Critical Shifts:
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Unified Behavioral Framework: The program centers training, telematics monitoring, and targeted coaching around a shared language (the Smith5Keys), bridging the gap between raw data collection and actual driver behavior change.
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Continuous Closed-Loop Cycle: Unlike traditional open-loop safety tactics, this system continuously captures risk signals, applies targeted corrective interventions, and verifies whether the coaching successfully altered behavior over time.
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Proven Financial and Operational ROI: Real-world enterprise deployment reduced preventable accidents by 38% over two years, yielding a 2.9x to 9.5x ROI and paying for itself in as little as three months.
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Smith System, a provider of driver safety and fleet performance for more than 70 years, on announced the availability of its comprehensive Driver Risk Management (DRM) program, a fully managed, closed-loop approach built around the Smith5Keys, the proven behavioral framework successfully implemented by fleets of every kind for decades. By giving drivers, managers, and analytics one common language for safe driving, the program turns disconnected safety tactics into a continuous system that reduces crashes, lowers costs, and changes driver behavior at scale.
The Smith System DRM program is a fully managed program that brings training, monitoring, and analytics together into a single system organized around one common language: the Smith5Keys. Because every part of the program speaks that language, its purpose goes beyond alerting managers to telematics-triggered events. The program is designed to change driver behavior, using the 5Keys to pinpoint the specific habit behind each risk signal and to direct coaching squarely at it.
“Technology observes behavior. It doesn’t change it,” said Derek Dunaway, Chief Executive Officer of Smith System. “Devices flag events; people coach behavior. The fleets that win aren’t replacing training with dashboards. They’re building a system where data, coaching, and training all speak the same language, and that’s what the 5Keys make possible.”
The program operates as a continuous, closed loop. Experiential behind-the-wheel training sets the behavioral baseline. Monitoring then captures risk signals from virtually any source (a harsh-braking event, a speeding violation, an instructor’s behind-the-wheel observation), and the 5Keys Score translates them into a clear signal that tells a manager exactly which behavior to address. Targeted reinforcement keeps skills from decaying, corrective actions are verified, and benchmarked analytics show fleets where to focus next. Unlike open-loop approaches that repeat the same process and hope it works, the program measures whether each intervention actually changed behavior and improves with every cycle.
The results are measurable. In one enterprise deployment of more than 2,000 drivers across 22 distribution centers, the 5Keys-based program cut preventable accidents 38% over two years and delivered a 2.9x to 9.5x return on investment, with payback in as little as three to eight months.
“Crashes aren’t accidents; they’re predictable and preventable,” Dunaway added. “Manage driver risk as a continuous program instead of disconnected events, and you stop reacting to the last crash and start preventing the next one.”
The Smith System DRM program is available now for fleets of all sizes.
