Why Brightmile is not traditional telematics, and how our approach is helping companies

At Brightmile, we use real-time data from smartphone sensors to assess and coach work-related drivers against our “Five Pillars” of safe driving.

Our solution would, therefore, fall under the dictionary definition of “telematics”, being “the branch of information technology which deals with the long-distance transmission of computerised information”.

However, traditional fleet telematics has evolved over time to imply a fleet management system with the following characteristics:

• Tracking: real time tracking of the geo-location of vehicles and reporting as a dot on the map to Fleet Managers.

• Hardware: installation of hardware into the vehicle, either black box or OBD device.

• Fleet optimisation: multi-functional solutions for optimising fleet performance, including maintenance diagnostics, fuel optimisation, and basic ‘ABC’ driver safety scorecard.

At this point it should be made clear that this blog post is in no way designed to denigrate any other solution – there are some great brands and products out there that are core to the smooth operations of many traditional fleets.

However, more than 75% of work-related drivers do not form part of a traditional fleet and, in the case of car allowance, grey fleet, or hire car drivers, often drive non company-owned vehicles for work, and there are some limitations of traditional fleet management solutions in helping complex organisations manage the safety of those drivers:

• Hardware installation: Where the vehicle is not company-owned, installed hardware is not a practical solution from either a cost or logistical perspective.

• Data Privacy: In today’s climate of GDPR and laser corporate focus on data privacy, location tracking is not permitted unless this is strictly necessary for business operations, which is not the case for the vast majority of work-related drivers.

• Big Brother: At the same time, location tracking has traditionally led to an adversarial, ‘big brother’ relationship between fleet management providers and drivers.

• Lack of real insight into driver performance: ‘ABC’ safety scores are generated out of context and often unrelated to a driver’s collision record and actual risk levels on the road.

• Lack of driver engagement: These scores are then typically reported back to the employer without engaging the driver to change their behaviour.

This is why at Brightmile we have set out to innovate and create a solution that is different to traditional telematics, starting with the following core principles:

• No location reporting: We don’t report driver locations to employers, either in real time or after the event, focusing instead on trends over time and systematic poor performers across our “Five Pillars”.

• No hardware: The Brightmile app is downloaded to employees’ smartphones (like any other app) and uses no additional hardware to assess driving risk.

• Focus on driver safety: Whilst there are additional benefits and a strong business case to adopting Brightmile (e.g. an average 10-15% reduction in fuel consumption), our focus is on getting drivers home safely at the end of each day. 

By applying these design principles, Brightmile provides an answer for those companies looking for an innovative method to manage driver safety and delivers tangible benefits to customers of all shapes and sizes:

• Ability to address all work-related drivers: As Brightmile is driver-centric rather than vehicle-centric, this empowers customers to address driving risk across all work-related drivers, not just those driving a fleet vehicle.

• Implementation simplicity: As a cloud-based system, drivers can be added or removed at the click of a mouse, there is no complexity when smartphones are replaced, and improvements and upgrades can all be delivered remotely.

• Clear insight into driver performance: Brightmile’s AI generates deeper insight on driver risk (e.g. AI-powered contextual risk assessments, Speeding by magnitude and road type) and delivers this in an actionable format to drivers and managers.

• Compliance with Data Privacy regulation: As Brightmile doesn’t report a driver’s location, it offers a proportionate way to address real-time driver safety without unnecessarily intruding into an employee’s right to privacy. In addition, Brightmile’s certified, documented, enterprise-grade IT security and “privacy by design” solution ensures compliance with GDPR and our experienced team helps clients navigate the internal pre-implementation checks that are necessary in the modern climate.

• Driver Engagement: Our gamification rewards safe driving and engages drivers to materially and sustainably improve their behaviour.

• Proven impact on driver risk: Clients implementing Brightmile have observed an up to 70% reduction in collision frequency.

But don’t take our word for it: get in touch for a live demo of Brightmile and see for yourself!