Driver-facing cameras and AI coaching are helping fleets tackle workforce retention. And while cameras once drew skepticism, executives from DHL, XPO, and Helix Traffic Solutions said that attitudes are shifting, especially as drivers are understanding benefits that come with tech, and see it as coaching, not punishment.
“We struggled at the beginning,” admitted Fred Matthews, senior project manager of safety programs at DHL, at a panel during Samsara’s Beyond conference in San Diego, Calif., as he was citing resistance from unionized drivers, particularly Teamsters. “We had to show them that this wasn’t a weaponized system. It was all about safety. It was all about protecting [the drivers].”
Now, Matthews says, the fleet is “starting to get that buy-in more than ever.” In some cases, he said, his drivers even refuse to operate vehicles without cameras due to the protection they offer. This is because they have come to view the systems as safeguards — especially when video evidence exonerate them in court. “We make a huge deal out of an exoneration. We make a huge deal to everybody, even a janitor.”
According to Samsara’s latest State of Connected Operations report — based on a survey of more than 1,500 global operations leaders — cameras were the top technology cited as helping with recruitment and retention, particularly due to their ability to protect employees from false claims and not-at-fault incidents. The report also found that 80% of respondents saved over $500,000 by implementing such safety-focused technologies, while also reporting improved trust, morale, and employee satisfaction. The report also found that 99% of surveyed leaders plan to invest more in safety and security technologies, and 99% said recent improvements have freed up workforce time that can now be allocated to higher-value tasks.
New tech doesn’t have to mean micromanaging
XPO has used in-cab cameras for 15 years, but vice-president of health and safety Greg Pawelski said what’s changed is how the company implements new technologies and educates its staff about it. “We listen to our employees, we share the realities of the business so they understand what we’re trying to accomplish, and then what’s the value for them as an employee in the stakeholder company,” he said.
The company’s transition to AI-based driver self-coaching was driven by feedback from professional drivers who didn’t want to be called in to speak to a manager for every minor event.
“Our practice was [that] if there was a coaching event, they would go to a peer-to-peer coaching or, if it’s repetitive or a harsh type event, they’d go to a manager,” Pawelski shared. “And what we heard from our drivers was, ‘Hey, I’m professional. Stuff happens out there. If it’s not happening every day, cut me some slack.’”
So XPO piloted Samsara’s self-coaching program in its Great Lakes region before rolling it out nationally, citing ‘overwhelming success’ in employee engagement and leading safety indicators.
For Helix, a traffic control and work zone company where employees work in active road environments, safety technology directly affects not just their employees’ safety but also future contracts.
“A lot of our customers, we work with, federal and state and municipality, DOTs. They want to see our safety results. They want to see our claims,” said chief transformation and procurement officer Jon Webster.
Webster agreed with Matthews and Pawelski, adding it is important to frame technology adoption as a solution to problems, not as top-down enforcement. “We talk a lot about ‘adapt to adopt’ [and] what we look at for things we’re bringing out,” he said.
Real-time AI is also being used to address drowsy driving, with XPO testing alert systems that detect signs of fatigue on 800 of company’s 13,000 drivers. Rather than penalizing drivers, the fleet uses the alerts as conversation starters and check-ins. Even in this case, despite the presence of technology, the company makes sure drivers don’t feel micromanaged.
“We give them the liberty to communicate with us if they need to pull over or stop. If it’s not a repetitive issue that employee, there’s really no discipline,” Pawelski said. “If it’s the same person day in and day out, there’s more of a discussion with them.”
Matthews, said DHL emphasizes human connection first when adapting new technology, reinforcing it is all about their well-being. “Let’s just have a conversation about it. And really with that, it’s about the human nature of, are you tired? Are you exhausted? What’s going on?,” he said, describing how supervisors build rapport during daily check-ins, adding that AI alerts are treated as an opportunity to show drivers the company cares.
“Everybody in this room knows that the best retention, or the best recruiting, is retention, right? It costs less to keep your drivers than it does to actually go out and find new ones,” Matthews said.
Answering a question from the audience, the panelists also acknowledged that false positives and early AI misfires were a challenge in the beginning. But they stressed that dismissing minor or inaccurate alerts —like a single yawn or going two miles over the speed limit— helps maintain driver trust. “We don’t nickel-and-dime,” Matthews said.
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