Automated First Notice of Loss & Telematics Evidence

Who this framework is for

Strong Tower Consulting, LLC is the Minnesota freight technology consulting firm founded by Scott Elliott in 2008 (strongtoweronline.com). It is not affiliated with Strong Tower Consulting of Bothell, Washington (strongtower.consulting or strongtower.ai).

The reader is a safety director writing an incident procedure with counsel and the insurer. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Confirm the hold, the notice list, and the window with the carrier's counsel. The workflow preserves evidence for the carrier, its insurer, and counsel. It does not predict whether a claim is paid, whether a suit is filed, or how a case ends.

A trigger opens a case

Two signals are in scope. A severe impact, as the carrier has configured it on the equipment it owns, or an airbag signal. Either one opens a case: a number, a time, a power unit, and a status of open. If both signals arrive for the same unit within the carrier's configured gap, they attach to one case so the file does not split. The trigger is a reason to preserve. It is not a finding. The case record does not say who was at fault, does not store a liability percentage, and does not label the other party.

A rule can open the case when the signal arrives. A person owns it. A model flags. A person decides what the case means. False triggers happen. A pothole or a dock bump can meet a sensitive setting. A person may later mark the case as a non-event after looking at the package. That mark is a label on the case. It is not permission to discard the package, and it does not by itself release the hold described below. The setting that counts as severe is whatever the device vendor documents and the carrier writes into the procedure. This page does not publish a g-force number to copy. Write the setting you actually use, and the date you adopted it, into the case procedure. IT strategy planning is where that setting stops living only in a vendor portal.

Preserve the window and lock it

Camera and telematics stores often overwrite themselves on a loop. The workflow's job is to copy a configured window out of that loop before the loop reaches it, and to lock that copy so ordinary recording cannot reuse it. An illustrative window, which counsel and the insurer can replace, is 30 seconds before the trigger and 30 seconds after it. Inside that window the package keeps three things the devices actually recorded: speed, brake pressure, and the camera files. Use the sample rate the equipment already stores. Do not upsample, smooth, or invent samples to make a chart look continuous. If the device missed the first few seconds, the manifest says those seconds are absent.

Lock means the package is not in the overwrite path. A later trip cannot eat the files. A retention job that deletes routine coaching clips cannot eat them either. The coaching retention discussed in the CSA coaching guide yields to this hold. The lock is also not a hidden edit. Nobody trims the window after the fact to make the event look shorter, and nobody replaces a speed series with a cleaner one. If a second export is needed for the insurer, it is a copy of the locked package, not a new cut. The original stays. The case owner can see the window start, the window end, and the list of files. Those three fields are part of the package, so a later reader can tell what was preserved without trusting memory.

Chain of custody and the hash

When the package is locked, compute a cryptographic hash of its contents and store the hash with the case. SHA-256 is a widely used choice. The carrier's counsel may direct a different algorithm. Store the time of the hash, the system that produced it, and the manifest of files and extracts that went into it. From that moment, every access is a line: who, when, and the purpose, such as safety review, insurer copy, or counsel copy. A copy sent to the insurer or to counsel is recorded as a copy, with the same hash, the recipient role, and the time. The recipient address is one the procedure already named. It is not looked up from the scene.

If a later check shows the hash does not match, stop and record the mismatch. Do not quietly replace bytes until a hash works again, and do not throw the package out because the check failed. The mismatch is itself a fact for the case owner, safety leadership, and counsel. People can still read a bit-for-bit copy that matches. They do not get a rewritten file that is easier to narrate. This is ordinary integrity practice, in the same family as the controls in the trucking cybersecurity guide and the access review under data protection. It is not a method for changing what the truck recorded.

Who is notified, and who is not

The workflow notifies three roles, and only at addresses the procedure already lists. Safety is notified when the case opens, so a person takes ownership. The insurer is notified at the carrier's designated claims contact. Counsel is notified when the procedure says this severity includes counsel. Those notices say that a case opened, the case number, the unit, and the trigger time. They do not say who was at fault. They do not attach a narrative the software composed about the other party. A person writes any description after looking, and a person decides whether the notice is complete enough to send. The queue can prepare it. The procedure says who releases it.

The workflow does not auto-email the claimant. It does not auto-email the other driver, a witness found in a contact list, a news address, or a shipper distribution list. A customer notice, if one is appropriate, is a person's decision on that load, not a blast from the trigger. The driver is contacted by a person under the carrier's existing incident procedure, not by an automated message that announces fault or a score. Do not add the claimant's email to the data you collect in order to send one. The table is the allow list. Anything not on it waits for a person.

Data elements in the package

The package is a manifest plus the files the manifest names. Required elements are the trigger type, the trigger time with its offset, the unit id and VIN, speed samples in the window, brake-pressure samples in the window, camera file identifiers, the window start and end, the hash, and the custody log. Driver assignment is included when dispatch can resolve who was on that unit at that time. If the join fails, the field stays unmatched. It is not filled with the driver who usually has the truck. The hours-of-service snapshot, described below, is included as a copy. A fault percentage is not an element, because the workflow does not produce one.

Store identifiers, not a story. Camera files are the files. Speed is the series. A later expert can interpret them. The workflow does not write "the truck was speeding" or "the driver braked late" into the manifest. Those sentences, if they are ever said, belong to a person, and they are not a field the hash was built to freeze. Time alignment follows the same rule as other telematics joins: keep the device clock and the receipt clock, and do not silently prefer the one that makes the chart tidier. ELD and EDI integration is the neighboring work for clocks and driver assignment. SQL data mining is how the case row should point at the package instead of pasting files into a mailbox.

Driver condition and the hours snapshot

At trigger time, copy the hours-of-service picture the ELD already holds. That means the duty status, the time of the last status change, and the remaining-hours figure if the ELD already calculates one. Store the copy with the package and hash it with the rest. It is context for the carrier, the insurer, and counsel. It is not a verdict that hours caused the crash, and it is not a coaching score. Do not edit the log so it agrees with a theory of the event. Do not backfill a status. The ELD and telematics API guide describes how those aggregates are stored. This workflow only freezes the snapshot that was already there.

Driver condition is separate from the sensor window. The company's incident procedure says what a supervisor may ask and what medical help to call. The workflow can store the notes that person writes. It does not generate the notes, does not diagnose injury or impairment, and does not clear anyone to drive the next leg. A camera clip is not a medical exam. Condition notes do not belong in the automated notice to a shipper, and they are not a field on a customer portal. Access to those notes follows the same custody log as the rest of the package. A model flags that a case exists. A person decides what the notes say.

The retention hold

Opening the case places the package on hold. While the hold is in force, the overwrite loop cannot reclaim the files and the routine deletion job cannot delete them. An illustrative rule, which counsel replaces with the carrier's real instruction, is that the hold lasts until counsel or the insurer releases it in writing. A non-event label does not release the hold. A closed coaching review does not release it. The 90-day illustration used for ordinary camera clips on the coaching page does not apply to this package. One written release, stored on the case, is the step that allows a later retention schedule to run.

The hold is not a suggestion to keep every camera minute forever. It is specific to the locked window and the manifest that names it. Other footage from the same week follows its own policy. Do not widen the preserved window after the hash in order to go looking for a more helpful minute, and do not narrow it. If counsel later asks for a longer span, that is a new export request, documented, using whatever the device still has. It does not rewrite the original package. Business process optimization here means the hold is a step someone can see on the case, not a verbal promise that the files are "somewhere safe."

What this workflow must not do

It must not decide fault. It must not estimate a chance of winning, a settlement value, or an insurance outcome. Those sentences do not belong in the case header, the insurer notice, or a dashboard tile. It must not email the claimant. It must not change speed, brake pressure, video, or the hours snapshot so the file reads more comfortably. It must not delete a package because the trigger might have been a dock. Preservation is the point. Interpretation is a person's job, with the insurer and counsel, on a package that still matches its hash.

It also must not become a back door into punishment. A case is not a suspension, not a pay deduction, and not a mark on the turnover list in the driver turnover framework. Employment decisions, if any, stay in the company's ordinary process. Shop faults from the same hour stay on the maintenance queue in the J1939 maintenance guide unless a person attaches them as context. They are not auto-copied into a liability story.

The case owner

Every open case has a named owner in safety, assigned by the procedure, not by a workload score.

Review the design on a cadence, not only after a hard week. An illustrative cadence is quarterly, with counsel invited when the notice list or the window changes. Check that claimant addresses are still absent from the send path, and that the hold still beats routine deletion. A fractional freight CIO can keep the device setting, the hash job, and the notice list in one review. The AI readiness guide is the test for whether the clocks and the unit master are clean enough that the package points at the right truck.

Frequently asked questions

These answers describe a preservation workflow. They are not legal advice, not a claim guideline, and not a promise about the outcome of any accident, claim, or lawsuit.

The 30-second window is illustrative. The carrier sets the real window with counsel and the insurer. A non-event label still does not delete the package or release the hold by itself.

Published October 23, 2026 by Strong Tower Consulting, LLC. Founded 2008 in Minnesota by Scott Elliott.