UK food company, Faccenda Foods, has installed 3G in-cab ‘witness’ cameras and GPS vehicle tracking – provided by Verilocation, on its crew cab fleet. The company say due to success of the cameras, it is considering fitting the cameras to the majority of its van fleet.

The company installed the cameras for both driver monitoring and incident management. However, they then found additional benefits in the form of faster insurance claims processing and lower premiums.

Ian Ashley, head of transport and safety operations for Faccenda Foods, said: “Fitting the Verilocation system, which incorporates both the camera and driver behaviour monitoring, has enabled us to not only be reactive when incidents happen but be proactive in how we manage both our vehicles and driver performance.”

Faccenda already have a telematics system in place for its larger HGV articulated fleet, which are used for live haul and chilled distribution. Having a telematics system on its crew cab fleet, where four to seven passengers might be on board, has enabled the company to monitor a rang of driver behaviour aspects, such as how long a driver might use cruise control and how long the vehicle is idling.

“In essence, telematics tells us how a vehicle is being driven, how economically it is being driven so there’s an environmental aspect to it as well as commercial aspect,” said Ian.

Ian explained that the decision to fit the cameras and tracking to its 16 rigid vehicles in the crew cab fleet was initially brought about by the need to "obtain consistency across the entire fleet". However, Faccenda said they immediately saw the benefits of the forward-facing cameras when two of the company’s vehicles were involved in separate non-fault collisions.

Ian continued: “The accuracy and quality of the video footage was able to dispel any ambiguity with regard to liability. This obviously enabled us to provide the relevant parties, including the police, with the evidence of what had happened and enabled us to speed up the claims process and ultimately assist in keeping our insurance premiums down.”

The company is now assessing whether to install witness cameras and tracking on to its van fleet.

“We will be putting more cameras on our fleet – we are currently looking at putting them on to our van fleet – around 60-70 vans."

Andrew Overton, managing director of Verilocation, concluded: “Companies like Faccenda are finding that the cameras are hugely beneficial in a number of ways, not least of which are lower insurance premiums and risk reduction. Video footage removes any subjectivity and generally presents a conclusive version of events, so can be critical when insurers decide on the outcome of a claim.”