 07752 652294.

The Current State of the Bus and Coach Industry in the UK

/in /by

With the current measures to tackle COVID 19 by adopting social distancing and work from home, there has been a decline in the revenue of the bus and coach industry as the number of passengers on both scheduled coach services and buses has fallen by 75 %. As further measures are introduced to protect the over 70s concessionary travel, it is also likely to drop to near zero. For sometimes now, the industry has been suffering from declining passengers number. The situation is further exacerbated for the coach hire sector as April to June is traditionally the peak season for coach operators and the day to day operations are supplemented through an increase in tourism events such as private hire bookings and music festivals.

The bus and coach industry that transports more people in all form of public transport and support around 250,000 jobs is determined to maintain a national network with an unprecedented decline in the coach and bus use. The concern around the spread of this virus surrounding foreign travel in the medium term made UK coach holiday exceed the previous levels.

Maintaining the industry at its current level is essential to ensure that the operators can gear up immediately to deliver full and reliable services like social distancing and other measures. The industry has been playing its part in maintaining a national network. Still, the government and local authorities need to encourage the industry by allowing operators to alter route that will reflect the reality of social distancing.

The bus and coach industry is currently seeking an existential crisis with a complete slump in bookings and unprecedented cancellations. This is because people are changing plans as a result of Coronavirus. Tackling this virus is UK’s number priority, but we also need to have eyes on the future by ensuring that we can resume these services in the coming soonest.

COVID 19 pandemic has negatively affected the bus and coach industry. But soon, attention will lead to recovery from the current standstill. As at now, nothing has been said, but some operatives are considering the recovering that may involve. Some believe that the industry should receive more government support.

The British biggest bus and coach operator on the 6th of May 2020 has called on the government for a joint strategy to secure vital public transport network. He sets up a six-point plan identifying the short and long term changes that will help reboot the economy and also protect the communities.

This COVID 19 Pandemic has shown the importance of humanity to the growth and development of the economy. For example, buses provide social links by helping combat loneliness and hidden health challenges. While many are working from home, coaches are delivering emergency for key workers that are critical for the economy.

With the British most important public transport mode, there is no reason why we cannot return to safety. Transitional support as an investment will pay back as many times in helping us, our community and economy to recover again.

Speeding offences up 37% in seven years

/in /by

There were 2,386,780 speeding offences detected in England and Wales in 2018-19 – a 37% rise on the 1,740,217 speeding offences detected in 2011-12.

It was also 4% higher than the 2,292,534 speeding offences recorded in 2017-18.

The total number of all motoring offences detected across the two countries in 2018-19 was 2,837,661, meaning speeding accounted for 84% of them.

Of the 2,386,780 speeding offences detected in 2018-19:

  • 44% resulted in the offender being sent on a speed awareness course.
  • 34% attracted fixed penalty notices (FPNs).
  • 12% were later cancelled.
  • 10% resulted in court action.

The headline figure for those caught speeding hides large variations between constabularies.

The analysis – based on Home Office data and carried out by Dr Adam Snow of Liverpool John Moores University and Doreen Lam of the RAC Foundation – showed that West Yorkshire topped the list with 181,867 people caught speeding in 2018-19.

Second was Avon and Somerset (159,210) followed by the Metropolitan Police, including City of London (157,494).

At the other end of the scale Wiltshire Constabulary caught only 807 people speeding, Cleveland caught 11,937 and Derbyshire 12,256. Wiltshire turned off its speed cameras in 2010.

A full table is available below.

Across the 43 constabularies of England and Wales, the vast majority (97%) of offences were detected by speed cameras.

The variations across police forces will in part be down to geographical area, road type and traffic volume. They will also be created by local policing priorities. In Wiltshire, for example, all speed cameras were turned off in 2010.

Steve Gooding of the RAC Foundation said: “The simple rule for drivers who don’t want to risk ending up with a speeding ticket is not to break the limit in the first place.

“Where limits are properly signposted and clearly feel right for the road in question then motorists have no excuse for going faster, but that means highway authorities also have a responsibility to make sure the limits they set are appropriate and to avoid instances where the limit repeatedly ‘bounces’ up and down along a single stretch.”

In 2018, “exceeding the speed limit” was recorded as a contributory factor in 13% of fatal crashes in Great Britain where at least one factor was identified.

“Travelling too fast for the conditions” was a contributory factor in 9% of fatal crashes. More than one contributory factor might be recorded per incident.

Since the inception of the National Speed Awareness Course in 2010 about nine million people have attended one.

The RAC Foundation is a transport policy and research organisation that explores the economic, mobility, safety and environmental issues relating to roads and their users.

Detailed figures for all constabularies in England and Wales can be viewed here.

Original Article by Gareth Roberts – Fleet News
https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2020/01/07/speeding-offences-up-37-in-seven-years

VSS Director presents cheque to Brake – the road safety charity

/in /by

Sales Director, Matt Freemantle recently met with Mike Bristow from the road safety charity – Brake, to present him with a cheque for £900 and to talk through a new working partnership.

Brake’s vision is a world that has zero road deaths and injuries, and people can get around in ways that are safe, sustainable, healthy and fair.

They are a humanitarian charity, working with urgency and in partnership with ourselves to implement evidence-led solutions to a crisis that affects us all and our planet.

Vehicle Security

/in /by

It’s something that we’ve all worried about at some point or another in our lives, and unfortunately it’s something we can’t do much about. Vehicle crime is an unfortunately common occurrence in this country – it’s just too easy to break into cars. However, there are some things you can do to make sure that your vehicle will be less likely to be the one that people choose to break into.

Get a car alarm
We’ve all been there at 3am when the neighbour’s car alarm starts going off. And even though everyone in a two mile radius can hear it, the neighbour appears to sleep through it – leaving it going off for hours. As annoying as they may seem, vehicle alarms are actually the best way to prevent people breaking in. Some of them are quite sensitive, meaning that the slightest bump will set them off, but some are more subtle than that – it would have to be a forceful try of the door or something hitting the window to make them go off. And as soon as that noise starts blaring people don’t want to stick around.

Hide any valuables
One of the most common mistakes that people make is leaving their valuables on display. Whether it’s a sat nav left in its cradle, or a phone left on the seat – people do this all the time. Leaving valuables on display is like putting a sign up to thieves saying ‘come and break in here’. For a thief, seeing a car with valuable things inside is like hitting the jackpot. So next time, before you leave your car for the night (or even just a few hours) make sure you have taken the time to hide anything that might be valuable, or even things that look like they could be valuable – empty bags and such. You’ll thank yourself for it later.

Lock the vehicle
This one seems fairly obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many people forget to do this, or just don’t bother. This is the easiest way for thieves to get into your car and take whatever’s inside – or even hotwire it and take it for a spin. Get into the habit of checking your doors whenever you leave your vehicle and make sure they’re always locked up tight. Many thieves are chancers – they’ll simply walk down a street and try the handles of every vehicle they pass in the hopes that one is left unlocked. Don’t let the one unlocked be yours.

There are other things that you can do to make sure your vehicle is secure whenever you leave it. Vehicle CCTV is a tool that is on the rise, and isn’t just for big company vehicles. Unfortunately, vandalism is on the rise too, meaning that you could go out to your car one morning and find it covered in graffiti, or scratched from bumper to bumper. With vehicle CCTV you’ll be able to catch whoever did it. Not only that, but having vehicle CCTV acts as a deterrent, so people will be less likely to break in, or vandalise your vehicle, if they know that they’ll get spotted on camera.

Vehicle CCTV works not just for buses and public transport, but can also be used on personal vehicles too. Vehicle security is something we take very seriously, and we want everyone to be protected when it comes to this.

Shortage of Drivers in the Bus and Coach Industry

/in /by

It’s no secret that the country has had a rough few years in terms of the economy. There are cuts being made left, right and centre and unfortunately one of the industries that are suffering is the bus and coach one. These companies are essential for many people, who rely on them to get to and from work, or to the shops, but there are a shortage of bus drivers meaning this isn’t always possible.

Yes there have been cutbacks which mean that many companies cannot hire enough bus and coach drivers to fill all the routes that need filling, but there is another reason for this shortage. Westminster Transport Committee has brought to the attention of the public that one of the other reasons that there is a shortage of people is because recruitment isn’t what it used to be. Many companies have more buses or coaches than staff to drive them, and they don’t have enough time to recruit people the way they should be.

Many people have cited poor pay, unsocial hours and the general attitude of the public as reasons for putting them off the job. There are also a lot of conditions that bus and coach drivers need to meet before being able to drive safely and legally within this industry. These include passing a medical, obtaining the proper licence and completing a driver training course. Newly qualified bus drivers can also sometimes be left with a bond, which leaves them liable to pay back some of the cost of their training if they leave the company early.

As you can see, there are many reasons why there is a shortage of bus and coach drivers in the industry, but what people don’t see is the knock on effect this has to the general public. Many people are unable to drive themselves, and so rely on buses and coaches to get them to work, to visit friends and family or to go to the shops. In rural areas in particular, this can be a hard task, as many things aren’t within walking distance and the bus routes are few and far between. Because of the shortage, companies don’t have enough drivers to make all the routes that they could be so some people are left feeling isolated or ‘stuck’ at home. This further provides the general public with a negative attitude to the bus and coach industry – making the gap between the public and the driver even wider.

We understand that there is only so much that coach and bus companies can do in terms of recruitment – you can’t hire what isn’t there. And with everyone pulling their belts a little tighter, it isn’t always possible to have as many drivers as you would like to. But there are some things that this industry can do to help change the shortage of drivers in the country.

The attitude of the general public has been cited as one of the reasons that people don’t want to become drivers, so let’s go about changing that for the better. If we make the public feel safer, then they are more likely to trust bus companies, and therefore leave the negative attitude at the door. One of the ways to this is by installing CCTV in all buses and coaches, and letting the public know it’s for their benefit. This way both the driver and the public will feel better – and it will hopefully inspire more people to ‘come on board’ (pun intended) with the bus and coach industries.

Let’s start fixing relations between bus/coach companies and public and the rest will follow.

Insurance Premiums on the Rise

/in /by

Whether you own your own vehicle, or if you manage a company which has a lot of vehicles – such as bus or coach companies, then you are probably aware of insurance premiums going up year after year. It seems as though these insurance companies make up numbers and are just trying to get as much money out of their customers as possible but there are different reasons for them going up.

One of the reasons is due to the rise in crime that is happening in the country. Particularly in the case of buses and coaches, where they are transporting the general public, they are seen as vulnerable to vandalism and other acts of anti-social behaviour. In fact, buses and coaches are at higher risk of vandalism because they come into contact with more people over the course of a day. Not only that, but with the amount of people that buses transport every day, it’s getting harder and harder for the driver to keep an eye on everyone who is riding their bus or coach.

Insurance companies are aware of these facts, and so have decided to raise insurance premiums for buses and coaches – simply because these are the vehicles which are more susceptible to damage and therefore owners are more likely to make claims. It’s not entirely fair, but the insurance companies have to make their money somehow.

Another reason that insurance premiums have risen in recent years is that there is a lack of drivers in the industry. You may be wondering why this would affect the amount of insurance that people are paying, but to insurance companies, less drivers mean that the existing drivers are stretched thinner than ever before. This mean that are likely to be driving longer hours, longer routes and doing more hours without breaks. Because of this, bus and coach drivers are more likely to be tired and therefore more likely to make mistakes. Obviously, if you manage a bus or coach company, or are even a driver yourself, you will know what the proper precautions are but the insurance companies don’t see it this way, unfortunately.

Tired drivers are far more likely to make mistakes and do things which will cause accidents. This is true of any driver and not just bus and coach drivers, but unfortunately these are the drivers who are worst affects because they are driving bigger vehicles, and are responsible for the lives of more people. This means that if they make mistakes, the consequences are likely to be more far reaching than that of a normal driver. So the insurance premiums go up.

It seems unfair that the bus and coach companies are taking the brunt of the rising premiums, but at least after reading this you will have some understanding of why they’re doing it. Luckily for you, there are things that you can do to help stop the rise of insurance so quickly, or perhaps even make it go down.

One of these things is installing CCTV systems in all of your vehicles. This will make your vehicle safer for drivers and those on board. The driver will feel safer knowing that they are covered in the event of an accident and the general public will feel safer knowing that there will be footage if something were to happen. CCTV also acts as a deterrent to those looking to vandalise the buses and so makes them less likely to do it. In the eyes of insurance companies, this makes your buses and coaches safer.

Crash for Cash Schemes

/in , /by

You may have heard the term ‘crash for cash’ but have never known what it means. Lucky for you because those people who have heard the term certainly wish they hadn’t. In this schemes, fraudsters deliberately crash into the vehicles of innocent motorists, or submit false claims for accidents. This is so they can make as much money as possible from claims which are exaggerated or completely false. The money that is made from these claims is used to fund other ‘accidents’ or to fund even more serious crimes. Not only does this scam mean that people are paying out for accidents that are completely not their fault, but it is also putting motorists at risk and potentially jeopardising their lives.

In recent years, these schemes are becoming more and more commonplace, unfortunately for innocent motorists on the road. There are three main types of crash for cash schemes – none of which are good news for other motorists. The first type is where two fraudsters will crash two of their own cars together, or use tools to simulate the damage of a crash. The second type is where someone will deliberately slam the brakes on their car to ensure that the car behind will crash into them, even though they weren’t braking for anything. The third type of scheme is called a ghost scheme and is where a fraudster will make a claim for an accident that never even happened.

There is good news though. In 2006, the Insurance Fraud Bureau was created to ensure that something would be done about these kinds of crimes. This organisation works alongside the police and insurance companies to investigate every claim that comes to them, making sure that nobody falls victim to these scammers. Unfortunately, they can’t catch every one that comes to them and some of these scams do fall through the net. If you’re worried about this happening to you, then there are some things that you can do. If you’re running any kind of company where you are in charge of people who are driving a lot, then you might also want to pass this advice onto them.

First things first, and something that you should be doing anyway, is making sure you stay alert when driving. Be aware of your own driving as well as those people around you. Be aware of when others are getting too close to you when driving. If there are cars which are driving too quickly and too slowly at the same time, then they may be people looking to fake an accident. Another warning sign is drivers who pay too much attention to the car behind them, and try to stick quite close to them. This could also be passengers doing the same thing. Make sure that you aren’t paying so much attention that you forget to pay attention to what you’re doing.

Make sure that you always maintain a safe distance from the car in front of you. This is something that you should be doing anyway, but it can be easy to forget sometimes, particularly on long journeys, but it is one of the most important ways to keep your driving safe. Make sure to adjust your distance according to how fast you’re going and what the conditions of the roads are like. Another things that fraudsters often do to increase the chances of causing an accident is disabling their brake lights. Be aware if you end up behind a car that doesn’t have any brake lights and make sure to keep an even larger distance between you and that car, just in case.