ErinCooley
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I know some/all of AMR does, do other companies? What do you think of it???:unsure:
Who uses a road safety monitor?
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Airwaygoddess
Forum Deputy Chief
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Other wise known as a snitch box..... I think they are a good idea, esp for the folks that tend to get a case of lead foot.......
LE-EMT
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We used to have something similar on our units.... I really didn't like them probably because well I do have a lead foot and Didn't like being yelled at. I understand them. Great for if a unit went missing or officer down and for some reason dispatch didn't get last known location. I can also see the benefits of that in ems. NOT all bad if you can keep it under the speed limit.
MAC4NH
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I work for 2 hospitals. Both have the Road Safety and AVL (Automatic Vehicle Locator) systems. At one, they look at the road safety data only if there's a problem and the warning sounds are generally not activated. It's obvious they only have it for insurance reasons. The AVL is usually active.
The other hospital is serious about it. If the tone isn't working at the beginning of shift, the truck might be put out of service. The truck has the capability of sending the Road Safety data to management in real time. Every time you shut off the truck at base, it uploads the data. The box tells them how fast you're going, how hard you're turning, accelerating or braking. It tell what lights are on, if you're using signals or if you have your seat belt on. If you approach the limits of any of the programmed parameters, you get a clicking noise (the "growl"). The closer you get, the faster and louder the growl gets. If you violate any of the parameters you get a beep. If you just crossed the line, you get a short (minor) beep. If you really blow the limit, you get a long, loud (major) beep. The machine keeps score. A growl is no harm-no foul. A minor tone is worth 1 point. A major is worth 10 points. Management uses this data along with miles driven to calculate a driver score. It's a one to ten scale. If you're below 5 you get sent for additional driver training. The AVL just tells them where you are but it only refreshes periodically (It actually tells them where you were when it refreshed last).
When the boxes were installed about 22 months ago we were told that the data won't be used as cause for disciplinary action. That wasn't exactly true. One guy was fired the first week because he wanted to see how closely they were watching the data and tried to drive most of his shift with the major tones going off. Another was fired after an accident that wrecked a unit. For day-to-day operations, however, they usually don't give us a hassle about the black box data. We get our score once a year.
Believe it or not it does change your driving habits. You learn to do things so that you don't get a tone. I imagine the ride might be more comfortable for the patient. When I'm driving home in my own ride, I catch myself listening for the growl when I brake or turn for the first few minutes of my commute.
Nobody really likes them but most people have gotten used to them. I also know of two cases in our system where the Road Safety data helped save the jobs of drivers involved in accidents. I'm not privy to the safety stats so I don't know if we've had less accidents since instituting the monitoring.
The other hospital is serious about it. If the tone isn't working at the beginning of shift, the truck might be put out of service. The truck has the capability of sending the Road Safety data to management in real time. Every time you shut off the truck at base, it uploads the data. The box tells them how fast you're going, how hard you're turning, accelerating or braking. It tell what lights are on, if you're using signals or if you have your seat belt on. If you approach the limits of any of the programmed parameters, you get a clicking noise (the "growl"). The closer you get, the faster and louder the growl gets. If you violate any of the parameters you get a beep. If you just crossed the line, you get a short (minor) beep. If you really blow the limit, you get a long, loud (major) beep. The machine keeps score. A growl is no harm-no foul. A minor tone is worth 1 point. A major is worth 10 points. Management uses this data along with miles driven to calculate a driver score. It's a one to ten scale. If you're below 5 you get sent for additional driver training. The AVL just tells them where you are but it only refreshes periodically (It actually tells them where you were when it refreshed last).
When the boxes were installed about 22 months ago we were told that the data won't be used as cause for disciplinary action. That wasn't exactly true. One guy was fired the first week because he wanted to see how closely they were watching the data and tried to drive most of his shift with the major tones going off. Another was fired after an accident that wrecked a unit. For day-to-day operations, however, they usually don't give us a hassle about the black box data. We get our score once a year.
Believe it or not it does change your driving habits. You learn to do things so that you don't get a tone. I imagine the ride might be more comfortable for the patient. When I'm driving home in my own ride, I catch myself listening for the growl when I brake or turn for the first few minutes of my commute.
Nobody really likes them but most people have gotten used to them. I also know of two cases in our system where the Road Safety data helped save the jobs of drivers involved in accidents. I'm not privy to the safety stats so I don't know if we've had less accidents since instituting the monitoring.
JPINFV
Gadfly
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The company I worked for had GPS monitoring that included speed. About halfway through my time there they started tracking speeds and really started coming down on people who were speeding (note: Southern California speed of traffic=speedlimit+10mph). There was one unit where they were testing out a drive cam. That unit, ironically, was one of the better units in the fleet even though it was one of the oldest. Of course no one really wanted to drive it since it was old, a mod (a lot of the drivers loved vans for some reason), and had a camera. Thus, the people who took it out generally requested it and took care of it.
I miss my horton...
I miss my horton...
MAC4NH
Forum Crew Member
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The CHP must have cracked down. When I lived there ('85-'88) it was speedlimit+24mph
JPINFV
Gadfly
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The CHP must have cracked down. When I lived there ('85-'88) it was speedlimit+24mph
Well, the speed limit has gone up from 55-65 since then.