This article was originally published on SMBTech and is republished here with permission.

‍Source: Your Drivers Aren’t Wrong To Be Suspicious Of Fleet Cameras

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It’s easy to attribute the resistance to misunderstandings and poor messaging. Both can be factors. But often the workers asking hard questions are doing exactly what you’d want them to do. That is, noticing that the rules are changing and asking why.

Telematics Already Crossed Lines

Most fleets were collecting large amounts of data well before cameras arrived. Location, fuel consumption, harsh acceleration, braking and cornering, time on site and idle time were logged, scored and reviewed by managers, often without drivers knowing which events were being flagged or what was being done about them.

The data is, of course, genuinely valuable. Harsh ABCs are leading indicators of crash risk, fuel discrepancy monitoring catches both honest mistakes and occasional fraud and location data is essential for scheduling, dispatch and incident response. The fleets that handle telematics well are those that educate their drivers from the outset. That includes explaining what will be collected, what will trigger a coaching conversation and what will simply be stored. This makes the system feel like a tool rather than a trap.

The fleets that don’t get this right tend to find out, over time, that drivers have stopped trusting the platform and started working around it.

Cameras Raise The Stakes

Telematics watch the vehicle but cameras watch the person. That’s a line a lot of drivers aren’t comfortable having crossed unless there’s a clear conversation about why it’s happening.

The conversation that works isn’t complicated. The same footage that records a driver behaving badly is the footage that clears them when someone else causes an accident. In industries where road incidents generate contested claims, that protection can mean the difference between a driver wearing costs unjustly and walking away with their record intact. Most drivers understand that argument when it’s put to them honestly. Unfortunately, all too many don’t have it discussed at all, prior to the cameras appearing in their cabs.

Configuration choices matter just as much as the conversation. Outward-facing cameras may be sufficient if liability protection is the main goal, while inward-facing monitoring is harder to justify unless fatigue or distraction are known risks. Event-triggered recording is more defensible than continuous recording in most contexts and drivers with strong safety records can reasonably be excluded from the more intensive settings. These choices are easier to discuss with workers when they’re presented as decisions the business has made deliberately, rather than as default system settings.

Workplace surveillance legislation also varies by jurisdiction and the specifics around notice, consent and data handling are detailed enough to necessitate legal advice during the planning stage.

Another common pitfall is alert fatigue. If aggressively configured systems flood drivers with in-cab notifications and their managers with event alerts, both groups will eventually stop responding to either. Running a pilot, with thresholds tuned to proposed alert volumes rather than vendor presets, can put paid to this problem.

Where The Data Ends Up Matters Too

Telematics and camera platforms are the right environment for the fleet team, but they aren’t the right environment for everyone else who has a legitimate interest in the data. This cohort may include WHS Managers, Operations Leads, HR and Supervisors.

When safety data is stored in a fleet portal that most of the organisation does not access, the workflows the data should trigger tend to falter. Coaching follow-ups slip, policy acknowledgements are hidden away in spreadsheets and drivers with declining scores don’t receive the timely refresher training they need.

Routing fleet data into the tools the rest of the business already uses, for example, alerts going through Microsoft Teams, acknowledgements tracked in SharePoint and trends sitting in Power BI alongside other operational data, is what makes the difference between a monitoring system and a working safety programme. Bottom line: The technology is only as useful as the workflows built around it.
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Paul Maybon is Chief Product Officer at Zetifi

This article was originally published on Safety Solutions and is republished here with permission.

‍Source: Safety Solutions – Staying alive: how technology can minimise the risks of distracted driving

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Having drivers on your team who don’t keep their full attention on the road is dangerous on multiple fronts. GEORGE HOLT, Compliance Manager at Zetifi, set out how technology may be able to help.

Twiddling with the sound system, sipping on a hot or cold drink, surreptitiously scrolling or messaging on a phone… There’s a plethora of ways drivers can have their attention taken away from the road, manually, visually and mentally.

And when that happens, the chances of a road accident or incident increase significantly. So much so that distracted driving is the main contributing factor in about 16% of serious casualty road crashes, according to the Australian Automobile Association.

In recent years, mobile phones have emerged as one of the chief causes of driver distraction, here in Australia and around the world.

Taking responsibility for workers’ behaviour on the road

If one of your employees is involved in an incident or accident while they’re on the job and driving a company vehicle, it’s not only a problem for them and the individuals they’ve endangered or injured; it’s a serious risk for your business.

Damage to company vehicles can disrupt operations and push up your insurance premiums; putting a dent in your profitability and bottom line.

Your brand and business reputation may take a hit too, if driver distraction has led to a worker causing serious harm, or worse, to other road users or pedestrians, as well as themselves.

And in today’s times, the legal responsibility for that harm may not fall on the perpetrator alone.

Your organisation could be deemed responsible, as could the individuals who lead it. There’s an onus on directors to mitigate known risks and that means those who don’t take steps to address the danger posed by distracted drivers could potentially find themselves held personally liable for any adverse outcomes that ensue.

Turning to technology to tackle driver distraction

Responsible businesses will already have policies in place to keep their employees safe. Typically, these will preclude eating, drinking, vaping and using devices while driving.

Policies should also mandate regular breaks when workers are travelling long distances. But setting strict rules is one thing; enforcing them can be quite another matter.

That’s where technology has an important role to play. It can help ensure that when workers are behind the wheel they’re not zoning out or turning their attention to text messages and social media feeds on their phone when they should be keeping their eyes on the road.

Devices today can sense worker environments, deliver precise location awareness and create intelligent connections between devices, systems and people, via connectivity, telematics and applications, including vehicle-mounted camera arrays.

The signals they detect and transmit can be swiftly and seamlessly interpreted and forwarded to key personnel responsible for instigating an immediate and appropriate response.

Smart antennas seamlessly integrated with third party applications, such as telematics, can be a game changer. There are several compelling use cases, from context aware tracking to enhance lone worker safety via the use of a smart antenna, to detecting mobile phone usage with a dash camera integrated with edge AI.

The latter can provide accurate, up-to-the-second intelligence on how employees are conducting themselves behind the wheel, along with the ability to correct aberrant behaviour immediately, via alerts, nudges and messages that remind distracted drivers to focus on the road.

Implemented across your company fleet, this technology can be an effective means of reducing the risk of an accident in the moment, and the catalyst for positive changes to your organisation’s driving and workplace culture over the longer term.

Taking smart steps to protect the public and your business

Whatever the nature of your business, ensuring your employees act in a safe and responsible manner when they’re on the job and on the road is critical.

Implementing platforms and processes that demonstrate you’re serious about doing so can help you protect the public, your organisation’s assets and its reputation and bottom line. Having access to technology that allows you to monitor and manage worker safety and on-road behaviour means you can be secure in the knowledge you’re doing all you can to mitigate the risk posed by driver distraction when your workers are behind the wheel.

If having a mobile workforce that’s an asset not a liability is important to your business, it’s an investment that makes excellent sense.

The missing link in driver safety, Connected Fleet Safety integrates telematics, agentic AI and Microsoft 365 to manage WHS business risk and bolster safer, smarter fleet management across Australia

Wagga Wagga, 24 March 2026 – Zetifi, an Australian wireless company that designs and manufactures smart antennas for cellular and radio devices with market-leading design, quality, and performance, has launched a new proprietary platform which helps organisations with distributed and mobile workforces manage driver safety and WHS risk by turning safety signals into action, records, and evidence.

Zetifi’s new Connected Fleet Safety platform is built on Geotab GO9 telematics, Geotab GO Focus Plus AI-powered video and Microsoft 365 workflows and integrates with Zetifi policy mapping, workflow design, agentic AI, and tuning.  It helps organisations move beyond tracking and alerts to deliver policy-driven safety action, follow-up and evidence.  It works through Microsoft-native workflows connecting vehicle, driver and field signals to alerts, actions, reporting and evidence within the systems teams already in use.

As a result, a risk event such as an employee using a mobile phone while driving, for example, is detected and automatically triggers the right alert, assigns follow-up actions and creates a record of response within Microsoft-native agentic workflows.  Key features include AI-powered cameras and telematics and near real-time alerts that prompt action, clear reporting that shows trends, behaviours and emerging risk as well as structured evidence that support compliance and governance.

Ideal for industries with elevated vehicle and remote-worker risk, including agriculture, mining, utilities, construction, transport, and local government, key solution features which help put safety policy into practice with minimal additional manual effort include:

Connected fleet safety 

Positioned as an operational safety layer, Connected Fleet Safety helps organisations turn risk signals into response, follow-up and evidence, not just detection.  Specifically, the platform turns signals into:

• Alerts when action is required
• Tasks and follow-up workflows
• Reports for review
• Records and evidence for compliance

Policy-driven safety, applied in real operations

Organisations can apply their existing WHS safety policies consistently without adding manual effort.  Policy is embedded into agentic workflows, guiding what happens next, capturing required actions and creating a clear record of response.

Built to work inside Microsoft environments

The platform integrates directly with Microsoft 365, allowing teams to manage alerts, actions and records within familiar tools. This reduces friction and avoids the need for additional standalone systems.

Built from connected safety signals

Connected Fleet Safety is powered by inputs from telematics, AI-powered cameras, smart antennas and two-way radios.  Zetifi’s partnerships with Geotab and Icom, alongside its own hardware, APIs and integrations, bring safety signals into a single operational workflow model.  While telematics remains an important data source, the value is in how that data is used to drive action and evidence.

Expanding differentiation: policy-driven agentic AI and Microsoft-native workflows

Zetifi is evolving towards policy-driven agentic AI and Microsoft-native workflows that help interpret events, apply policy, guide next steps and reduce manual review.  This improves consistency, reduces admin load and strengthens safety outcomes over time.

“Australian fleets don’t need more disconnected alerts, says Dan Winson, CEO, Zetifi.“ They need a practical way to turn vehicle and worker safety signals into action, follow-up and proof. As a result, we have developed Connected Fleet Safety for operationalising safety, not just monitoring it. The result is that we are helping organisations work where they already work, while improving safety outcomes.

“Ultimately, what makes Connected Fleet Safety different is that it does more than track vehicles or raise alarms. It helps organisations respond more consistently across fleet safety and lone worker safety, within the workflows they already use. Our goal is simple – fewer incidents, less disruption and more people home safe.”

Availability

The platform is live, with Connected Fleet Safety pilots already deployed in Australia and broader rollout underway.

Zetifi will showcase its Connected Fleet Safety Solution at the Workplace Health & Safety Show in Brisbane on 25-26 March at booth number G08.

About Zetifi

Zetifi is an Australian wireless technology company designing award-winning Smart Antennas and connected fleet safety solutions. Combining advanced antenna engineering, onboard electronics and cloud integration, Zetifi connects vehicle, radio and field safety signals to agentic workflows, alerts and evidence for connected fleet safety and lone worker safety.  For further information, please visit https://www.zetifi.com/ or https://www.zetifi.com/connected-fleet-safety