Commercial Truck Insurance - Upcoming Safety Technology

As commercial truck insurance premiums increase due to things like accidents and costs of replacing parts of the fleet or cargo, so too does the new technologies that are created to help prevent accidents from occurring and will greatly help to reduce premium costs. These technologies come out every so often and as of now there are quite a few that are available which you might not have on any of your fleet vehicles.
To start off with we have the electronic stability control which is an integral part of truck safety standards and while this is not exactly a new technology, it is newer then many of the trucks currently on the road. This particular accident prevention technology will actively select the brakes that are applied in order to slow the truck down faster and safer versus the traditional methods of braking.
Some of the newer and more expensive truck models now come with a pre-collision system where the system senses other nearby obstacles and determines if they are a threat to your vehicle or not. These systems will take a number of active measures to prevent accidents including the activation of the vehicle's brakes among many other available preventative measures.
The adaptive cruise control is capable of regulating a vehicle's speed and uses a built-in radar detection system to monitor obstacles in the road such as other vehicles and will accelerate or apply the brakes based on an advanced computerized calculation that has determined a potential threat and works to remedy the course.
You also have the lane departure warning system which uses specialized cameras to determine if you are leaving the lane you are in and makes the decision to alert you in the event that the vehicles turn indicators are not currently active. This system has proven to be successful at awakening drivers who become drowsy due to excessive hours behind the wheel.
From the brake assist that helps to stop a truck based on the pressure the brake pedal is pushed, to blind spot detection systems that prevent lane changes when a vehicle is hiding in the truck's blind spots. You can now even get night vision capabilities for those late night routes as well as sensors that can determine if the truck is unstable and could potentially roll over.
All of these intelligent systems and a whole lot more are available, and when used accurately, they can not only prevent accidents, but they can greatly reduce your commercial truck insurance premiums due to a decrease in the potential risk your fleet is on the roads. While some of the newer and more sophisticated vehicles have many of these already built into the truck, the large majority of older vehicles do not. However you can usually get these installed in virtually any vehicle if you want.
by Ray Baker

Tags: Truck Insurance, technology