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Truck Dash Cams: Protecting Drivers & Your Business
Every truck driver experiences a traffic mishap at some point in their career, and most of the time, another driver is at fault. But when it's your word against theirs, being able to tell your side of the story from all angles can provide you with the support you need to get back on the road more quickly. Installing dash cams for trucks and other commercial vehicles can give you the unbiased view you need to show what really happened, whether you need to speed up your insurance claim or prove what happened to the police. Drive smarter with a smart dash cam to record the road ahead, behind, and inside your truck.
According to the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), insurance costs rose more than 18% for the trucking industry in 2020. You need to be able to tell your story, with the evidence to back it up, and get the right information to your insurance carrier as quickly and as accurately as possible. When you drive smarter, you'll avoid a situation where someone else's story is the one they believe, leaving you stranded.
Show Your Side of the Story
Dash camera video footage has changed the world around us and being able to show your side of the story is essential for professional truckers. There were approximately 510,000 police-reported crashes involving large trucks in the U.S. in 2019, according to statistics from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), and a majority of those crashes occurred during the daytime. Because commercial trucks are much larger than passenger vehicles, doubt may fall on the professional driver – even if they were not the primary cause of the accident. Truck dash cams can tell your side of the story and provide real, visible evidence of the circumstances surrounding an incident.
By installing smart dash cams in your truck, you'll have access to cloud-based web and app portals that provide you with a quick, easy way to view what the camera captured. Imagine standing at the side of the road after an incident and pulling up the video on your tablet or app to offer proof of what happened at the scene. With the increase in settlement amounts, having video footage of what occurred, backed up safely to the cloud by a smart dash cam, can help protect drivers and commercial trucking businesses from expensive truck crash litigation cases as well.
Accurate and Timely Insurance Claims Filing
When considering dash cams and semi-truck camera systems, you'll want to look for smart devices that offer preformatted incident reports that take the guesswork out of filing an insurance claim. The ability to automatically send an accurately formatted video summary of any incident to your insurance provider can both provide the evidence to support your claim more effectively and speed up the process – getting you or your driver back on the road more quickly. Make sure that the claims summary includes the video details that are preferred by leading insurance carriers and the OOIDA, including information on the date and time, speed, truck, and your policy details. With a smart dash cam, like those from Cobra, you can instantly send all details of an incident from the dash cam to a personal or work account, so you'll be ready for claims filing.
The Most Important Dash Cam Views
To provide the most useful information in an insurance claim, truck dash cams should include these views, with night and day coverage, whenever possible:
- Forward incident view
- Blind spot incident view
- Rear incident view
- In cabin view (to prove the driver's alertness)
Truck dash cams can also be a benefit to independent drivers and trucking companies who are frustrated with fraudulent claims. When you've captured the most important views inside and around the vehicle, you're more likely to capture footage of staged crashes or other deceitful activity. Providing clear and compelling evidence of what actually occurred may save you a lot of time and money defending yourself against someone who's out to scam the system.
Other Benefits of Truck Dash Cams
Being able to tell your side of the story – to the police and to insurance investigators – is one of the best reasons to install dash cameras in your truck, but if you own a trucking business, there are additional potential benefits. Truck dash cams have their pros and cons, after all, and they can capture a driver speeding or driving carelessly. If the truck driver is at fault in an incident, the camera video footage is likely to provide proof of that. Knowing that there is a commercial truck camera system installed and that a dash cam is recording what's happening inside the cabin as well as the road ahead when the truck is in motion may encourage drivers to be more attentive and promote safer driving behaviors. Studies have found that feedback and coaching sessions by safety managers are also more effective when accompanied by video.
Cobra has been a trusted advocate and friend of the American Trucker for over 60 years, and we're always looking for new and better ways to provide drivers and trucking companies with the tools they need to succeed. With smart dash cams from Cobra, drivers have access to real-time information on traffic and roadside hazards, speed limit alerts, the presence of law enforcement on the road, and much more. Drive Smarter is more than just a better way of working – it's an app that gives you access to an extra set of connected, intelligent eyes on the road, providing you with the information you need to stay safe, alert, and aware.
Learn How the Cobra for Business Can Help You
With industry-leading solutions for driver safety and readiness, find out how the Cobra for Business program can you and your team drive smarter and safer. Visit the Cobra for Business page to learn more about joining the free program or to speak with a dedicated account representative to customize solutions for your needs.