“We found ourselves reacting to accidents and situations, rather than training our drivers to get ahead of them,” said James Michael, senior operations manager at Smithfield Foods. “There was a growing concern and some anxiety over the question, ‘what if the next accident is worse than the last?’ We knew we needed an effective way to reduce risk, and the SmartDrive program was the perfect solution.”
The SmartDrive system installed in the Armour and Eckrich branded trucks includes both cab-facing and road-facing event recorders. Smithfield stated that the move to SmartDrive reduced preventable accidents by 60 percent.
“Soon after deploying the SmartDrive program, we went from 20 preventable accidents on the roadway where we lost two trucks to accidents, to only eight preventable accidents and no truck losses during the same time period the following year,” Michael said. “In addition, the online dashboard, coaching workflow and client support convinced us that the SmartDrive program would be the most beneficial solution for our fleet.”
Smithfield made a move to SmartDrive after testing another video-based safety system and it proved to be the best choice for Smithfield.
“Like many companies that are dedicated to the highest safety standards, Smithfield realized video-based safety is the only way to have full visibility into risk when drivers are on the road,” said Steve Mitgang, CEO of SmartDrive. “The SmartDrive program not only shows fleet managers exactly where their risk lies, but also how to address it to prevent collisions before they happen.”
