Understanding Teen Driver Risks
16 Jul 2018According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), six teens between the ages of 16 and 19 died every day in 2015 from motor vehicle injuries. Those numbers accounted for 2,333 teen deaths and 235,845 injuries requiring emergency department treatment.
Despite the fact that teens in this age group only account for seven percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 11 percent of the total costs of auto accident injuries.
CBS goes on to report that there have been more than 14,000 fatal crashes involving teen drivers in the past five years.
For parents preparing to send their teens out onto the road, these numbers are nothing short of alarming.
Why Do Teens Pose Increased Risks?
There are many reasons teens seem to present greater risks behind the wheels of cars. Most of those increases begin and end with a lack of experience behind the wheel.
The solutions many states have come up with to reduce these number is to increase the driving age and employe graduated driver laws. While some argue that gives them less preparation behind the wheel before heading off to college and work, it also gives them less training in avoiding distractions and reducing their own risks as drivers.
Specific risks teen drivers face include the following:
- Using mobile devices while driving. Talking or texting can be lethal behind the wheels for drivers of all ages.
- Driving over the speed limit. The CBS report states that half of teens drive 15 miles per hour above the speed limit.
- Distractions in the vehicle. This comes in the form of other teens, radios, applying makeup, and these distractions are in addition to cell phones.
- Unfortunately, it happens. Despite all the options available for teens to seek sober rides home, some drive while intoxicated causing accidents that injure themselves, their friends, and random strangers on the road. Sometimes fatally.
What’s a Parent to Do?
You can’t go everywhere with your teen, but you can have the next best thing if you use GPS tracking for teens. GPS teen tracking allows you to track the speed your teen is traveling, swerving, weaving, aggressive driving, and other behaviors that indicate your teen may be distracted behind the wheel.
Additionally, you can set up alerts to notify you if your teen’s vehicle has gone beyond certain geographic boundaries or is being operated outside of designated hours. With some systems, you can even remotely disable the vehicle so that your teen must wait for you to arrive and drive them home safely.
It’s not the bubble you’d like to protect your teen in, but GPS tracking for teen drivers is the next best thing.
Give us a call here at LiveViewGPS at 1-888-544-0494 to learn how GPS tracking for teens can help give you peace of mind.
Safety is one of the primary concerns today’s fleet managers must deal with. Not only about the drivers who work for them and the vehicles they’re responsible for, but all the other drivers on the road and the reputation of the entire organization.
Issues that are particularly challenging for fleet managers in light of the 20 percent rise in fleet accidents, include the following:
- Compliance
- Driver accountability
- Scheduling
- Enforcement of company policies and state and federal requirements.
- Costs
- Safety
- Customer satisfaction
It’s a delicate balance you must learn to walk and may feel more treacherous than a high-rise act with no net on some days.
Why Is It So Important to Avoid Accidents in Fleet Vehicles?
According to Automotive Fleet, fleet accidents account for the most expensive injury claims the average business faces with average costs approaching $70,000. Nearly twice the average cost of all other workplace injuries. With so many organizations choosing to self-insure their fleets, these are costs directly to the business.
While fleet managers have no control over other cars hitting their vehicles, there are things they can do to train drivers to be more defensively minded and keep their focus on the road. Doing this will be instrumental in avoiding preventable accidents, even when other drivers are the potential cause of these accidents.
How Can GPS Fleet Tracking Help?
GPS fleet tracking offers many benefits you may have never even considered before. Most people are aware of the benefits GPS tracking offers for conserving fuel and planning more efficient routes for your drivers to take.
What you may not know, though, is that GPS fleet tracking can also help you more effectively manage and monitor your drivers even when they’re on the road. These are just a few ways GPS tracking can help with that:
- Notify you whenever drivers deviate from prescribed routes.
- Record and notify you when drivers drive in excess of the speed limit (you can even identify specific speeds at which you wish to be notified)
- Track location of drivers in real time so you can send emergency responses immediately if they are in accidents.
- Send alerts when drivers display aggressive driving behaviors, such as; swerving, hard braking, and weaving in and out of traffic.
GPS fleet tracking also records the number of hours drivers spend behind the wheel when they are on the road so you can be certain they are maintaining compliance when it comes to maximum hours behind the wheel.
Just imagine the many ways GPS tracking can help you reduce the number of fleet accidents in your organization at a time when they are on the rise for so many others.
To learn more about how GPS fleet tracking can help your commercial fleet, give us a call here at LiveViewGPS at 1-888-544-0494.
GPS Tracking for Horse Trailers
11 Jul 2018Horse trailers carry precious cargo. Whether you’re transporting a beloved family pet or a valuable commodity for sale, show, or racing, it’s vital that you protect your horse, your trailer, and your investment in as many ways as possible.
One way you can offer protection for your horse trailer is with GPS tracking for horse trailers. Not only can it help prevent the theft of your trailer while you’re on the road, but also protect the beautiful creatures it holds inside.
Think of all the things you store in your horse trailer, along with your horse while traveling:
- Reins
- Bridles
- Saddles
- Blankets
- Buckets
- Brushes
- Bits
These items are certainly not priceless, and a good saddle will set you back a bit. These all take money to replace, should your horse trailer be stolen, and the costs can add up when you need to replace them all at once.
More importantly, the beautiful animal inside your horse trailer is simply irreplaceable.
How does GPS Tracking for Horse Trailers Help?
While GPS tracking doesn’t exactly prevent someone from absconding with your horse and trailer, the knowledge that you’re using GPS tracking may make your trailer a less attractive target to thieves of opportunity.
Additionally, GPS tracking offers the benefit of delivering live tracking, so you can follow your trailer, in real time once it’s been stolen. More importantly, law enforcement can follow your trailer to facilitate its swift recovery and, hopefully, avoid any injury to your horse.
That’s not all. Even if you’re not on the road with your horse, the trailer alone is a sizeable investment. You can set up your GPS tracking system with a GEO fence that notifies you by text message, email, or phone call when your trailer moves outside of designated geographic locations or predefined “sleep” hours.
This means you’ll discover the theft quickly, so you can deliver prompt action rather than discovering the theft several hours, or even days, after the fact.
Other Ways to Safeguard a Horse Trailer from Theft
GPS tracking for horse trailers is one tool in the arsenal available to you so you can protect your horse trailer from theft. Other things you can do to protect your investment include:
- Invest in adequate defensive items, such as hitch locks, wheel locks, and trailer alarms.
- Paint your trailers in bright colors and make distinctive markings on them so that they are easily recognizable as your horse trailers.
- Buy appropriate insurance coverage. While insurance won’t replace everything you lose when someone steals your trailer, after all, some things are impossible to replace, it will help soften the financial blow.
Reduce your risks of the theft of your horse trailer and protect your investment with these steps and take your horse and trailer on the trail, on the road, and on the go with confidence.