Volvo Trucks has developed a cost calculator that allows customers to input fleet crash data to determine real ROI on crash avoidance and stability control systems.

How do you put a cost to a crash you don't have? Many fleets ask that question when considering an investment in collision avoidance or crash mitigation technology.

"When you're talking with purchasing managers, they need to understand the return on their investment before they'll agree to the added cost," says Frank Bio
Product Manager â€" Truck Marketing for Volvo Trucks. "We developed this calculator to help everyone involved in the purchasing decision to see the benefits, from the fleet safety department to the purchasing managers."

Bio says the cost calculator lets the user demonstrate that even as little as a 10% reduction in non-injury crashes can pay for Volvo's Electronic Stability Program in less than three years.

The calculator uses crash frequency data derived from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and fleet and societal cost data derived from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

NHTSA, says, for example, that an average truck will experience 2.2 crashes per million miles. And FMCSA data suggests that the average property damage collision (one crash per 1.7 million miles) will cost $12,248, while a collision with an injury will occur at a rate of 0.491 per million miles at a cost of $334,892. Fatal crashes, the agencies say, occur less frequently (0.024 crashes per million miles traveled, but are much more costly -- $7.633 million per crash in societal costs per crash.

Of course, every fleet is different, with a multitude of factors affecting exposure rates, from the skill and experience of the drivers to operating conditions, terrain, weather, etc. Fleets can use Volvo's calculator to put a number to potential crash costs that reflect that fleet's operating reality.

"According to FMCSA's large Truck Crash Causation study, about 93 percent of heavy truck crashes result from human error," Bio says. "With just seven percent of crashes attributable to mechanical condition -- a factor fleets can control pretty tightly, you're left with pretty high exposure to crash potential that's very hard to control internally."

Volvo say the crash cost calculator helps fleets put a realistic cost to their crash exposure, and to the possible savings accrued through an investment in one of its suite of crash avoidance technologies, including Volvo Enhanced Cruise Control (VEC) or Volvo Enhanced Stability Technology (VEST).

The calculator is available at any Volvo dealer in North America. See your dealer to arrange a consultation.