Avoiding “Sticker Shock” for Extended Video Recordings

Recently several ICSA members received some substantial bills for ordering extended videos from their SmartDrive system. Members are the owners of their SmartDrive system and data, and certainly have the right to order anything they wish. However, in some of these cases, the member would not have needed to order an extended recording had he or she followed a few simple steps.

As explained in the SmartDrive training courses (use password: SDResources), each 30-second video segment a member orders costs $3. These SmartDrive training modules help members minimize the need to order extended video recordings. This in turn lowers your cost and may even eliminate the need to order altogether. In the meantime, here are some tips to minimize or eliminate the cost of extended recordings:

Cost Saving Tips:

• Regular alert videos are automatically processed through the system and are included in your monthly subscription fee. Extended recording requests like those mentioned previously cost $3.00 each. It’s very important to pinpoint as closely as possible what time the event you are looking for happened before considering making an order.
• Check the driver’s logs and see if you can determine a close time to search for. 
• Once you pull up the time block in the order, look for event triggers. Sometimes you can see a swerve or shock trigger that was not severe enough to trigger an event but is still there. Just order that event and maybe one minute before will get everything you need.
• When you are close to knowing what you want to order, I recommend you only order one 30-second event for each minute. This will cut your costs in half and if you miss the exact event you need, you will only need to order the other 30-second video in that minute.
• Another consideration is the overall cost. If your truck is parked for a two-day weekend and someone scratches your bumper, don’t order 48 hours of video. That would cost about $10,000. Your SmartDrive camera stays alert for 10-12 hours after you shut off the engine. After that, there will be no recording. 
• THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON THAT WILL REDUCE COSTS IS TO TRAIN YOUR DRIVERS TO USE THE EMERGENCY BUTTON! Teach your drivers to push the manual record button anytime they want to flag and record something. These videos offload as alerts and cost you nothing. Even if the driver pushes the button after witnessing an accident, at least we will have a time stamp and know where to look for the prior video.
• To help keep costs down we suggest that you not even try to order extended recording video. Just contact your regional safety consultant and they can help order for you. We have been working with this system for many years and know how to cut costs for you. Of course, the more help you can be in narrowing down the time will help them help you also.