Azuga, a leading provider of cloud-based GPS fleet tracking and social telematics, this month launched the company’s Safe Driving Awards.

The Azuga-funded quarterly program will help fleet managers increase overall return-on-investment and ultimately increase safety in the communities where they live and work, the company said.

For the first quarter in 2015, the fleet driver award winners are:

• Paul Sabourin, AA Transport Co.

• Javier Contreras, Aaron's Inc.

• Duke Zukowski, Bath Fitter

• Jerry Bellows, AA Transportation Co.

• Will Allen, A Tech Service

• Dee Dye, Patco Electrical Services Inc.

• Fleet Drivers, C & L Refrigeration Corp.

The winning fleet managers of the same quarter are:

• Patty Middleton, California United Mechanical

• Laurie Royal, MNS Engineers Inc.

• Ron Ernenwein, AA Transportation Co.

• Mike Goellner, Total Environmental Concepts

• Randy Jones, R.E. Robertson Plumbing

• Cam Bedry, Bath Fitter

• Fleet Management at Chapman Waterproofing Co.

• Fleet Management at Patco Electrical Services Inc.

To determine the award winners, Azuga uses a proprietary algorithm developed by the company’s data science team. The ranking is calculated by a weighted average of several individual components, including speeding, hard braking, harsh acceleration and idling events. The event’s magnitude, duration and frequency, along with a spatio-temporal index, are taken into account.  

“Our awards program is only one aspect of our expansion into social telematics, an initiative that is combining driver visibility, gamification, employer funded rewards, social sharing and Azuga-funded awards to bring a refreshing new approach to fleet telematics in 2015,” said Ananth Rani, co-founder of Azuga.

“The data science research team at Azuga is one of the only research centers to combine experts from transportation, big data and insurance to find new ways to quantify driver behavior and its relationship to fuel efficiency,” added Dr. Ashwin Sabapathy, head of data sciences at Azuga. “With this unique data set and algorithms, Azuga has been able to produce a fair driver score that motivates drivers towards better behavior through gamification, which in turn improves fleet MPG, reduces carbon footprint and delivers natural ROI.”

For more information on Azuga’s GPS and driver behavior solutions, click here.