Attract New Drivers and Reduce Turnover with Applied Companion, a Fleet-Driver Safety Solution Built on Driver Privacy and Respect
HOBOKEN, N.J. (PRWEB) January 28, 2020 -- It’s harder than ever for fleets to attract and retain quality drivers. A leading factor of driver dissatisfaction is often cited as lack of respect, which can derive from invasive fleet management tools and GPS data tracking, both issues of privacy.
A joint effort by Sfara and Applied Driving Techniques (ADT) has introduced Applied Companion, a smartphone-based driver safety and training solution foundationally built to maintain privacy and respect for drivers. In turn, fleets can attract better driver candidates and reduce churn by promoting their non-invasive technology decisions, while also implementing a world-class fleet safety solution.
Applied Companion uses patented artificial intelligence and on-device processing to identify risky driving behaviors and then correct them with automated driver behavioral modification, called Triggered TrainingTM. Not only does Triggered Training reduce road-based risk, it also dramatically reduces the time fleet managers spend counseling drivers about risky driving behaviors.
To ensure privacy and respect for drivers, Sfara and ADT made specific foundational decisions about how to develop the product. Applied Companion is based on Sfara’s AI algorithms and patented on-device processing. The on-device processing adheres to GDPR data minimization principles and provides an assurance of data privacy. One reason is because GPS data is not transmitted back to the employer. Instead, Sfara sends only event notifications of risky driving events, such as hard braking, rapid acceleration or a crash detection.
“Today is National Data Privacy Day. This is important to us because we developed our technologies and underlying architecture to be as non-intrusive and friendly to the end user as possible, always keeping in mind and protecting their privacy. Our culture of safety applies not only to physical and on-road safety, but also to the safety of the data itself,” said Erik Goldman, CEO of Sfara.
To further satisfy GDPR requirements, Applied Companion allows drivers to clock-out at the end of the day by going Incognito. If a trip transitions into a taxi, ride share or other method of travel, “drivers” can mark a trip as non-scorable ensuring that no data is sent to employers during this period. This control of data flow is in the hands of the end-user.
Nearly all traditional fleet products have dramatically different privacy practices, which make divers uncomfortable and disrespected. Those products transmit every trackable and measurable move to “public clouds” for processing and review, often by direct line managers, who have access to driver GPS data.
Worse yet is the recent rise in in-cab cameras, which have vexed drivers around the world due to the highly intrusive nature of cameras.
“All these factors, and frankly our growing concern about the problem, has made us passionate about integrating privacy and giving drivers respect as professionals,” said Rocco Tricarico, CMO of Sfara. “Why institutionalize face tracking cameras as normal when there is now a more intelligent alternative that deploys without hardware installs and with lower recurring costs?”
As much as vehicle safety technology has changed over the years, the single biggest in-vehicle determinant of safety is still the driver. It’s important to remember that fleets still depend on them. When alternative technologies such as those inside Applied Companion exist to solve safety issues on the road, there is no reason for fleet managers to select highly intrusive technologies that cause drivers to feel their privacy is invaded and that they are personally disrespected.
To learn more about Applied Companion, visit http://www.sfara.com/fleets-applied-companion
ABOUT SFARA
Sfara is enabling a mobile revolution in safety and control. Sfara’s patented AI technology and global platform transforms the smart phone into a secure mobile safety and analytics solution, available as a GDPR-compliant SaaS offering to our partners in the mobility space, including automakers and mobile network operators.
Capable of running on 4.6B smart phones sold worldwide since 2013, Sfara technology represents a paradigm shift for the telematics industry and our partners—offering unprecedented detection capabilities, without incremental hardware or data transport costs. Sfara provides a highly scalable, cloud-based data analytics and assurance solution designed to assist companies navigating the challenges of shifting transportation models, such as transportation-as-a-service, semi and fully autonomous vehicles, as well as fleet management and ride-sharing services.
Sfara is led by a deeply experienced executive team with over 150 billion miles driven on their leading-edge, embedded and aftermarket telematics solutions for consumer and fleet applications, including UBI and MPERs, operated throughout North America, Europe and China. Headquartered in Hoboken, NJ, Sfara also is expanding in Silicon Valley, Finland and Germany via Sfara GmbH.
Rocco Tricarico, Sfara, http://www.sfara.com, 201-663-6063, [email protected]
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