On Monday, March 12, 2012, ZoomSafer CEO and Co-founder Matt Howard will travel to Linthicum, MD to present at the Maryland Motor Truck Association’s Safety Council monthly meeting. Matt will discuss the risks associated with employee distracted driving and how trucking fleet operators can promote the safe and legal use of mobile phones while driving.
Click to learn more about the Maryland Motor Truck Association.
Over the weekend, The Baltimore Sun published a great interview with Steve DiBiagio, Senior Vice President of Strategic Alliances at PHH Arval about the company’s decision to partner with ZoomSafer to launch iNmotion, designed to help corporate fleets prevent distracted driving. Speaking to reporter Hanah Cho, DiBiagio notes that while teen drivers often get the lion’s share of attention, adults represent a huge problem for the Fortune 500 companies which are PHH Arval’s clients. Explains DiBagio:
“Every one of our clients has a safety program, everything from how they should be trained to what they should do or not do. Enforcement is after the fact. What ZoomSafer has developed is a proactive solution and in essence, it makes it ironclad in terms of compliance with company policy.”
Read the whole article here, or read this blog post on why adults create 20X more distracted driving risk than teens do!
RESTON, VA – The number of commercial fleet operators that have adopted written policies pertaining to employee use of cell phones while driving on-the-job has increased 31% in the past nine months – from 62% in May 2011 to 81% in February 2012 – according to a new survey of 570 fleet managers conducted by ZoomSafer.
Furthermore, the survey finds that the number of companies claiming to enforce their established cell phone use policies increased 70% in the past nine months, from 53% in May 2011 to 90% in February 2012. This increase clearly suggests that commercial fleet operators are reacting to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new rule prohibiting an estimated 4,000,000 interstate truck and bus drivers from using hand-held mobile phones while driving.
Although efforts to enforce compliance with cell phone use policies have increased significantly among commercial fleets, the survey found that such efforts have until now been exclusively reactive. The most common enforcement methods include “Random Safety Audits” (71.9%), “Post-Crash Discipline” (51.8%), and “Peer Reporting” (49.6%). Furthermore, less than one-third (33.1%) of respondents were “very confident” that their companies’ current enforcement methods are sufficient to ensure compliance with FMCSA cell phone regulations.
Another important finding in this analysis: while most fleet managers lack confidence in current enforcement methods, 27% plan to investigate cell phone use analytics and 21% plan to explore smartphone software solutions within the next twelve months to automate employee compliance with FMCSA cell phone rules.
“This survey shows that while the majority of commercial fleets are taking steps in the right direction to adopt policies prohibiting employee use of cell phones while driving, huge concerns still exist over how to effectively enforce compliance,” said ZoomSafer CEO Matt Howard. “Judging from the results of this survey, it seems that everyone knows that telling drivers to put down their phones is simply not enough – therefore, risk-conscious companies are seeking technology solutions to actively promote safe and legal use of cell phones while driving.”
Results were collected online from 570 corporate managers via emails, newsletters, and websites. The results have a margin of error of +/- 5% with a 90% confidence. To download the full survey analysis please visit: http://zoomsafer.com/fmcsa-cell-phone-survey-analysis.
About ZoomSafer
ZoomSafer is a leading provider of enterprise software to prevent distracted driving. FleetSafer™ solutions enable employers to measure, manage and enforce cell phone usage policies to reduce crashes, risk, liability and expense. For more information, please visit www.zoomsafer.com.
In a great piece published yesterday, Business Fleet‘s blog examined the impact on commercial fleets of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new rule prohibiting commercial drivers from using hand-held mobile phones - and name-checked ZoomSafer as an effective solution.
The magazine’s Executive Editor, Chris Brown notes that while many drivers simply ignore state cell phone laws due to lax enforcement, the new FMCSA rule will likely compel commercial drivers and their employers to take employee cell phone use while driving much more seriously. The law, which came into effect January 3, applies to any company with a USDOT number and imposes fines of $2,750 against drivers and of up to $11,000 for companies.Brown praises ZoomSafer’s innovative cell phone analytics service for providing a useful tool for fleets seeking to manage employee driver behavior. Writes Brown, “Ultimately, you can’t rely on a law to get your drivers to stop using their cell phones while driving. That must be generated within your company” through policy implementation and enforcement via mechanisms like ZoomSafer.
Is your company affected by the new rule? Take ZoomSafer’s 2-minute FMCSA survey and enter to win an iPad2!
In the aftermath of the NTSB’s call for a total ban on mobile phone use while driving, Network World‘s Nearpoints columnist Craig Mathias recently praised ZoomSafer for creating effective solutions to cell phone-related distracted driving. Mathias does not echo the NTSB, and instead supports a ban on hand-held use (allowing for hands-free), and notes that ZoomSafer’s enterprise software enables companies to implement and enforce safe driving policies. Mathias commends ZoomSafer’s innovative solutions and “robust policy/analytics capability,” which allow companies to measure and manage cell phone use policies – a solution Mathias says is “the next best thing to judicious use of the power switch.”
For companies now facing the need to ensure compliance with a hand-held device ban, we’ve published a free guide to complying with FMCSA’s cell phone rule – download it now!
HERNDON, VA – Effective today, a new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rule prohibits an estimated four million commercial truck and bus drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving. Under the new rule, individual drivers face civil penalties up to $2,750, while employers can be held liable and fined up to $11,000 per infraction committed while drivers are carrying out company business or otherwise acting on the employer’s behalf.
To help commercial fleet operators understand and conform to the new regulation, ZoomSafer, the leading provider of software to prevent distracted driving, has published FMCSA Cell Phone Use Regulations: A Guide to Compliance for Truck and Bus Fleets.
“FMCSA has made it abundantly clear that employers are responsible if their employees violate the rule,” said ZoomSafer CEO Matt Howard. “This new white paper offers commercial fleet operators a detailed explanation of the handheld phone ban and guidance on how to measure and manage employee compliance.”
To download a free copy of ZoomSafer’s FMCSA Cell Phone Use Regulations: A Guide to Compliance for Truck and Bus Fleets, please visit http://info.zoomsafer.com/fmcsa-cell-phone-use-regulations-white-paper/.
About ZoomSafer
ZoomSafer is a leading provider of enterprise software to prevent distracted driving. FleetSafer™ solutions enable employers to measure, manage and enforce cell phone usage policies to reduce crashes, risk, liability and expense. For more information, please visit www.zoomsafer.com.
Channel Partners featured ZoomSafer CEO Matt Howard in an analysis of last week’s recommendation issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) that all 50 states and D.C. ban all use of cell phones while driving. In a great piece by Josh Long, some industry observers remark that such a move by the NTSB is “remarkably heavy-handed.” Notes Matt Howard, “Never in the history of this debate…[has] anyone suggested the possibility of an outright ban” on ALL phone use – including hands-free use – while driving.
While 38 states and D.C. have enacted some kind of legislation restricting cell phone use while driving, no state has currently implemented a total ban on all cell phone use on the roads. Check out Matt Howard’s blog post on the subject to learn why the NTSB’s recommendation might be a stretch.
HERNDON, VA – The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) voted yesterday to recommend that all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia enact laws banning drivers from any use of personal electronic devices, including both handheld and hands-free cell phone use, while driving. The recommendation also called for states to implement high-visibility law enforcement programs in conjunction with public awareness initiatives. For the modern American society whose long-standing love of motor vehicles is rivaled only by its newfound lust for mobile phone use – all the time and everywhere – this new recommendation has potentially massive ramifications for individuals, employers and government organizations.
35 states and D.C. currently have laws on the books prohibiting all drivers from texting behind the wheel, and nine states and D.C. also ban handheld cell phone use. No state currently has a law banning all drivers from all (handheld or hands-free) cell phone use. Recent studies have shown, however, that laws on their own are not sufficient to deter distracted drivers – and also emphasize the need for innovative enforcement solutions as complements:
“There’s considerable research showing that state laws restricting driver cell phone use are difficult and expensive to effectively enforce,” said Matt Howard, CEO of ZoomSafer. “This new NTSB recommendation recognizes that distracted driving is a complex and dangerous behavioral problem and appropriately highlights the important role that technology can play in terms of affordable and effective enforcement.”
Employers seeking to promote the safe and legal use of cell phones at their organizations are encouraged to evaluate FleetSafer Mobile and FleetSafer Vision, ZoomSafer’s simple, affordable technology solutions that respectively actively or passively enforce policies governing employee cell phone use while driving on-the-job. To take advantage of a demo of FleetSafer™ solutions, please visit http://zoomsafer.com/cell-phone-ban-solutions/.
About ZoomSafer
ZoomSafer is a leading provider of enterprise software to prevent distracted driving. FleetSafer™ solutions enable employers to measure, manage and enforce cell phone usage policies to reduce crashes, risk, liability and expense. For more information, please visit www.zoomsafer.com.
In a write-up of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new rule prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from using handheld cell phones, Politico notes that “this little bit of rulemaking is good news” for ZoomSafer. The new regulation penalizes individual drivers with fines and commercial driver’s license suspensions – but it also holds employers liable for ensuring their drivers comply with the regs. Employers face fines of up to $11,000 for employee cell phone use violations.
While FMCSA has not yet made recommendations on *how* companies can ensure compliance, ZoomSafer”s FleetSafer distracted driving solutions offer commercial fleet operators simple, affordable tools for enforcing employee cell phone use policies.
Last week, the DOT announced a new FMCSA regulating banning interstate truck and bus drivers from using handheld cell phones – but didn’t explain *how* employers should fulfill their compliance responsibilities. This week, Fed Tech Bisnow predicts ZoomSafer’s distracted driving solutions will be key for companies seeking effective ways to ensure compliance. Fed Tech Bisnow explains, “ZoomSafer co-founder and CPO Michael Riemer tells us [the] DOT didn’t tell companies how to enforce cell phone rules but said a written policy is not enough” – and speculates that companies will turn to ZoomSafer for policy enforcement solutions.