Dashcam Guide

The Insurance Fraud Bureau estimates that 30,000 “crash for cash” incidents – for example, when a driver slams on their brakes to make a following car hit them – take place every year. Dash cams can help insurers identify fraudulent claims and determine who is at fault, so some may offer a discount for companies who have one installed, as long as they agree to provide footage on request (we advise you check with your insurer to see if a deal is available). A dash cam can also work alongside your vehicle tracking solution to help with driver behaviour reporting and decreasing your fuel consumption, wear and tear and providing numerous other savings.

Bear in mind that police will get involved if someone has been injured in an accident; they have the power to seize footage, which may be used as evidence.

Dash cams are smarter than your basic video camera. Yes, you could attached a forward-facing GoPro or Dogcam to your windscreen and record your whole journey in one long file, but what if you run out of space on your memory card before the end of the journey?

Dash cams get around the problem by splitting the video into small chunks, usually video files of 1-10 minutes. When the memory card is full, the oldest file will be deleted to make room for a new file, meaning it will always record.

However, important files can be locked and protected from deletion, either manually (by pressing a panic/manual button on the device) or in most cases the device will automatically save a file if it detects a sudden change in g-force (because of an accident, near miss or emergency stop).

This will depend on the type of dash cam you fit, along with which memory card you put in. Although the oldest video clips are deleted automatically to make way for new footage as the dash cam records, you may find that the protected (emergency recording) files build up over time and eventually fill the card, perhaps causing an error message to appear. For this reason, it’s best to purchase cameras that have self formatting memory cards. Always ask for clear instructions on managing your footage and memory cards from your provider - the last thing you want to do is to have an incident with no footage available!

No. If a dash cam has a built-in screen, make sure it is switched off or turns itself off after a few seconds, as the law says motorists must not be able to view video-playing devices while driving (there are some exceptions to this rule related to providing information about the status of the vehicle itself – a parking camera, for example – but a dash cam does not meet these criteria).