Free safety messages at the core of a new Drivewyze offering

The data for it will be a combination of temporary safety risks, like road construction projects, and more permanent safety threats, like high rollover areas or low bridges. All will be in Drivewyze Free, according to Drivewyze CEO Brian Heath.

“We have been talking to all our telematics partners and government agencies, who are pitching in to help on this one,” Heath told FreightWaves. “Giving those drivers some critical information where and when the need is really important can make a difference, and it’s proven to make a difference,” he said. 

Heath said Drivewyze Free will be focused strictly on safety. “We’re not selling hot dogs and we’re not telling people what the price of fuel is down the road,” he said.

As long as a person or company has a DOT number, they can receive the service, Heath said.

He added that the process is “not just taking static data and showing it to drivers.” He cited the example of existing services that might show a work zone at a particular location, “and good luck for that work zone actually being active when you need to know it. There’s just a whole bunch of really poor data that folks for years have been trying to put into applications.”

The key word for Drivewyze is “curate,” which it says it will do with the data before feeding it out to Drivewyze Free users. “So we’ve got to do the hard work up front to curate that information,” Heath said. 

Government agencies with data to share have traditionally made it available through 511 websites, not exactly an easily accessible platform for a driver on the road. But Heath said those agencies realize they have an important source of data that can contribute to safety. “They are realizing that some of that data is high enough quality that they can actually communicate to connected vehicles,” he said.

In announcing Drivewyze Free, the company said state departments of transportation that are participating in the program so far are New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Delaware, Connecticut, Ohio, Texas, Arkansas and Virginia. The Pennsylvania Turnpike also has signed up, as well as state law enforcement authorities in Colorado and Wyoming.

Heath said the process to launch Drivewyze Free — setting up the data feeds and growing confidence in the service — has taken “years,” but that it has picked up speed in recent months. 

When the data in Drivewyze Free is believed by its users, Heath said, other data coming off telematics systems shows that drivers will slow down as they approach areas where they’ve been told have significant safety risks. 

“And when one of these high-risk areas comes up, it just audibly and visually comes up to the driver,” Heath said. “And then it drops back into the background and they continue to consume whatever service they’re using.”

Martin Murtland, Drivewyze’s vice president of product, said one user of the service had largely eliminated low-bridge strikes since Drivewyze Free was implemented at the fleet. 

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