Get in an accident and you’re sure to see your car insurance rates go up. It’s no different in the trucking industry. Whether you’re self-insured or purchase liability insurance from an outside vendor, accidents cost money.

Much like insurers in the consumer market, fleet insurance companies look to claim history and traffic citations when determining premiums. But, unlike their counterparts, fleets have another source of information that can work against them: CSA scores. Insurance providers now monitor fleets’ CSA scores and citations to estimate risk and set premiums.

Technology now helps fleets manage their insurance costs by controlling risk. Through speed monitoring, fleets have been able to reduce their chances of being pulled over and triggering roadside inspections. By reducing accidents, tickets and roadside inspections, fleets are able to limit the negative factors insurers use to increase premiums.

We all can support lower costs, safer roads and less roadside inspections!

The trucking industry has been working hard to increase its safety record and perception to the public. Fleets have embraced speed monitoring while the government has launched programs focused on monitoring fleet safety. Sure, initiatives like these are easy on the busy highways and city streets, but what about when trucks leave the pavement?

Trucks have long supported the oil, forestry, mining and related industries far off the beaten path, with their own set of challenges and increased risk. Historically, these areas were hard to manage safety and speed programs, but thanks to technology, this is no longer the case.

But why is monitoring speed in these areas so important? Safety, of course. Whether it is dust control in a refinery burning off gas, or protecting the integrity of a delicate ice road, higher speeds lead to an exponential increase of risk in these locations.

So how do we make drivers and workers safer in these high-risk locales? Satellite technology and GPS systems now enable us to create custom speed zones that register with a truck’s onboard GPS system when outside of the digitally tracked speed limits set by cities and states on conventional roads. Our new SpeedGaugeAnywhere, integrates with Google Earth’s kml format and can also support proprietary GIS data files to allow custom speed monitoring anywhere on the globe.

Want to control speed on a remote mining road in northern Saskatchewan? How about inside the Port of Los Angeles? Thanks to technology, now you can.

There is no bigger road warrior than the commercial truck driver. Often driving more than 100,000 miles a year, the average truck driver spends more time behind the wheel in two months than most Americans do in a year.

Like everything on semi-trucks, the force they exert during an accident and the effect of speed on fuel economy are bigger than those of their passenger counterparts. Most commercial trucks are big, heavy and about as aerodynamic as a brick. Because of this, fleet managers are continuously concerned with the safety and efficiency of their drivers.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, per unit of travel in 2008, large trucks were involved in more fatal crashes than passenger vehicles: 1.7 crashes per 100 million miles traveled compared with 1.5 crashes for passenger vehicles.

To help reduce the risk involved in commercial trucking, today’s fleet managers are adopting telematics and GPS-related solutions to increase driver safety, decrease accidents and, at the same time, manage costs and business profitability. By monitoring driver speed and behavior – through reporting and analytical tools– fleet managers can address and modify aggressive behavior. As a result, they can reduce speeding, fuel costs and additional repair costs.

Just as our vehicles are bigger than passenger cars, so is our responsibility to safety.

Every day, commercial fleet managers balance safety and cost, aiming to keep their drivers and others on the road safe, while doing so profitably.

It’s important to know that in approximately 30 percent of the country commercial trucks are still held to a different speed limit than their passenger counterparts, a remnant of the 1970s oil embargo that saw states reducing speed limits to conserve fuel. Lower truck speeds have remained, since they help fleets reduce their fuel costs while boosting safety.

In today’s pay-per-mile trucking sector, speed has a substantial effect on the fleet’s bottom line. Assuming fuel costs of $2.00 per gallon, approximately half of today’s cost, and 6.0 mpg at 55 mph, the cost of speeding for a large truck can range from $0.037 to $0.101 per mile. While this per-mile range incorporates the direct and indirect financial costs of truck crashes, higher fuel consumption is the major cause.

Recently though, Texas not only has announced a speed limit increase but also has eliminated the slower speed limits for trucks. With this increase in speed, fleet managers will need to choose between the risks posed by a higher speed differential between their trucks and passenger traffic, or increasing fuel costs by raising the top speed of their fleets.

While states will continue to change speed limits, commercial fleet managers can stay on top of the situation by monitoring fleet speed through technology like SpeedGauge, which offers fleets the technology they need to set different speed controls according to context.