As an employer and fleet operator, you are instrumental in enhancing road safety. This encompasses overseeing two critical areas: your fleet’s overall safety as well as your drivers’ well-being.
Maintaining a safe fleet is straightforward today with the help of manufacturers’ recommendations, driver vehicle inspections, regular maintenance checks and fleet management systems.
But the same cannot be said for driver safety. How do you spot and correct risky driving behaviors?
For one, it can often be challenging to pinpoint risky driving behaviors. And even when you do identify dangerous driving habits, you may not know how to motivate improvement. These unsafe fleet drivers are putting themselves, others and your operation at risk.
By prioritizing fleet driver safety, you can not only reduce the risk of fleet-related accidents and lower operational costs, but you can also improve the overall driver satisfaction, safety and wellbeing. In fact, safety is so critical that for some fleets, a strong safety score means the difference between winning or losing a new contract.
Use our tips below to help identify and coach at-risk drivers and keep your fleet safe. Your employees, their families, and everyone on the road will thank you for it!
Identifying Risky Fleet Driver Behaviors
When you hire a new fleet driver, you will complete a thorough background check and evaluate their job performance. After this, what are you doing continuously to ensure they operate your fleet as safely as possible?
Many fleet managers respond reactively – only providing education after an incident occurs. When you proactively identify potential risky behaviors and communicate in real time with drivers quickly thereafter, you reduce the likelihood of dangerous and costly outcomes on the road.
You can implement a proactive fleet driver safety program using up-front training for your fleet drivers. Use the insights gained from a fleet safety solution as real-life examples of the frequency and severity of aggressive driving behaviors.
Once your fleet drivers are on the road, this education lays the foundation for safe driving practices. Investing in smart AI-enabled fleet dash cams to monitor your drivers’ performance takes it one step further – with enhanced visibility and protection for fleet drivers.
Improving Fleet Driver Safety
1. Utilize Friendly Real-Time Notifications for Drivers and Fleet Managers
For the best chance to correct dangerous driving behavior as it’s happening, invest in a solution that includes in-cabin real-time audio prompts. These include configurable notifications about speeding, tailgating, lane drifting, distracted driving, fatigued driving and aggressive driving.
With the help of an AI camera, drivers can even receive friendly alerts about violations as they happen – such as running a red light or failing to stop at a stop sign.
Notifying drivers of their unsafe behaviors can raise their awareness and keep them safe on the road. It also saves your company from unnecessary costs and a damaged reputation.
2. Identify Driving Patterns
Capturing and collecting data from inside and in front of the vehicle using a fleet management tool offers incredible insights.
Fleet managers can monitor driving habits and offer at-risk drivers additional support with valuable video footage and safety performance data, allowing for a more confident and collaborative driver coaching experience.
3. Reward Good Behavior
Everyone enjoys being recognized for a job well done. In fact, studies show that recognition helps motivate employees to work harder and generate better performance.
Integrating an all-in-one fleet tracking solution that measures and tracks fleet drivers’ driving habits can help you honor safe driving behavior. Fleet drivers can review their trip after driving and monitor their developing skills, receiving intrinsic motivation to drive safer.
As a fleet manager, you can intentionally set up a recognition framework which identifies positive driving behaviors which will be recognized, as well as behaviors which require improvements.
When drivers reach certain milestones, give them an incentive to keep going. Something as simple as a personal “thank you” from leadership can go a long way.
4. Invest in Continual Learning
Provide frequent, ongoing training to keep up with current regulations and policies. These in-house sessions are another engaging opportunity to incorporate the data gathered from a fleet management tool. Use real examples from your fleet drivers to demonstrate good and poor driving habits and corrective actions.
Regularly check in with your fleet drivers and offer them the opportunity to give you feedback about safety training. Be open to their suggestions on how to make your fleet safety training program even better!
The Answer to a Safer Fleet: Fleet Complete Safety Solutions
With its potential to reduce the number of incidents related to vehicle collisions, fleet driver safety must be a top priority. But managing it effectively and efficiently is crucial in a busy fleet manager’s day-to-day work.
This is exactly where Fleet Complete’s GPS fleet tracking software and solutions can help. Our all-in-one platform for fleet management offers numerous solutions to improve fleet driver safety, including:
- AI-powered fleet dash cam: Video recordings and in-cabin audio assistance uses the latest in AI technology to recognize and flag safety events, which helps to improve safety, detect risk and protect against fraudulent claims.
- In-vehicle descriptive audio alerts: Remind drivers when they need to drive more cautiously.
- Decision-worthy insights: Real-time data of aggressive driving behaviors to enrich driver safety coaching sessions and show progress for individuals and groups of fleet drivers.
Remember, your fleet drivers are the greatest asset to your business. Establishing safe driving habits with the proper safety technology today can help you avoid costly – and potentially life-changing scenarios – in the long term.
For more information on how Fleet Complete can help you better manage fleet driver safety, check out our fleet safety solutions.
