What You Need to Know about Video Telematics Cameras
By Marco Stracuzzi
December 7, 2020
Video telematics is transforming the way that organizations operate. Today, companies can use video telematics data to improve their processes and provide better service. What kind of businesses will benefit most from this, and what do they need to know before implementing the technology?
What Is Video Telematics?
Video telematics is typically augmented with a combination of vehicle data and driving data, which provides more context on incident footage and transmits video evidence in real time. It can even collect data on driving behavior. This technology also allows you to collect data about the streets that vehicles drive and map them.
Enable Your Telematics Solution with IoT
The State of Video Telematics
Berg Insight estimates that the number of active video telematics systems in North America reached almost 1.6 million units in 2019. The active installed base is forecasted to reach more than 3.2 million units in North America by 2024.
Why is the popularity of this technology growing so quickly? Video telematics makes it much easier to be aware of what’s happening day-to-day. This awareness allows you to understand your business processes better and adjust based on real data coming from the field.
For every business with insurance or a fleet to manage, getting full access to the field with video cameras is extremely valuable. That’s why more and more companies are digitalizing their business by installing connected cameras in vehicles.
Next, let’s look at the benefits of video telematics across different industries.
Benefits of Telematics Video Cameras for Fleet Management
One of the most recognized uses for telematics video cameras today is fleet management. Companies that manage fleets can use video telematics to collect real-time information, such as vehicle behavior, speed, routes and driver insights.
You can use these insights to:
Increase Efficiency
You can use the data you collect on your fleet to improve fuel efficiency and increase productivity. For example, data on fuel consumption and routes can help you optimize work and enhance planning.
What’s important is that you can access a vehicle at any point in time, understand what’s going on and provide real-time support with the help of video. These insights give you the ability to make better decisions and solve problems.
Reduce Expenses
With access to more information, you will be able to identify issues and reduce the number of accidents in a fleet, leading to decreased expenses on repairs and insurance. Additionally, most insurance companies provide discounts on policy premiums for fleet operators using the technology.
Improve Driver Safety
These systems can alert drivers of potential dangers. Video telematics cameras can protect your drivers by alerting them if they show signs of being distracted. For example, you can set up cameras that point to your drivers. Then, the device can warn them if they are falling asleep. As with home doorbell cameras, vehicle cameras visible or flagged with warnings provide an effective deterrent to criminal behavior involving the vehicle.
Benefits of Telematics Video Cameras for Auto Insurance
IoT, and specifically video telematics, makes it possible to evaluate risk based on real-world driving behaviors. Insurers can use the data from telematics devices to provide more personalized services.
This personalization creates a better experience for the customer and allows insurance companies to:
Collect More and Better Data to Inform Premium Pricing Decisions
Insurance companies can review and analyze the collected data to create and customize policies based on driving behavior.
Encourage Safer Driving Behavior
That data can also encourage people to drive more safely. Beyond assessment, video telematics devices can also reinforce and promote driving best practices.
Effectively Assess Claims and Reduce Fraud
With video telematics, you can easily see what happened in an accident and who is at fault, making it possible to reduce fraudulent claims.
Telematics Video Cameras for Business Growth and Customer Service
Telematics data creates new opportunities that can significantly impact customer satisfaction and overall business. Some of these opportunities are:
The Ability to Complete Remote Diagnostics
You can collect diagnostics information to stay informed about vehicles’ state and be alerted to potential problems before they wreak havoc, dramatically reducing downtime and expenses.
Theft Prevention and Recovery
Video telematics can also be valuable for asset tracking, making inventory and tool management across multiple locations easier. Using this data, you will be able to reduce risk and locate and identify lost or stolen items.
Proactive and Accurate Inventory Replacement
Manually managing inventory data leaves a lot of room for inaccuracy. Video telematics data can help you keep track of inventory in real time, allowing you to take a more proactive and accurate inventory management approach.
To make this technology attractive to customers, companies must focus on conveying these benefits. You must show them the value of the service. The camera is a tool that delivers these services.
What Do Companies Need to Use Video Telematics?
The most flexible and investment-returning telematics video products are based on cellular technology to provide the connection to your phone app or a fleet operations center. You should look for a system with a cellular modem that can sustain the performance you need. For example, if you need to live video, the device’s cellular technology must maintain a decent upload speed to send data from the devices to the network.
It’s also important to retain cellular data plans for the cameras that are available in the regional coverage you need with a precisely calculated roaming exposure since cameras consume high data volumes. That way, you can avoid any roaming overage issues.
Data security and privacy are important aspects you need to consider. You should look for a guarantee from the provider of the system and associated services. The vendor should be able to provide you with a clear statement about security and privacy, both in terms of hardware and software, as the cameras collect sensitive data.
You must be clear on what the data will be used for and ensure it will only be used for that purpose. You must then give the potential customer information about how this data would be used and get them to agree to the terms and conditions.
We’re Here to Help You Put Your Data to Work
The future will bring many other possibilities for video telematics. Telit Cinterion enables end-to-end IoT solutions built for real-world use to improve efficiency and accuracy for fleet management, asset tracking and smart cities. Speak with an IoT expert to discover how we can enable your IoT telematics solution.
