National Dashcam Safety Portal

Fleet operators are being urged to share dashcam footage that captures the dangerous driving of other road users in a bid to improve road safety.

A new National Dashcam Safety Portal has been created in response to the ever-increasing submissions of video and photographic evidence from members of the public who have witnessed driving offences. 

Thousands of clips have already been uploaded to the site, with more than half followed up by police; dangerous drivers have been taken to court, attended awareness courses, sent warning letters or fined.

Before uploading a video, drivers must first tick a box that says they are willing to go to court and testify if required.

Experts at TRL, the global centre for innovation in transport, want to increase the role of dashcams, and other filming devices such as smartphones, in a bid to reduce the amount of dangerous driving on UK roads by encouraging drivers to upload footage.

Sharing footage of dangerous driving that is witnessed by drivers will play a key role in improving road safety, experts say.

Most police forces in the UK have signed up to the dashcam portal, which is an initiative from technology company Nextbase.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services said in a recent report on roads policing that footage recorded on dashcams was a cost-effective way of dealing with road traffic offences.

In October, Egress, the software specialist behind the NDCSP, revealed that in a 90-day period, a total of 3,805 videos were uploaded to the platform – 78% higher than average – despite lockdowns caused by COVID-19.

Since 2018, there have been 21,324 uploads, which experts estimate has saved police forces 170,000 hours of work.

The growing use of dashcams and the increasing number of incidents being reported is also a reminder to fleets to ensure their drivers are obeying the law at all times, as infringements such as speeding or risky manoeuvres are more likely to be caught and reported by other road users.

Reflex Vehicle Hire supports safe and efficient fleet operations through the modular road safety platform Driive with Reflex.

Vehicles are offered with the latest generation telematics and dashcam systems that can provide live alerts when incidents occur, while automatically recording and uploading incidents to a central database for managers to review.

In addition, we can provide third-party live monitoring of vehicle data so that drivers can be contacted whenever an alert is triggered as soon as it is safe to do so.

Lisa Spong, Reflex Vehicle Hire sales director, said: “Our award-winning Driive with Reflex technology is designed to keep drivers safe and ensure that managers can help and support them on the road. “Footage from our dashcam technology can be used to drive education programmes to support employees in enhancing their defensive driving skills, while also improving the standard of driving on the UK’s roads by ensuring dangerous drivers are identified and prosecuted.”

For details on the range of telematics and dashcam technology available from Reflex Vehicle Hire, visit our Telematics section or contact one of our expert team members.
 

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