Company Name
Hutch Paving
Industry
Paving Services
Location
3000 E. 10 Mile Road Warren, Michigan 4809
Website
Kylie Jayaraman
Safety Manager, Hutch Paving
Latest Blog
Halloween may be over, but for fleet managers, the real scare happens when a major collision leads to a seven-figure liability claim. Let’s talk...
Hutch Paving specializes in the installation, repair, maintenance, and rehabilitation of asphalt and concrete pavement systems in southeastern Michigan for property managers and owners. They currently use GPS Insight dash cams in the 30 dump trucks in their fleet.
Challenge
During a stressful event, Hutch Paving experienced the protective value of GPS Insight solutions.
A Hutch Paving dump truck, while towing a valuable paver on a trailer, was hit by a driver who left the scene. The incident left the Hutch Paving driver shaken and worried.
“I got the call saying there had been an accident,” Jayaraman said. “I reached out to GPS Insight to see if there was any way we could get footage expedited ASAP. The subject line on the email was: Urgent request SOS.”
Solution
Jayaraman was incredibly pleased with the response from GPS Insight, as the footage showed a vehicle hitting the Hutch Paving driver when he appropriately drove through a yellow light.
“We got the video footage of the person coming from the right side of the intersection while our driver had the yellow light,” she said. “They hit us at no fault of our driver and fled the scene.”
Not only did the footage exonerate the Hutch Paving driver, but it also helped find the person who hit him – fast.
“You guys were so responsive,” she said. “Not only were we able to get that sent to me directly via email as a file within an hour…but you also sent a screengrab of the footage that showed the license plate number of the car that did the damage to our truck.”
For Hutch Paving, the GPS Insight dash cam footage was easy to see and to share.
“I was able to just email the file over to the police officer, and he said, ‘Well, that clears things up for me,’ – so it was just easy,” she said.
Hutch Paving had chosen GPS Insight for several reasons, with a major factor being that they could manage their fleet through a single app and point of contact. They were already using GPS Insight for tracking, so they began considering them for dash cams.
“When we were discussing adding cameras, it was a natural first choice for us to reach out to GPS Insight, and I’m so glad that we did,” said Kylie Jayaraman, safety manager at Hutch Paving.
“In 2025, it’s the best way you can protect yourself, your assets, and your people,” said Jayaraman. “It’s not only capturing footage of what the truck is doing on the road, but it’s also giving us the ability to see footage of our job sites that we likely would not have – that’s assurance too. There are also potential insurance and all types of benefits.”
With buy-in from their drivers, they added cameras to their fleet to help increase safety and cut costs.
Benefits
In addition to the immediate benefits of a dash cam, a business can save costs in other areas. Accidents have a lasting effect other than just the price of repairs.
“There are many different ways that that can kind of cost us beyond just repairs,” Jayaraman said. “It’s not just the cost of repairs for that truck. It’s also, do we have another truck for that driver to operate? In the meantime, are we then down a truck? Do we have to hire a third party to replace our guy that day? Is our guy going to be able to get paid for the next day or two? Does this slow down a job because we had planned on having our truck? “
Having an actual record of what happened can help prevent these issues and protect both drivers and profits.
Hutch Paving knew that initial driver resistance to dash cams often stemmed from privacy concerns. To help, the company leaders made a point of listening to their drivers’ concerns, no matter how small.
For example, when a driver expressed that a camera interfered with his line of vision, Hutch Paving offered to move it to a new area that wasn’t distracting.
“I think he just was a little uncomfortable with the idea of having the camera there,” she said.
She told him to give it a week, and if it was still affecting him, then they could move it.
“He never had an issue with it again after that,” she said. “I think he just wanted to hear that we would be willing to work with him. So that would be my biggest piece of advice. Just listen.”
Aside from daily use, the Hutch Paving driver was also glad to have dash cams on his side during the hit-and-run incident.
“I’m sure that’s scary, since you think ‘I know there’s damage to my company vehicle, and it’s my word against the person who fled the scene,’ she said. She continued, “I said, ‘We saw the video. You’re good. You have the yellow [light]. You did everything right. You didn’t do anything wrong.’ He was just so relieved and very surprised – pleasantly so.”
Not only did GPS Insight serve Hutch Paving well during this incident, but they have had overall success with the platform.
“The communication and response time has been really phenomenal, especially when we really needed them,” she said. “Like I said, I put in my subject line urgent request, and I got the video footage in my email before our driver even made it back to the job site.”
She greatly appreciated the personal and quick service that GPS Insight provided.
“Incredible response time, which means everything to us,” she said. “Plus, the equipment itself has been really great. The clarity of the footage that I’ve checked out myself is really impressive. They’ve been very reliable. They’ve worked really nicely, and they performed well when we needed them to also. That was certainly great.”
In addition, the quality of footage also makes it easy to scan and watch, especially when dealing with a fast-paced incident like a hit-and-run.
“The dash view is really, really great,” Jayaraman said. “It’s super clear. It’s beautiful.”
With GPS Insight, Hutch Paving was able to:
With GPS Insight, Hutch Paving has created a safer operation where the company is prepared for the next challenge on the road.
