Road Risks, Driver Safety, Smarter Safety Solutions, and Economic Conditions Top Major Concerns for SMBs

San Diego, CA – December 06, 2022Netradyne, an industry-leading SaaS provider of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and edge computing solutions focused on safety and driver coaching for commercial fleets, today announced the results of its recent survey. To better understand the key challenges and goals that small and medium businesses (SMBs) face in today’s complicated climate, Netradyne surveyed 503 decision-makers of SMBs with fewer than 1,000 employees and commercial fleets consisting of five or more vehicles. The study’s results highlight significant challenges around building affordable and effective safety programs, financial and cost-saving initiatives, road risks, and driver safety concerns. Fieldwork took place from September 21-28, 2022.

Road Risks Have Decision-Makers Worried Sick: Managing people can be challenging, and the stakes are much higher when employees and company vehicles are out on the road. Poor judgment in the office can lead to reduced profits, embarrassing slip-ups, or productivity losses from rectifying mistakes. Bad decisions on the road could result in all three consequences, with the added risk of personal injuries. Drivers are any fleet’s greatest assets; an SMBs productivity and profitability can hinge on the behavior and performance of those behind the wheel.

Driver Safety is Top of Mind for 53% of SMB Fleets:

  • 53% are thinking of safety issues proactively — before they happen, and 44% think about safety issues all the time.
  • 95% claim to trust their drivers; however, more than half, 56%, believe their drivers unintentionally engage in risky behaviors on the road.
  • Many decision-makers worry about their drivers’ safety and distracted drivers sharing the road with their vehicles.
  • 77% consider smartphone usage on the road by other drivers to be a threat to their drivers.

Widening Safety Measures and Financial Safety Nets: Better driving behavior makes good financial sense. Findings suggest that most decision-makers admit that losing just one vehicle in the fleet would be devastating to the business, hinting that many business decision-makers managing fleets are one bad accident away from going out of business. Smarter driver safety solutions enable decision-makers to save money by reducing risk and fuel costs.

Financial Concerns: It’s no surprise that financial concerns are top of mind for SMBs with fleets, especially with fuel costs at the highest in history.

  • 100%* of SMB decision-makers surveyed express an interest in technology that can save on fuel costs, with 49% saying they are extremely interested in technology that can save on fuel costs. But nearly half, or 49%, have run out of ideas to reduce fuel costs.
  • 66% say they make financial decisions based on immediate needs instead of strategic protection.
  • 96% indicate some concern about securing financing to expand their fleet, with well over a third, or 36%, indicating they are extremely concerned about securing funding to expand their fleet.
  • Importantly, 63% claim that losing just one vehicle in their fleet would be financially devastating.
  • 91% think their fleet would benefit from an A.I. safety solution that can assess speed, traffic sign compliance, and distracted driving while alerting drivers of risky driving behavior with real-time positive driving notifications. 85% would consider purchasing an AI-based safety solution if the investments were just over $1 per day per driver.

Smarter Safety Solutions: There are smarter ways to reinforce safe driving behavior than imposing fines or reluctantly addressing risky driving behaviors. SMB leaders wear many, if not most, of the hats in the company, including coaching drivers. Investing in smart tech such as A.I. driving solutions can make ensuring driver safety and saving money a breeze.

  • 89% consider themselves a driver safety expert, and over half, 51%, say they are coaching their drivers very frequently or all the time.
  • 82% wish drivers had a virtual driving coach. Decision-makers are more often 58% aversive to addressing negative behaviors, with 55% preferring to address positive behaviors and 3% preferring to address neither positive nor negative behaviors. The 10% who don’t choose to address negative driver behavior would rather eat glass than address negative driving behavior.
  • 69% have considered imposing monetary fines to address negative driving behavior.
  • 93% are willing to invest in more smart technologies that can save work and time through automation.

About Netradyne, Inc.:
Netradyne harnesses the power of Computer Vision and Edge Computing to revolutionize the modern-day transportation ecosystem. Netradyne is an industry leader in fleet safety solutions, immediately improving driver behavior and fleet performance while setting commercial vehicle driving standards. Netradyne collects and analyzes more data points and meaningful information than any other fleet safety organization so customers can improve retention, increase profitability, enhance safety, and enable end-to-end transparency. Organizations trust Netradyne to build a positive, safe, and driver-focused culture to take their business to the next level.

To learn more about the Driver•i products and the Netradyne platform, visit www.netradyne.com.

Methodology: Netradyne commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 503 decision-makers, or employees holding titles similar or equivalent to a manager or higher, at companies with fewer than 1,000 employees and corporate fleets consisting of five or more vehicles. Fieldwork took place between September 21-28, 2022. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95 percent.

* This is the first time the research company Atomik has had a 100% result return to any survey question.

Media Contact:
Sarah Duckett
Sr. Communications Manager
sarah.duckett@netradyne.com

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