ORLANDO — Zonar has introduced its Zonar Coach video-based coaching solution designed to improve safety, efficiency, and compliance for commercial vehicle drivers. The product was announced at American Trucking Associations' Managment Conference & Exhibition.

Coach is an advanced driver assistance system that uses sensor-based event detection and automatic video capturing technology. The system can identify proper and risky driving behavior and offers instructions to drivers in real-time to prevent accidents, improve driver efficiency and maintain compliant vehicle operation.

The live, in-cab coaching is provided through voice event notifications to the Zonar Connect tablet when a driver exhibits potentially risky behavior. Events that might trigger the coaching are exceeding speed limits, tailgating, lane drifts, missing stop signs and other potentially dangerous behavior.

After completing a driver, the driver can access their scorecard on the Connect to see how they were rated for each event type. This information can help teach corrective action for future drivers and be used as verification for any captured driving events, according to Zonar.

Fleet managers can access data from Coach through Zonar’s Ground Traffic Control web portal. They can also set thresholds and notifications for their fleet’s behavior based on criteria they determine most critical to their operations. Fleet operators are also able to see the same video and scorecard that drivers view on their tablet.

"What we have done in the past is focus on driver score carding, collecting telematics data to help us understand drivers behavior in terms of their speed, idling, hard cornering and hard breaking," said Shawn Bonnington, director of the enterprise team at Zonar. "This is all very valuable information but what it lacked was a way to connect the driver with the behavior and learn from it. And that's what Zonar Coach does."

Driver scorecards can also be used to encourage good driving habits by tracking and capturing key performance indicators. Fleet managers can use the data to reward safe, efficient, and compliant drivers in addition to correcting risky behaviors and mistakes. Managers will also have access to event video reports, scores, trends and analytics to improve fleet management and driver performance.

“A fleet manager’s understanding of driver behavior can be important in reducing overall operating costs,” said Larry Jordan chief product officer at Zonar. “Better drivers help with a fleet’s bottom line and Zonar Coach supplies a performance-based training model to help ensure drivers are working at peak performance levels.”

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