Dash Cams and How They Can Help in Construction

No matter the size of your business, it’s very likely that vehicles make up a large portion of your assets. Drivers, even with a good record, can be a liability. Road accidents are unfortunately often and sometimes dangerous – especially when they are hauling thousands of pounds of equipment. All it takes are a few seconds adjusting the radio or checking a text to result in a huge disaster. The National Safety Council reports that large trucks were involved in over 118,000 incidents in 2019 alone. So, how do you protect yourself and your drivers from having accidents? With a dash cam, you can protect everyone in your business, both in and out of the driver’s seat.

What is a Dash Cam?

A dashboard camera - or just dash cam - is a camera mounted to the dashboard of your vehicle that takes a live recording of the vehicle’s surroundings and stores it for later. Every dash cam will have one lens facing the road, but some have an additional camera facing towards the driver.

What Can I Use a Dash Cam For?

Dash cams are relatively small and inconspicuous to help prevent drivers from being distracted by their camera. Because of this, they have become very popular for both company and personally owned vehicles.

As it turns out, having 24/7 footage of a vehicle has a number of benefits, for drivers and managers alike.

Safety

Dash cams with driver-facing cameras, such as our camera solution, can record any good (or bad) behavior from the driver. It gives managers and supervisors a good reference point when rewarding or correcting drivers. Some insurance companies will even lower your insurance premium if you install dashcams. One carrier, for example, offers a discount anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent for continued dashcam use.

Security

When theft or vandalism are caught by the camera, it makes it extremely easy to identify who, when, and where. Some models of cameras will even run when the vehicle is parked. Considering that over 92% of jobsites experience some kind of theft or vandalism, having some kind of protection on your vehicles is important.

Protection

Accidents are inevitable, but when your vehicle has a dash cam, you have immediate video evidence of the event. This makes settling the dispute much easier, even if it never goes to court. We’ve directly seen the benefit of this. One of our EquipmentShare vehicles had a hit-and-run on the highway. With our dash cam footage, we were able to identify the other vehicle’s license plate and prove that we were not at fault.

Which Dash Cam Should You Choose?

There are endless options when it comes to dash cams. Simpler designs with fewer features are great for the everyday driver. But if your company works on a jobsite or hauls cross-country, you’ll want a dash cam that offers real solutions to your drivers and vehicles.

At EquipmentShare, our cameras are more than just recording devices. They are pieces of smart technology that let you control your fleet and prevent liabilities in the future. Our dash cams feature…

• Both a road-facing and driver-facing camera lens, as well as outputs for visual and audio cues.
• Smart cameras for bad behavior. The software and firmware of our cameras are not only able to identify bad behavior, but distinguish what kind, like smoking, driving distracted, speeding, and more.
• Optional displays to give further audio and visual cues. These displays are brighter and louder than the ones on the dash cam themselves, so they’re useful if you’re expecting the vehicle to be loud or busy.

How T3 Powers Dashcams 

Just like cameras recording footage, our dash cams are connected to T3, the Operating System for Construction, which means full visibility into your fleet. Builders can access driver data by logging into the T3 Fleet. There, users can see a driver’s history, as well as any footage related to events — from traffic violations to fender benders. With one app, you can view where your fleet is, know who is operating trucks and equipment, monitor vehicle health, track tools and other gear on the jobsite… and now, view camera footage and data all in T3 Fleet.

As a matter of fact, you’re able to manage your fleet on this level in real time. You can visit a live stream of any of your dashcams, both from the cab and the road. This can even be used for real-time coaching events, checking whether a situation is safe on the spot.

In the Fleet app, you are able to set your own rules and employee policies. As your drivers follow or break these rules, you’re able to track that data and their progress. You can even set weights to each of these policies, so drivers know just how important each of your policies are.

The question of the dash cam’s usefulness is a no-brainer. The evidence they provide makes both safety and compliance much easier. Plus, our dash cams let you coach your employees in real time. They put the data in your hands, so you can make the best decisions for your business.

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Interested in learning more? Check out our camera options and the technology we use to power them on our website.