SCHAUMBURG, IL – The second day of the 2012 Fleet Safety Conference featured more busy conference sessions and the first Fleet Safety Awards presented by Automotive Fleet magazine and AALA.

Endorsed by the American Automotive Leasing Association (AALA), the National Safety Council, and the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), the two-day event continued, starting off with a keynote address by Dr. Louis Tijerina, PhD., Ford Motor Company, who addressed updates on research as it relates to developing technologies that improve driver focus.

Topics covered during the first half of the second day of the conference (you can read about day one of the conference here) included the liabilities associated with negligent entrustment; best practices for establishing successful fleet safety policies and programs; comparing NHTSA and IIHS safety ratings to real-world experience; how to effectively communicate policies to company executives and to fleet drivers; and benchmarking safety metrics to reduce costs and improve safety.

The second half of the day featured the Fleet Safety Awards luncheon. Pam Sederholm, executive director for AALA, emceed the event and presented the award to Tammy Evans, VP of fleet operations for transportation and logistics company Modern Transportation Services. (You can read more about the award here.)

After the awards luncheon, the second half of the day offered a discussion with representatives from Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and General Motors where panelists talked about current and upcoming safety technologies in late-model vehicles. Other topics covered in available sessions included developing a driver safety accountability program; and predicting and preventing at-fault crashes using driver profiles.

The conference ended with a “town hall” discussion, moderated by Automotive Fleet magazine’s Editor Mike Antich, where panelists from VPSI Inc., NHTSA, Corporate Claims Management, Eli Lilly and Co., and Ford, answered questions from the audience.

Bobit Business Media would also like thank the industry sponsors for this event. They include 10n2 Technologies; Aegis Mobility; The CEI Group; Driver’s Alert; Fleet Response; Geotab Inc.; GPS Insight; Greenroad; LeasePlan USA; Wheels Inc.; and ZoomSafer.

By Greg Basich