Jan. 3—Technology can make a big difference in the efficiency and safety of truck fleets, according to Barrett Young, chief marketing officer of Netradyne, a San Diego, Calif., company whose mission is to significantly improve road and driver safety through the development of technology.

Young leads some of the marketing and fleet strategy for the company on how technology can be used to improve fleet strategy and operations for fleets themselves.

Along with a truck driver shortage, Young said there is a lot of change in how fleets are being operated — everything from rising insurance costs, rising fuel costs to driver shortages.

"The way a lot of fleet managers are addressing some of these challenges is through the usage of new technologies, so actually investing some of those tighter budgets into technology to help optimize the efficiencies across the board. A lot of fleets are seeing big benefits," Young said in a phone interview.

On the insurance side, Young said using fleet camera systems can result in a noticeable drop in the number of claims companies are filing with their insurance companies. It also decreases the cost of accidents and incidents on the road which down the road decreases the cost of insurance.

Using telecommunications and informatics systems and video safety systems to improve driver behavior and driving style can result in less aggressive driving styles and help reduce unnecessary fuel usage, for example, Young said.

"We're in this unique position as an industry where we are in desperate need of more drivers and the biggest source of new drivers will be younger people," Young said.

Traditionally, people became truck drivers because they loved the freedom of the open road. Young said that hasn't gone away, but "I think there are additional elements that we need to lay on top of that appeal to a younger audience."

"First and foremost is the usage of technology. We have very sophisticated and exciting technology that's being used inside the vehicles now that younger audiences are finding very interesting and kind of aligned with the way they run their own lives," he added.

Young said artificial intelligence has been adopted fast across multiple aspects of trucking, but especially safety cameras.

"We're seeing a lot of drivers find benefit in improving their driving style and their driver coaching," he said.

Technology can help you analyze an entire driving day where you see the bad and the good.

Some 80 to 90 percent of the driving day is good, compliant safe driving, so fleets can build safety incentive programs and drivers can earn rewards.

It can also incentivize people to want to become truck drivers, drive safely and find value in using the technology itself.

Young added that their technology is a draw to younger drivers. He compared it to a flip phone vs an iPhone.

"There is really exciting artificial intelligence that coaches drivers along the way, but with safety technology like Netradyne, we have things like in-cab alert so if you're speeding or following too closely, or on the opposite, if you're actually doing very well, if you're stopping at stop signs consistently, or you're maintaining a good following distance from the car in front of you we recognize that and alert you" to maintain that, "or be careful. You're speeding too much; back off the speed a little bit," Young said.

This will help turn younger drivers into better drivers in real time vs just sending them out on the road saying "good luck. You'll figure it out. We'll talk to you in a month when you get back to the terminal."

"We can actually proactively coach them in real time so they feel safer, the truck is safer and everyone else on the road is safer," Young said.

He added that there is still honor that comes with working with your hands.

"I think people really value that still, specifically in an area like Texas," Young said.

A lot of the trucking companies in Texas also haul oil and gas. Young said safety regulations for driving a tanker are much stricter than regular big rigs because there are thousands of gallons of fuel behind that can be very risky.

"So coaching younger drivers on that is a big deal," he added.

Young noted that they aren't always driving on flat, paved roads. Adopting safety technology can improve driving behavior and results in preventing accidents before they happen.

"So you're removing that inherent risk of being hit by a big truck because drivers are actually safer and we've seen some fleets by using Netradyne technology reduce their accident rates by over 50 percent, which is huge. That's a very exciting stat to see," Young said.

"But the other element of that is when there is an accident, we have the video footage to either exonerate the driver or to show the story of what actually happened so it doesn't turn into a he said-she said situation so inevitably the big rig will always be blamed if it's a passenger vehicle that they were ones who were not in compliance or driving too risky. Most of the time, nine out of 10, it's the passenger vehicle," he added.

You also have a track record of consistently coaching drivers so you can improve their driving habits and reduce risk overall.

More experienced drivers likely need the technology as much as younger ones.

"A lot of the older drivers have bad habits or styles of driving that they've just always done," Young said. "A lot of times probably the most common is speeding. They get paid to make it from point A to point B as fast as possible because then they can get another job and earn more money ... But inherently by speeding you're increasing risk and potentially increasing the likelihood of an accident, so using technology like this helps them to realize that some of their habits were not the safest and that by driving a little safer or more defensively they don't run into other risks by accidentally getting themselves into an accident and it puts them into liability with lawyers."