Direct Freight Express: 100 Prime Movers. 1 focus on Safety

Direct Freight Express is one of Australia's largest family-owned freight companies, founded in 1993. Operating a national network of dedicated linehaul vehicles and company depots, Direct Freight Express delivers express parcel and bulk pallet transport across the country, getting freight there “when it's Urgent.”

The challenge

Direct Freight Express set out to introduce fatigue camera technology across its national linehaul fleet, but wanted more than an off-the-shelf product. The priority was finding a partner who could tailor the system to their specific operations.

• One system, not three - fatigue, road-facing visibility and evidence capture across the national linehaul fleet
• Real time evidence - incidents resolved on facts, not recollection
• A partner, not a supplier - Active Fleet Engineers and Drivers in cab working together to configure the system in real time specific to their routes and conditions

What we deployed

• Forward AI Camera
• Side View Camera
• Driver Safety Monitoring Camera
• Seat Vibration Module
• Driver Coaching Screen
• Live-view
• Remote Playback
• Realtime Duress Notifications
• Event processing log for COR compliance
• Driver Safety
• Evidence Cloud Storage

“Driver feedback has been positive from an early stage, and the cameras are now considered a standard, accepted part of the cab environment.”
Jason Elliott, National Operations Manager, Direct Freight Express

The roll out

Active Fleet worked closely with the Direct Freight team to customise A.I. sensitivity to its drivers and their use case. With Engineers and drivers working together in cab to adjust sensitivity time during overnight routes. Active Fleet's dedication to ensuring false alerts were minimised from day 1 of the system going live to the wider driver fleet.

With the system properly calibrated to DFE's conditions, the rollout progressed quickly, with cameras installed across 100 prime movers nationally.

The outcome

• Driver Fatigue Actively monitored and responded to in real time
• Following-distance alerts, Ensuring drivers keep a safe distance from the vehicles in front.
• Phone Use and No Seatbelt breaches are minimal, only triggering for new unfamiliar drivers.
• A greater than 80% reduction in speeding instances compared to the previous year
• Drivers now use the OKORIS event button to flag incidents themselves showing acceptance of the system.

The future

With 100 prime movers now running OKORIS Safety Camera technology, Direct Freight Express has built a foundation it can scale from as the fleet grows. Backed by Active Fleet's dedicated account management and ongoing platform development, DFE has a system designed to keep pace with its operations as they evolve.

“The installation of the fatigue cameras has been an excellent investment into the safety of our drivers and of the DFE linehaul fleet.”
Robert Savli, Compliance manager, Direct Freight Express