As Fleet Management Organisations (FMOs) recover from the impacts of COVID and respond to a shifting economic outlook, there is a tangible risk that driver safety may be deprioritised or overlooked. The current operating environment is further complicated as demand for electrified vehicles increases and the shape of Australian fleets evolves.
Naturally, budgets for safety and training were diverted during the pandemic. There was less traffic on the road and trips were less frequent. But as fleet operations scale up, it is critical FMOs focus on driver and vehicle safety.
In 2021, there were 1,123 road crash deaths (BITRE) in Australia – a 2.6 per cent increase on 2020. The most common fleet accidents included nose-to-tail collisions, reversing and hitting objects on the road. For fleets, the risks are exacerbated by the number of solo drivers.
For FMOs, connected safety and security services provided by organisations like Assist Australia and Intelematics present a unique opportunity to mitigate these risks.
“Helping our customers in their time of need is the most important part of what we do,” says Narelle Stack, Head of Assist Australia
“This can range from providing roadside assistance to fix a flat tyre or handling an SOS called from a driver in distress. Every customer is different, but the agility of our services and the experience of our team mean we can deliver assistance, improving driver and vehicle safety, within a matter of minutes,” Narelle adds.
Assist Australia specialise in the delivery of essential roadside and emergency assistance support. Partnering with leading technology firms like data-mobility experts Intelematics, they have developed a comprehensive suite of services which span connected car safety, stolen vehicle tracking and Collision Assistance.
This comprehensive approach, combined with 26 years in-market and a dedicated team of call-centre professionals triaging and processing events, enables Assist Australia to help fleet and OEM customers navigate roadside and safety issues in near real-time.
“The first hour after a vehicle collision is known as the golden hour,” says Nick Marks, CEO of Intelematics. “This is the window in which assistance needs to be delivered to reduce severe injury or death. Ultimately, the best response requires smart technology supported by trained professionals,” Nick adds.
Ninety per cent of vehicle SOS (eCall) or automatic crash notifications (ACN) received by Assist Australia are answered by trained consultants within ten seconds. This is made possible by solutions including the award-winning Asure platform – developed by Intelematics.
Asure automatically calls for help in the event of an accident, even if occupants are trapped or unconscious by connecting the vehicle to Assist’s call centre. Using geolocation and in-car sensors, trained staff can access critical data from the vehicle to enable the most appropriate emergency response.
“Providing the right response relies on strong partnerships with organisations including the emergency services and leading technology providers. We have developed these deep partnerships over the past 26 years,” says Narelle.
“We have also designed our services to be technology agnostic, including different system integrations, brand requirements and mixed fleet services. This means they can be easily tailored for each customer – enabling us to maximise responsiveness, and most importantly, safety,” Narelle adds.
Assist Australia supports 2.3M vehicles in Australia. Their Safety & Security services are used by ten leading OEM’s including: Toyota, Mazda and Hyundai. Assist Australia’s global partnerships include Club Assist, NTSU, Xperigo, AANZ, AAA and ARC Europe Group. In recent NPS surveys, the company scored twice as high as its main competitors for ‘consistently high performance’.
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