Cogosense Blog

It's been a long time in coming -- but last week, Sprint bid farewell to their outdated Nextel iDEN network which will shut down on June 30th.  You heard it right.  The shutdown is less than 60 days away.

And despite two years of advanced warning, more than one million loyal Nextel business users are still clinging to the old push-to-talk walkie talkie service, like swimmers in the middle of the ocean clinging to a life boat that is about to sink.

If your business is still clinging to the old Nextel network -- it is important not to panic.  There's still time to make the switch and grab hold of a new future.  One that is complete with walkie-talkie features, faster networks and improved coverage.

Furthermore, if your employees are highly mobile, work with their hands, and drive company vehicles in industries such as construction, manufacturing and building services -- then the switch comes with a huge benefit in the form of a mobile application called FleetSafer.

FleetSafer is software that reduces risk and liability for commercial fleet operators by automatically promoting safe and legal use of mobile devices while employees are driving on the job.  FleetSafer is available on Kyocera DuraCore, DuraXT, DuraMax and DuraPlus phones with Sprint® Direct Connect®.

So when it comes to preventing work place distracted driving -- "leaving the old" and "embracing the new" never felt so good.

The NHTSA has taken another step forward to combat distracted driving by proposing voluntary guidelines for automobile manufacturers to help minimize in-vehicle driver distraction.  The goal is to balance the technological innovation that consumers want with keeping our roads safe and drivers focused on driving.  The focus is to limit secondary tasks (communications, entertainment, and information gathering etc.) that the agency believes will interfere with a driver's ability to safely control the vehicle.

You can get more detailed information through the NHTSA website and press release:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/U.S.+DOT+Releases+Guidelines+to+Minimize+In-Vehicle+Distractions

Employers continue to be concerned about the risk and liability posed by employee use of mobile devices while driving on the job.  In fact, seven in ten companies have adopted written policies designed to curb employee distracted driving, but only 32% are confident that current enforcement methods are effective at achieving compliance.

These are among the new findings from our Third Annual Enterprise Distracted Driving Survey of 547 fleet safety and risk management professionals.  Other key findings include:

• “Hands-Free” and “Zero Tolerance” are most popular policies. 45% of existing employer policies prohibit all use, except hands-free.  41% prohibit all use, no exceptions. 12% prohibit texting emailing and browsing.
• Efforts to enforce distracted driving policies remain steady. 86% of companies report taking some steps to enforce distracted driving policies. 
• Confidence is lacking in current policy enforcement. Confidence in current enforcement efforts is limited. Only 32% report they are “very confident” that current methods are effective. 60% are “somewhat confident”, while 8% are “not confident”.
• Interest in policy technology continues to grow.  22% of companies plan to evaluate either device-based software, device analytics or in-vehicle cameras within the next twelve months to better enforce compliance with distracted driving policies.
• Android™ and iPhone® smartphones are fast growing, while Blackberry and Push-to-Talk (PTT) phones are hanging in.  Android™ and iPhone® continue to grow rapidly and now represent 61% of corporate-liable smartphone devices. BlackBerrys have decreased, but remain prominent with 30% market share and appear to have good prospects to maintain share based on customer interest in the new BlackBerry 10 devices.
• The tablet wave is coming to commercial fleet vehicles. A full 27% of respondents currently equip employee drivers with some form of tablet computer. Of those, 73% are iPads and 27% are Android.  Prospects for continued growth appear strong as 8% of total respondents indicate plans to deploy tablets to employee drivers within the next 12 months.

To download the full survey analysis, please visit: http://info.aegismobility.com/2013-distracted-driving-survey-results/

ABOUT THE SURVEY

These findings are based on an online survey of 547 fleet safety and risk management professionals across a variety of industries in North America.  It is the third year in a row the survey has been conducted.  Responses were taken over 3 weeks from March 20 until April 10, 2013.  The margin of error for the full sample is ± 5.0 percentage points.

The NHTSA just released Volume 1 of their Safety in Numbers newsletter April 2013 for Distracted Driving awareness month. Some quick stats from their survey indicate that:

• 1 in 2 drivers answer calls while driving
• 1 in 4 drivers place calls while driving
• 3 in 5 young drivers answer calls while driving
• 1 in 3 young drivers place calls while driving
• 660,000 drivers talking on hand-held cellphones
  (5% of all American drivers at any given typical daylight moment)
• 1.18 million drivers (9%) – were using some type of mobile device at a typical daylight moment

See NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts, released in April 2013, for more information and statistics:

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811719.pdf

NHTSA Safety in Numbers newsletter:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/NHTSA+Survey+Finds+660,000+Drivers+Using+Cell+Phones+or+Manipulating+Electronic+Devices+While+Driving+At+Any+Given+Daylight+Moment

The FCC announced today that it is hosting a technology showcase on April 19th in Washington, D.C. to educate the public on innovative technology solutions designed to promote safe and legal use of mobile devices while driving.  Consumers, technology organizations, wireless carriers, law enforcement and others are invited to attend.

I look forward to attending on behalf of Aegis Mobility and demonstrating how our patented FleetSafer software enables commercial fleet operators to reduce crashes and minimize risk by promoting responsible and compliant use of mobile devices while employees are driving on the job.  Specifically i will be showing FleetSafer on BlackBerry® and Android™ smartphones and tablets and also on Kyocera feature phones with Sprint® Direct Connect®.

Also attending and exhibiting are our longtime friends from NOYS, NSC, DriveSmart VA and Sprint.

If you are planning to attend the event and would like to connect, please drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or @matthewjhoward.