Inside ITS Reports Impressive Results from Eaton VORAD Units on Truck Fleets
IVsource.net
24 March 2001

Offered here are excerpts from an article which appeared in Inside ITS, the major ITS industry newsletter -- we greatly appreciate their cooperation.  The article reports that crashes were reduced by 78% in eight truck fleets equipped with the VORAD collision warning system, along with a 33% reduction in crash costs.

Eaton VORAD says accidents in eight trucking fleets were reduced by 78% overall, with trucks equipped with the Eaton VORAD EVT-300 Collision Warning System (CWS).  Also, they claim a 33% reduction in accident costs.  Also, drivers report that the system helps keep them alert.  

Eaton VORAD bases this statistic on three years of data on more than 1,900 equipped vehicles.  Besides the overall reduction of crashes, six fleets that were monitored report 100% reductions, says Lee McCleery, VORAD national sales manager.

Other results include:

¨      One fleet cut rear end and lane change crashes from .33 per million miles traveled, to zero

¨      Another fleet reduced fixed object crashes by 81%

¨      A third fleet reduced lane change crashes by 80% in 1998, and by 76% in 1999.

¨      Another fleet with VORAD-equipped trucks was involved in only 14 rear-end and lane change crashes in 1999, versus the company's non-VORAD units that were involved in 264 similar incidents

The EVT-300 uses radar to alert drivers to potential hazards, such as stopped or slow-moving vehicles, following too closely, and vehicles in blind spots.  A SmartCruise adaptive cruise control system is available as an option.  (See IVsource archives in late 2000 for an article on Eaton-VORAD's next generation radar, developed in partnership with Hitachi.)

Driver testimonials on the company's website (www.eaton.com/VORAD) attest to the system's ability to work in fog and rain and its value at night or after many hours on the road.  The system "keeps me awake during evening hours. I'm amazed at how quickly I'm approaching slower moving vehicles," said one driver who, like the others, is not identified.

The data results summarized are derived from a variety of applications on eight fleets (see sidebar below).  The customers include Comcar Industries, which had 600-700 systems installed; TMC Transportation with about 1,600 VORADs installed; Arctic Express with almost 600 VORADS; and Penske with about 200 CWS units.

There are between 17,500 and 19,000 Eaton VORAD units on the road, McCleery says.  The EVT-300 CWS costs in the range of $2,600, either as original equipment or as a retrofit.

Eaton VORAD says monetary benefits from crash reduction range from less downtime and lower repair bills to improved driver retention and lower insurance costs.  "The accidents that VORAD reduces are the costly ones -- the rollover, run off road, rear end, and lane change accidents," McCleery says.  "What we have been able to verify with almost every fleet that is installed with it is about a 33% reduction in accident costs."

The future of the technology is going to be in helping to manage a large fleet by means of satellite and radio download of information, he says.  "Let's say a fleet has 4,000 trucks.  We would be able to transmit exception data over the satellite systems to the driver manager or the safety department notifying them of drivers that are tailgating, for example.  Out of 4,000 drivers, they may have a hundred drivers who need additional training or need to be counseled," he says.  "I think coming up on the horizon you're going to see a couple of large fleets be able to manage a driver population like that."

Truckers Realize Benefits of Intelligent Vehicle Technology

Comcar Industries in Auburndale, Florida, has experienced a 63% reduction in rear and right hand lane change accidents on trucks equipped with the Eaton VORAD EVT-300 Collision Warning System, says Mickey Foutz, senior vice president and chief financial officer.  The statistics are based on an 18-month period comparing 800 equipped trucks with non-equipped trucks.

"The numbers are pretty staggering," he says.  Based on them, the company has decided to outfit all of its come 3,600 tractors with the collision warning system over the next 18 months.

"We are self-insured," Foutz adds.  He hopes that "our claims and our accidents with the use of Eaton VORAD will go down dramatically and subsequently decrease our insurance costs going forward."

Foutz says collision warning is one of the few advanced technologies that are really helpful to trucking companies themselves.  "The satellite communications that almost all the companies now have is geared more toward the customer and they're the ones who really insist on it," he says.  In contrast, Eaton VORAD "is something we want because it promotes safety."

Glen McCravy, executive vice president of risk management at TMC Transportation in Des Moines, Iowa, says the company realized reductions of 21% in rear end accidents and about 23% in lane change accidents on trucks equipped with EVT-300 units.

TMC has outfitted 1,100 of its 1,500 trucks with collision warning systems and is in the process of installing the systems on its entire fleet.  As it buys new trucks with EVT-300, it will also pick up the manufacturer-installed Smart Cruise adaptive cruise control option.  "We think that Smart Cruise will improve on rear-enders even more.  That was the piece that was missing," McCravy says.

Insurance companies have advised TMC that a reduction in accidents will definitely result in concessions in the cost of premiums, he says.

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Material in this article is reprinted from the December 1 edition by permission of Inside ITS, New York, NY.

Copyright 2000 Scientific American Newsletters, LLC All rights reserved.

http://www.sanewsletters.com

For More Information ...

... on the Eaton VORAD product, visit the company's web site at : www.eaton.com/VORAD/.

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