Every fleet and every driver wants to operate in a safe manner. All you have to do is look at the number of drivers honored each year for a million or more accident-free miles.

And while driver skill and ability play a large part in a fleet’s safe operation, today’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are making things a little bit easier for drivers.

A combination of radar and camera-based components, these systems can take over for the driver to avoid or mitigate the severity of a collision. Increasingly fleets are investing in things like lane departure warning systems, electronic stability control, forward collision mitigation systems and blind spot detection systems. Companies like Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Bosch, Continental Automotive Systems, Inc., Mitsubishi Electric, WABCO North American LLC, ZF Friedrichshafen and more all work in this area, developing ADAS technology for fleets to take advantage of.

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America and Michigan Transportation Research Institute looked at current market penetration for these devices in 2015 as well as asking fleets about future purchase plans. Here is what they found:

• 11% of trucks have lane departure warning systems; that number is expected to grow to 36% by 2020,
• Electronic stability control can be found on 31% of trucks today, with that number growing to 49% by 2020,
• 15% of the trucks today have forward collision mitigation systems and 41% should have them by 2020,
• Blind spot detection systems are on 4% of trucks today and will be on 24% of trucks in 2020.

In addition to helping prevent accidents, ADAS also allows fleets to monitor driver performance in areas like hard braking, speeding, following distances and lane departure. The information from ADAS can be used to coach drivers and improve their safe driving skills or to reward drivers who are top performers when it comes to safety.

There are a host of safety technologies to choose from. Many of the leading suppliers of these technologies will be on hand at the NACV Show 2019 from Oct. 28-31 in Atlanta. We encourage you to join us at the show and see which options make the most sense for your fleet.

This article was sponsored by the North American Commercial Vehicle Show (NACV Show). For more information about the NACV Show and how to attend, visit www.nacvshow.com/attend.