The Kroger Co. has begun rolling out video telematics to its fleet of more than 1,200 tractor-trailers, and has already seen a significant reduction in collisions, handheld phone use, and unbelted drivers.

John Lobenberg, Kroger's safety manager, began adding the Lytx DriveCam system to its fleet in 2016. So far, he has equipped 316 trucks with the event recorders.

Kroger Logistics prioritized cities with the largest collision-related spend for the initial deployment, which would deliver a 3:1 return on investment, according to Lytx. Two cities were selected.

"Liablity spending was increasing year over year, and we’d just suffered three major driving incidents," said Lobenberg. "Changing that trend was all about proactively managing driver behavior."

It only took about a week for drivers to forget that the event camera was there.

Within four months of adding the system, Lobenberg saw a 50% reduction in collisions, a 71% reduction in handheld cell phone use, and an 82% reduction in unbelted driver incidents.

Lobenberg gained other insights, such as that about 15% of the drivers represented 80% of the risk. Maintenance costs fell, especially with tires, because driver were no longer "bouncing off curbs," he said.

The DriveCam system combined video captuire of road incidents such as hard braking or sudden swerving with data analysis of those incidents and personalized coaching to improve driver behavior. The system is being used by 650,000 commercial and government fleet drivers.