Gathering Insights

To better understand the impact of blind zones created by trucks, we literally took a front row seat and rode along with five commercial truck operators in New York and Boston. We picked up trash with a national collection company in the narrow streets of Boston’s North End, and hauled asphalt through Queens with long tenured New York City fleet drivers. Seeing the problem from the perspective of a driver allowed us to build a solution that worked for them too - not just their bosses. In tandem, we talked to more than 20 fleet operators across the country to understand the existing process for buying trucks and the pain points that could be alleviated by a better solution.

Prototyping

After these ride alongs and research interviews, Cities Reimagined convened a group of 25 truck drivers, fleet managers, policy makers, and road safety experts to develop the first American direct vision rating system. Using the insights from the drivers and the lived experience of the people in the room, we prototyped a system that would assign a star rating to a truck based on the size of the blind zones. We used a Rapid Prototyping Sprint to generate this solution in just six hours.

Testing + Iterating

In the following weeks, Cities Reimagined created a measurement kit that was mailed to 20 fleets across the country that included all of the tools to measure and rate the trucks in their fleets. A simple instruction manual was included, guiding the recipients through a 15 minute measurement exercise.

Results

• New safety information available to fleet managers to inform buying decisions

• A simple star rating system to help companies make better choices about what type of vehicles to purchase

• A scalable methodology to measure and rate the safety of any municipal or commercial fleet in the U.S.