Mission Pest Control & Dash Cameras

Mission Pest Control is known for the distinctive red vans driven by their 50 technicians to provide residential pest control services throughout San Diego county.  Since 2011, the company has been known for providing industry-leading pest control services and was voted as “one of San Diego’s Best” in the San Diego Union Tribune reader’s poll.

Challenges

Prior to implementing FieldLogix, Mission Pest Control was using a basic GPS tracking system for their vehicles.  They kept experiencing issues with malfunctioning devices and their provider’s lackluster support process was not addressing their issues.  Also, while the tracking system showed where their vehicles were located, they didn’t show exactly what occurred during accidents.  Their vehicles drive throughout Southern California, where traffic incidents are among the highest in the country.  They encountered several accidents where they were automatically deemed at fault and were forced to pay high deductibles.   In fact, studies show that the average accident costs a fleet $16,500.  If there is an injury, the cost increases to $74,000, and further increases to $500,000 if there is a fatality! Each year, their insurance renewal process was extremely painful as they were subject to ever-increasing insurance premiums.  Mission Pest Control wanted to eliminate these significant costs and believed that dash cameras could have shown that they weren’t at fault during past traffic accidents.

Solution

They implemented dash cameras from FieldLogix for their fleet at the beginning of 2023.  The cameras record video of the road and the driver before, during, and after accidents.  The video is uploaded to the cloud immediately after the accident where it can be downloaded by the fleet manager.  This vital evidence can be used to prove that their drivers aren’t at fault when accidents occur.  The company is aware that staged accident claims are rampant on Southern California highways and commercial insurance companies are often quick to settle claims.  This results in higher insurance premiums and costly deductible payouts for the fleet operator.

Results

Implementing the cameras yielded benefits right away.  Caleb Raymond, the operating partner of Mission Pest Control, said that videos from the cameras were used in two recent cases to absolve their fleet of costly accident claims.  In one case, one of their drivers was driving on a freeway when the driver in the next lane side-swiped him.  Upon reviewing the video, Caleb said he could even hear his driver yell an expletive just before the impact.  The video showed that his driver was driving straight in his own lane when the driver in the next lane swerved into his lane causing the accident.  Caleb says that the video provided definitive evidence that the other driver was at fault and it eliminated what he calls the “he said, she said” situations that they used to encounter during past accidents.  He provided the video to his insurance company the day after the accident, proving that his driver was not at fault.

Conclusion

Dash cameras are a powerful tool to help fleets absolve themselves of accident claims when their drivers aren’t at fault.  In Mission Pest Control’s case, they’ve been able to use the videos during multiple accidents to absolve themselves of being found at fault.  This has saved them thousands of dollars by avoiding insurance premium increases and deductible payouts.  Companies like Mission Pest Control that have dozens of vehicles driving throughout a large operating area can benefit from the video provided by dash cameras during accidents.