Today’s transportation businesses are unimaginable without a dash cam solution. Having video recordings of the driver’s cabin and the road, as well as other advantages that come with the tech quickly became an indispensable part of every fleet’s tech stack. But as with any other essential tech, the supply swiftly rose to meet demand, resulting in countless manufacturers offering their commercial dash cam solutions.
Before analysis paralysis kicks in, leaving you with too many choices to pick from, let’s cover the basics and help you speed up the process and find the ideal vendor for your business:
What are the advantages of dash cams?
The most obvious advantage is having irrefragable evidence in an unfortunate event of a road accident. However, dash cams are also a great help in avoiding false claims, and generally lowering insurance costs. Insurance companies simply love commercial fleets equipped with dash cam hardware (we’d go as far as to say they consider it a must). Additional features, such as driver behavior analysis, can help reduce vehicle wear and tear, and ultimately, by planning the routes, and automating tracking, the business will minimize labor costs.
What should you look for in a commercial dash cam solution?
While each solution is unique and has its pros and cons, there are a few things that every good product has. The cameras, as well as other hardware, need to be well-built, and durable. Nobody wants hardware whose parts start coming off in mere weeks. The hardware needs to be easy to mount. That includes both the cameras and other hardware. Some hardware needs to be hardwired to the vehicle, while others can simply be connected to the vehicle’s OBD port. Choose wisely.
The camera needs to offer high-resolution imagery and videos. Sure, 720p video will probably still suffice, but in today’s day and age, you shouldn’t settle for anything less than full HD video and images. Don’t forget visibility. How well do these cameras fare in challenging conditions? Night driving? Fog? Rain or snow? All these things need to be kept in mind.
Make sure the solution is scalable. At first, especially if you’re operating a smaller fleet, you might need fewer cameras, but if business picks up, you’ll need to be able to scale the solution quickly, too. It works both ways, as well – if for whatever reason you’re in urgent need of downscaling, you don’t want to be left with hundreds of unusable cameras.
You should also mind data privacy and security. Leaking sensitive data, such as driver routes, payment details, contact information, and others, can land you in a sea of trouble, and cyber criminals are known for finding new ways of stealing important data from all kinds of technologies. Make sure to understand what your potential vendor is doing to keep the data generated via dash cams, secure.
Make sure to also check the company’s overall reputation. Is the vendor in good standing? What is its previous track record? What do the online reviews say? Other customers’ experiences can be extremely valuable when choosing your next purchase.
Additional features that aren’t essential but can be a welcome addition include dash cams equipped with speakers and internet connectivity.
Speakers can help improve the safety of the drivers, as audio cues can provide them with important information while allowing them to keep their eyes on the road. Internet connectivity helps speed up access to recorded content and while not crucial, it is still a welcome feature for any device.
What about the cost?
There is a reason why we never mentioned the cost, and did not discuss it as a key factor. Dash cams are an indispensable part of every fleet’s tech stack, and once you find the solution that fits your business model ideally, you shouldn’t worry too much about the cost. The alternative to a proper dash cam solution is a lot, lot costlier.
