Safe Driving Explained
If you follow our social media platforms (which you should), you’ll see that we constantly upload articles and stories regarding Distracted Driving. The reason? As a Fleet Management Company, it is our responsibility to educate our customers and our followers about the importance of safe driving, as it not only is a risk of affecting the vehicles your life, but much more importantly, your well-being.
Your employees are your greatest investment and asset. When you put them first, everything improves, including your bottom line. As we all know, happy employees are more productive employees and this same logic follows when it comes to your fleet. Safe and happy drivers better maintain a safe and happy fleet.
The benefits of mandated safe driving:
- Saves lives – So simple, yet it can’t be said enough. Keep your employees, and those who share the road with them, safe.
- Saves money – According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the average crash costs an employer $16,500, $74,000 with an injury and upwards of $500,000 for a fatality. (That’s a lot of money to shell out, especially for preventable collisions!)
- Reduces unnecessary wear and tear – Additional maintenance due to careless driving can add up quickly.
- Protects precious cargo – Nothing is worse than waiting for something to arrive and discovering it’s damaged. Keep your clients satisfied and that repeat business coming with goods that are delivered intact and unmarked.
- Demonstrates good employee relations – These people literally put the wheels in motion for your business, so it’s important that they feel valued.
- Upholds company reputation – Your vehicles are basically traveling billboards – anything that happens on the road is a direct representation of your business.
Although the benefits of safe driving are both obvious and far reaching, simply implementing a standard driver safety program or checklist can be challenging. Resistance to change and a perceived lack of personal gain are common hurdles that companies must deal with when introducing a new way of doing things.
Safe driving can be fun and games, as well as educational!
Fleet management safety is an approach that uses telematics technology to produce actionable data and spark healthy competition. Each driver receives a safety score based on their driving habits and vehicle performance. The better the score, either as a personal best or group ranking, the more likely they are to receive a reward. The idea is to mold and modify behavior through positive reinforcement and increased accountability, but it can also act as a safeguard, alerting businesses to drivers who are in serious need of improvement. For example, those who ride the brakes, have a lead foot, or idle unnecessarily, wasting fuel and polluting the environment, will see this reflected in a less desirable score.
Don’t forget the training aspect!
Telematics and the scoring system however is just one aspect of how to get your drivers to respect the road. It’s also important to train the drivers so they know the why behind these rules of behaviors and accountability. Making fleet safety training a priority creates a standard throughout the company, that in-turn lets your employees and your customers know about what the expectations are regarding safety. Whether you have our team or your Fleet Manager in house conduct these yearly, quarterly or monthly meetings, individual sessions will only re-enforce the priority on safety, and the benefits listed above.
If you’d like to learn more about how Union Leasing can help your company, click the Get in Touch button to the right and fill out a Contact Us form!
