How passenger fleets can prove their duty of care

Every passenger transit operator has a duty of care: an obligation to keep passengers and staff safe. If a dispute arises because of an injury, you need to be able to retrospectively prove you’ve done everything reasonably possible to meet this obligation. But this is easier said than done. 

In many cases, there may be no evidence beyond your driver's account of events to point to. Sometimes the evidence exists, but you can’t retrieve it fast enough to contain the dispute.   

In either situation, insurers and regulators may view the lack of readily available evidence as a major safety management concern, and potentially price or scrutinise organisations accordingly. The best line of defence is a solid infrastructure for capturing and producing evidence on demand. 

Why standardisation makes the difference

When 17 regional UK coach operators merged in 2024 to form The Coach Travel Group, the new organisation faced an immediate duty of care challenge. More than 1,000 employees and 670 vehicles now worked under the same banner, but with their safety technology fragmented across various inherited systems. As a result, leadership had no shared view of driver location or behaviour across its sub-brands. Drivers relied on consumer GPS apps that would lead them down restricted roads, raising the risk of bridge strikes. Without an integrated camera-based safety solution, The Coach Travel Group struggled to consistently demonstrate how it was protecting passengers and staff across all its sub-brands. 

"We had five different telematics providers, all on different contracts, all with slightly different functionality," said Andrew Luckett, CTO at The Coach Travel Group.

Spotting the dangers this fragmentation posed to passengers and staff, The Coach Travel Group took decisive action to protect them. By consolidating all its operations onto Samsara,  the Group gave its sub-brands a more consistent approach to capturing and accessing safety evidence.  

They now use AI Dash Cams every day to identify risky behaviours, support accident investigations, and provide evidence to help exonerate drivers in fraudulent insurance claims. Within a week of installation, the Group had used multi-angle footage to clear a driver caught up in a suspected “crash for cash” attempt. 

The new system has other benefits too. The company has freed up staff time from manual administrative work by using remote tachograph downloading, and used engine telematics to improve fuel efficiency. Leaders are now trialing out how AI Multicam technology could support bids for new tourist shuttle contracts.

"Samsara is a key element of our safety strategy and a key driver of safety improvements across the group," said Elaine Williams, Group Head of Safety, Operations and Compliance.

How to neutralise he-said-she-said disputes with video evidence 

Defensible safety data can help fleets save money. Hövels Bus, a German regional operator with roughly 95 buses, used to spend days investigating passenger complaints about delayed trips or onboard incidents. Complaints would normally come down to "one person's word against another's,”in the words of company spokesperson Sascha Üblacker. This meant that the results rarely satisfied anyone, whether the passenger, the driver, or the insurer. 

Hövels Bus refused to accept this vulnerability. Instead, they installed AI Dash Cams to put verifiable evidence behind every incident. By capturing the realities of the road as they happen, Hövels Bus can now more quickly review incident footage and document how it responds to safety-related events. 

Taking control of their data saved the operator between €20,000 and €25,000 in accident-related costs it would otherwise have absorbed. Armed with this proof, Hövels Bus now commands a stronger negotiating position with its own insurer.

“Thanks to the video recordings, our drivers feel much safer today than they did before the solution was introduced. The dash cams now serve as a kind of guardian angel for the drivers,” said Sascha.

Duty of care and safety are indivisible 

At its root, your ability to meet your duty of care is only as strong as your safety strategy. If your fleet can’t point to a technologically-enabled culture of safety across the whole fleet, you may pay the price in elevated insurance costs and a higher level of scrutiny. 

On 24th September, Samsara is hosting a webinar on how fleets can use AI-enabled safety technology to cut the risks of the road and improve the driver experience. If you’re concerned about whether your protocols are sturdy enough to meet your duty of care, you’ll want to join this conversation. 

Sign up here

More resources to build your safety strategy

• Read The Coach Travel Group’s full story to see how they united 17 brands under one safety system.

• Read Hövels Bus’s full story to learn more about how they reduced accident costs.

• Watch the webinar Beyond the incident to understand fleet risk and insurance liability.

• Watch the webinar Safer operations with AI to understand how to reduce fleet risk.

• Read the blog Samsara transforms operations for passenger transit to see how European operators are raising their operating standards  

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not provide legal or regulatory advice. Duty-of-care obligations vary by jurisdiction and circumstances; operators should obtain advice appropriate to their operations