From improving your approach to maintenance to better training and even data collection, you can reinforce the importance of fleet safety and ensure that your entire team buys into your safety measures. From regularly communicating a safety focused message to using technology to track driver performance, these ideas will help you boost the safety of your existing fleet and give you peace of mind when your drivers roll onto the open road.
Ways to Improve Fleet Safety
Improved Maintenance Monitoring
Fleet vehicles put in a lot of miles and incorporating technology into your maintenance program ensures that your trucks and vans are serviced when they need to. Lack of adherence to a maintenance schedule – or no proactive maintenance at all – can damage your safety record and put your team at risk. Regular and accurate maintenance monitoring boosts safety and can even help extend the life of your vehicles; the right system will regularly monitor your vehicles and provide you with maintenance reminders and alerts as needed.
Incorporate Data and Analytics
Collecting data from your fleet and individual drivers allows you to gain valuable insight into how your team performs when they are on the road. Depending on your goals and preferences, you can monitor everything from seat belt use to aggressive driving, HOS compliance and even harsh braking or swerving. Monitoring the way your drivers perform provides insight into how your fleet performs and into the amount of risk your employees are exposing you to on the road. You can address individual problems as needed and note areas where your team needs extra training, too.
Reduce Aggressive Driving
Drivers who engage in aggressive behavior are putting your business and the general public at risk. Speeding, harsh breaking and aggressive lane switching could contribute to an accident. Highlighting the risks of aggressive driving and in-house campaigns designed to eliminate this dangerous trend can help cut your risk.
Integrate Safety into Daily Communications
If your conversations about safety only happen once in a while or after an incident, you’re not placing enough importance on accident prevention. Incorporate safety into ever meeting, touchpoint and communication; you’ll not only be able to share specific tips, but the importance of this ever-present topic will be reinforced as well. From your morning meeting to your newsletter and even the materials in your breakroom, safety should play a prominent role in every communication and interaction you have with your team
Create a Company Wide Driving Policy
Simply telling your drivers to “drive safely” isn’t enough. You need to create a formal fleet policy that clearly defines your policies. From requiring drivers to wear seatbelts to regular reviews and training requirements, a safety policy ensures that everyone is treated the same way and that your team clearly understands what you expect.
Incentivize Safe Driving
Recognize and celebrate those with stellar driving records. Rewarding safe driving over time not only gives your team an additional reason to be careful, it sends the clear message that you are invested in safety. Incentives don’t have to be large, but they should be meaningful and public for best results.
