If your organization relies on drivers as an integral part of day-to-day operations, you are probably aware of the extremely high risk that you are carrying. After all, motor vehicle crashes are the number one cause of workplace fatalities. While safety innovations continue to play a role in improving accident prevention and outcomes, fleet and safety managers must raise the bar when it comes to improving driver behavior. With litigation judgments and settlements often surpassing a million dollars, it simply makes good financial sense for companies to be more proactive on the fleet-safety front. But more importantly, each time you collect data, identify unsafe behaviors, and take time out to coach drivers and provide proper training, you could also be saving a life.
Motivated to improve your fleet safety, productivity, and efficiency? Here’s how:
KEEP RISKY DRIVERS OFF THE ROAD
The value of Motor Vehicle Records (MVRs) is not only limited to pre-hire screening or Department of Transportation regulations. By using a program that makes the data easier to check and understand, you have a powerful tool to identify high-risk drivers and intervene before accidents occur. Traditionally, reviewing MVRs was time-consuming. But in our web-based program, for example, we’ve simplified MVR access by offering scored MVRs that use a uniform point system, so you can quickly pull up the MVR information you need at any time.
Our program allows you to run MVRs more frequently (monthly, weekly, even daily), enabling you to identify employees whose records have changed. This ensures that only quality drivers sit behind the wheel, which not only reduces accident risk but also helps you avoid lawsuits resulting from negligent entrustment or vicarious liability.
IDENTIFY HIGH-RISK BEHAVIOR
Once your MVR process is tight, it’s time to consider using plug-and-play telematics in your vehicles. This device uses an accelerometer to document specific unsafe behaviors that you choose to track as they occur. Advanced GPS technology cost-effectively puts a supervisor in every vehicle to monitor location, fuel consumption, engine health, speed and acceleration, harsh braking, and much more. Just as importantly, a customizable online portal and points-based setup allows you to tell that “supervisor” what’s most important, how often to report it, and what action to take. For example, many companies choose to track harsh cornering, hard breaking, and rapid acceleration. You can also track actual-speed vs. posted-speed comparisons for each driver. We’ve heard many stories from companies that were confident they didn’t have a speeding problem, but their eyes were opened when they installed these devices. So, after a couple days, they decided to use another feature that gives immediate feedback to each driver during an unsafe event (usually a beep), providing an opportunity to correct the problem in real time—before it leads to disciplinary action or an accident. This feature brought their previously unknown rampant speeding problem down to nearly zero occurrences, because it notified drivers every time they were speeding; the drivers knew that if they sped for too long, they would hear about it from their supervisor.
Using new-school fleet telematics is great. But we still recommend using old school “How’s My Driving” decals on your vehicles to capture events that are harder to monitor automatically like tailgating, unsafe lane changes, and running a red light. Calls should be answered by a call center (not YOU) that captures the specific driver and unsafe behavior information, reporting back to you along with a recording of the call.
If you’d like to listen to some sample calls from our vendor, please click here.
CORRECT HIGH-RISK BEHAVIOR
You’re running consistent MVRs to stay out of legal trouble and to keep troubled drivers off the road. You’re also taking it a step further by implementing decals and telematics. You’re communicating your safety message and culture. But what do you do when you have a driver you want to keep who is flagged as “high risk”?
1. Automated Training
Have the freedom and flexibility to train your workforce on time and on budget with unlimited online training. Make sure you have training available in multiple languages, as well as full integration with your driver-monitoring platform.
2. Coaching Sessions
The supervisor-employee meeting plays a key role in mitigating company liability when a driver demonstrates unsafe driving behavior. This interaction should be documented as well.
3. Safety Incentive Programs
Consider motivating your drivers further by providing recognition to those who have avoided preventable incidents. According to research by the National Federation of Independent Business, 84% of companies polled saw a decrease in incidents when implementing a safety-awards program.
4. Cell Phone Safety
Cell phones are a tremendous source of liability behind the wheel. You may have a written policy against distracted driving, but how do you enforce it? With new technology, you can now block or allow incoming or outgoing texts, enable employees to make or receive handset or Bluetooth-only calls, prevent web browsing, and whitelist approved telephone numbers.
THE END RESULT?
Safer drivers and a bigger bottom line. The nice thing about this fleet-safety program is that it is designed for small businesses with just five vehicles up to fortune 500 companies with over 1000 vehicles. It just works. A great fleet-safety system combines the technology to efficiently identify high-risk behavior and the culture to enforce it. The goal is not to lambaste the drivers for their actions; it’s for their own well-being.
In Summary:
1. Run MVRs consistently to avoid lawsuits and keep high-risk drivers off the road.
2. Use fleet telematics to identify harsh cornering, hard braking, rapid acceleration, and discrepancies between actual speed and posted speed limits.
3. Drivers should receive notification when they are performing a high-risk behavior (typically a beep).
4. Optionally restrict use of a driver’s cell phone when the vehicle is in motion.
5. Use “How’s My Driving” signage to identify other high-risk behaviors like tailgating, unsafe lane changes, and running red lights. This will go to a call center outside your organization that will report back to you.
6. Ideally, have all this automatically reported in ONE system and consistently monitor these reports.
7. Utilize access to a quality training library. Mandate specific training depending on which high-risk behavior occurred.
8. Have a coaching session with a supervisor when necessary.
9. Consider a safe-driving recognition program, where drivers get awards for not having preventable incidents for certain periods of time or distance driven.
10. Have in writing that employment as a driver is contingent on a satisfactory MVR, both pre-hire and during the course of employment.
If you’d like to speak to a Risk Advisor about our fleet-safety program, or any other insurance or risk-related issues, give us a call at 914-357-8444.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
