Nearly 87% of fleet drivers have been in an accident or engaged in at least one harmful driving behavior in the past month. Texting and aggressive driving are two of the most common unsafe driving behaviors that will endanger your fleet. Most accidents related to reckless driving have reached 400%, resulting in over 13,000 collisions annually.
On top of that, it’s eight times more likely when the driver is texting, resulting in 25,000 fatalities and injuries annually. Gathering insights into your fleet drivers’ behaviors will aid in streamlining the effort and time spent on correcting dangerous patterns. Using that information is the best way to grow your business.
Below is a guide that can address poor driver behaviors.
Knowing How to Track a Driver’s Behavior
Insights into your drivers’ habits are best to address poor driving behaviors. Is a driver excessively reckless? Is one of the drivers distracted while driving? Determine your fleet drivers’ behaviors when you’re not around. Hence, it’ll be helpful to monitor their actions and assign scores based on their performance.
Maximizing the Fleet’s Available Resources
Don’t spread your resources too thin. Instead of addressing performance problems all at once, focus on high-risk drivers first. That’s because they’re the ones who will put other people in grave danger for accidents. Hence, find ways to maximize the fleet’s available resources. In resolving high-risk patterns, equally recognize and reward low-risk drivers for reinforcing that positive attitude.
During evaluations, continually reevaluate your drivers, behavior, performance, and progress. It’ll also be wise to look into the common indicators of high-risk behaviors.
Finding the Time to Train Your Fleet Drivers
One of the keys to changing their reckless habits is training and education. If a driver becomes aware of their poor behavior and the safety risks, they can identify their mistakes themselves and address them. Training them will also provide support, keeping them learning and motivated. You should also schedule regular training programs for your drivers—new and seasoned. It’ll keep them fresh on safe driving regulations and behaviors.
Improving Screening for Your New Drivers
It’ll also be best to have a growing database of driver behavior for monitoring. You can make wiser hiring decisions with that information. Having an insight into the fleet’s most common and expensive mistakes will help you identify potential reckless actions in the applicants. You must also be more mindful of the signs of that behavior. You’ll have to conduct background checks and preliminary driving tests to evaluate new hires.
It’ll allow you to weed out reckless drivers and find safer drivers for your fleet. It might be more time-consuming, but it’ll pay off in legal costs, scheduled repairs, and vehicle downtime. As a result, you can save money for upgrades like modern alarm systems and advanced paint protection films.
Finding Ways to Reward Positive Behavior
Knowing how to reward positive behaviors goes a long way. If your drivers show positive actions over a period, don’t hesitate to reward them. It’ll be a solid reinforcement for a driver’s behavior. It can be managers or supervisors praising someone for performing well or giving them rewards. Your incentives can range from something like allowing them to miss a training class to a gift certificate.
You can also reward drivers with positive behaviors by creating a competition using their rankings or scores. You use their performance for the leaderboard. It has to show the top-performing drivers and publish new results regularly. Drivers with the best actions will receive recognition from managers, causing other drivers to be highly motivated to improve their scores.
It might focus on improving their overall safety, but it can also help ensure that your new hires are safe drivers.
Learning About Common Harmful Patterns
Find ways to streamline everything. You might have noticed repeated behaviors and actions, such as speeding, aggressive driving, and distracted driving. You can save time by addressing these problems through training and education. Harmful behavior will persist at first, but it’ll become less frequent with continued awareness and training.
Establishing a Starting Point for Your Fleet
Most fleet managers overlook establishing a starting point when implementing new rules and practices. That’s because some are eager to start something new. But it’s crucial to compare your fleet drivers’ performance to measure and track progress. It’s best to track individual and overall scores consistently so you can use them as a good reference and compare them to future scores.
To achieve consistency, use the same timeline as the baseline when evaluating.
Managing a fleet entails protecting your assets—both your vehicles and drivers. That makes fleet safety an essential component. You have to guarantee everyone’s safety.