Your company Fleet driving habits are integral to your business’s success. Over-speeding on the nation roads and distractions are just some of the factors that can affect your fleet liability, costs, and delivery accuracy. Cultivating a culture that considers driving best practices from the moment they join your fleet will benefit your business in the short and long term.
What Are Safe Driving Habits?
Following the speed limit and using hands-free devices while driving may seem like no-brainers. However, the reality is that a large percentage of persons are killed in road accidents due to several factors. Therefore, it is crucial to have a driver safety training plan and defensive driving skills in place and follow it regularly. It is essential to in-still safe driving habits in your Fleet drivers.
Some Safe Driving Habits are:
– Wear a seatbelt: Not only is wearing a seatbelt the law, but it will also keep you safe in the case of an accident.
– Obey traffic signals: Again, it seems like it should go without saying, but you would be surprised to learn that the highest road fatalities were crashes that involved running the red. Half of those killed were pedestrians, cyclists and people in other vehicles that the red light runners hit.
– Do not operate vehicles under the influence: Your drivers should undergo frequent drug and alcohol tests when they are on the clock.
– Do not use cell phones: Mobile device use is the cause of 25% of all commercial crashes. Make it your policy to ensure your drivers are not using personal mobile devices while on the job.
– Follow the speed limit: For safety and compliance, your drivers need to follow the speed limit. GPS Fleet Tracking Systems can send alerts when a driver exceeds the speed limit for a given area.
– Rest after Tedious Delivery Routes: Finally, remember that driving for hours without end is exhausting. Drivers must take a 30minute break if they drive for eight consecutive hours. Make sure to track your drivers’ rest logs to ensure they get the rest they need.
How Driving Habits Affect Your Fleet
Driving habits are critical to the successful operation of your Fleet. Your drivers are in control of your vehicles, and how they operate them affects your overall bottom line. Tracking your drivers’ behaviours will provide you with valuable insights and allow you to minimize risks to safety and revenue.
Over speeding is a major bad habit that fleet managers have to deal with. Drivers want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible to complete their routes, which is bad news for managers. Encourage your drivers to stick to a steady speed. Quickly accelerating or decelerating wreaks havoc on your fleet equipment and fuel consumption.
Bad driving habits can lead to high risk and liability for your business. Wreckless Fleet drivers will cause the cost of insurance to go up. Poor driving practices will also result in increased wear and tear leading to higher fleet maintenance costs. Investing in a smart fleet management system and ongoing driver best practices training will save you grief and money over time.
Major vehicular crashes involving your organization’s vehicles can damage your public image, especially if your driver is at fault for the crash. The effects of this can be subtle and difficult to track, but every bit of negative publicity can undermine your efforts. Even if there is not an actual crash to worry about, just seeing unsafe driving by a car with your company’s logo on it is enough to impact public perception. This could lead to potential loss of business and generally associate your business with negativity.
How to Reduce Dangerous Driving Habits in Your Fleet
Investing in a smart Fleet Management System and ongoing driver best practices training will keep your drivers safe and save you money.
– Pay attention to Vehicle Maintenance:
Effectively maintaining your vehicles can uncover signs of unsafe driving habits. If brakes, steering controls, and other vehicle components are seeing more wear and tear than average, its driver may need special training or a reminder on best practices. Regularly checking on maintenance is a good practice and can help avoid accidents and keep repair costs down.
– Benefits of Fleet Management Tools:
Several Fleet Management tools exist to help managers monitor and control drivers’ habits. One great option includes setting Over speed alerts for highways and normal roads. Speeding to maintain a schedule or make up for lost time can be incredibly tempting. However, speeding is also a major contributing factor to vehicular accidents. Imposing a speed limit and regular meetings with a Fleet Manager who enforces demerit points can help ensure that drivers never accelerate to unsafe speeds.
GPS Solutions are excellent tools for Fleet Management. GPS Tracking Solutions can do more than just monitor a driver’s location and driving behaviours as they can also help drivers navigate unfamiliar territory or heavy-traffic areas more easily. For example, the Gaffar GPS Solutions GPS tracking app gives Fleet Managers access to map-based, real-time location data for each vehicle. Plus, your drivers can determine the exact time and distance to their next location and build optimized routes that account for traffic and road hazards.
Do not let the cost of high-risk drivers strain your business. Reduce unnecessary costs due to high-risk driving behaviour with the help of vehicle tracking solutions from Gaffar GPS Solutions.
Recent Comments