Improving Driver Safety Standards On The Road

The minute a fleet driver gets behind the wheel, the life of the driver and those around them can be put at risk. A fleet driver takes on even more responsibility for those around him or her especially when they’re driving for their respective company.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a crash involving a large truck resulting in injury happens every ten seconds while a death occurs every 13 minutes. Those statistics should alarm any company as they both employ and send company truck drivers out on roads across the United States.

Truck Fleet Safety

A simple mistake on the road can result in an accident and injuries, leaving a business potentially affected by a lawsuit. When a fleet driver is unsafe on the road, they’re not just affecting their future, their company’s future will suffer too.

Most managers don’t grasp the long-term consequences of unsafe driving habits by their own employees. The cost for vehicle repairs and increased insurance expenses can affect a business over a short-term period but there’s even more to consider – the time and money spent on litigation and the loss of productivity your company will experience while involved in legal troubles can do irreparable damage to the future of your company.

Safety By The Numbers

These numbers show just how dangerous the roadways can be when large trucks are involved. Factors involved include hazardous weather conditions and poor driver habits that lead to these outcomes:

• According to the CDC, an estimated 317,000 motor vehicle crashes in 2012 involved a large truck.
• 26,000 truck drivers or their passengers were injured in crashes in 2012.
• About 700 truck drivers or their passengers died in crashes in 2012.
• More than one in three truck drivers have had a serious truck crash during their career.
• More than one in three truck drivers who died in crashes in 2012 were not wearing seat belts.
• Buckling up could have prevented up to 40 percent of those deaths.

Safety Software To Protect Your Company

Monitoring how one of your fleet drivers operates their vehicle can give you a better understanding of just how safety conscious your drivers are. Unfortunately, many companies don’t realize they can monitor almost everything their driver does when they’re not around, and those drivers have no idea either.

A GPS fleet tracking solution can give you the ability to easily manage your driver’s daily driving habits including how fast a driver is going, excessive braking, stop sign violations and harsh acceleration.

The information is transmitted quickly to managers and allows them to measure their fleet’s safety average through a scored based on safety restrictions such as:

Speeding – It’s one of the leading causes of accidents across the country. For many drivers it comes more natural than any other car safety violation. According to the CDC, speeding contributes to about a third of all accidents in America.

GPS Fleet tracking provides information for each vehicle and the speed of which they are traveling. GPS speed is then compared to actual speed limits while the length of each vehicle infraction is recorded.

Harsh Braking and Acceleration – This is determined by the number of heavy braking and acceleration incidents based on G-Force and the type of vehicle.

Stop Sign Violations – GPS data is used to locate which streets your drivers have traveled. The data is then used to match up with a map database to locate the area where your drivers made the violation.

One of the most useful tools from this software allows you to see the top ten worst and best drivers on your fleet including individual driver safety scores. Having the insight into your fleet’s driving habits will ultimately help you improve driver safety standards across the board.

Keeping Track of Your Fleet

It’s important to know where your drivers are at all times and how they’re handling themselves on the roadways. When your fleet drivers are sharing the roadways, they’re also taking other lives into account that could eventually come back on you in the event of an accident.

But also monitoring other areas of your company’s driving standards like the cost of fuel and how your drivers fill their tanks up, is also important. Just like with GPS Fleet Tracking Software, monitoring your fleet’s fuel usage gives you another means of controlling your fleet while on the road.

Companies like Fuelz provide fuel cards to all types of companies in order to provide them benefits like:

• Rebates and discounts for the money spent at the pump
• Notifications after every purchase
• Settings to prevent unauthorized spending
• Purchasing limits
• Purchase reporting
• Real-time online information stream

Safety is Number One

Aside from saving your company money, making sure your fleet drivers stay safe on the road is of utmost importance. As your company grows in drivers, monitoring what’s happening on the roadways will seem more and more vital not only to your business, but for other drivers on the roadway. Stay safe and protect those in and around your fleet.