Best Practices for Developing a Safe Driving Program

Utility fleets have many reasons to implement a safe driving program. Besides the obvious – to reduce the risk of accidents and protect the lives of fleet drivers – lowering crash rates can also save fleets costs related to vehicle repairs, rental costs, decreased productivity, vehicle downtime, insurance premium increases and high-dollar lawsuits.

If you’re seeking to develop a safe driving program, or if you’re planning to update your current one, following these best practices can help.

Understand Your Current Level of Risk
Before implementing a safe driving program, it’s important to first understand your current level of risk. Metrics to track can include crash rates; collision repair costs; downtime related to crashes; and which drivers are most prone to accidents.

Tony Smith, driver safety manager for Holman (www.holman.com), a global automotive services leader, said assessing the current state of your fleet operations and driver performance can inform your next steps.

“With these insights, you can begin to develop a comprehensive strategy to address pain points and key areas of risk exposure,” he said. “This information will also allow you to establish goals and measurements for success to help ensure your safety program is having a positive impact.”

Screen Job Candidates for Unsafe Driving Records
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, human error plays a role in an estimated 94% of crashes, so understanding the driving habits and histories of the employees you put behind the wheel is essential. Smith said this should begin during the hiring process.

“Having a rigorous pre-hire screening process is critical to hiring the right candidates,” he said. “Running a motor vehicle report on the candidate during the pre-hire process can bring to light any potential red flags, such as a suspended license or previous DUI/DWI incident that is on their record and could be a potential liability exposure for your organization.”

Continue to Assess Driver Behavior
Motor vehicle reports, or MVRs, can uncover red flags, but they don’t reveal the entire picture of how an operator will drive a vehicle. Adding a driver skills assessment program to onboarding can help identify and address unsafe driving habits from the beginning.

Following onboarding, fleets should continuously assess driver behavior and monitor MVRs, not just annually or when an incident occurs.

Further, Smith said, “It’s important to properly set expectations for driving performance with an online fleet safety policy. Posting the safety policy online makes it easy for both fleet managers and drivers to reference how they are expected to perform on the road.”

Provide Continual Training
Once you understand the skills of your drivers, provide training to help them improve their driving habits. Driver training should be assigned to new, existing, good and unsafe drivers alike.

• New hires should receive targeted training to improve skills in need of development.
• Existing drivers should receive refresher training to keep skills sharp and safety top of mind.
• Drivers who violate the fleet safety policy should receive corrective training based on their infractions.

The most effective approach is to employ all three methods on a continual basis. Online training may simplify assigning the right training, as it can often be assigned automatically based on driver behavior – like a speeding violation – as well as at specific intervals throughout the year.

“Well-constructed online training can be very engaging, interactive and provides a consistent experience,” Smith said. “Unlike classroom training, it is not dependent on how well the instructor performs that day. Online training can be personalized to the driver based on their driving behavior and incident data.”

Use Telematics to Aid Driver Monitoring
Understanding how your drivers handle their vehicles on the road is crucial, but it can be challenging. If you manage a large fleet, scheduling ride-alongs with every driver simply isn’t feasible. The good news is telematics can do most of the monitoring for you.

“Telematics technology essentially puts you inside the vehicle with your drivers, allowing you to monitor performance and quickly identify high-risk behaviors such as harsh braking, rapid acceleration and speeding,” Smith explained. “When this telematics data is integrated into an advanced analytics platform, you can easily benchmark driving performance across your entire organization to pinpoint high-risk drivers and highlight opportunities to prescribe corrective training.”

Utility fleets can purchase aftermarket telematics devices, some of which simply plug into the OBD-II port of fleet vehicles. In recent years, some OEMs have begun embedding telematics devices in popular fleet models. With factory-installed telematics, fleets don’t have to worry about the logistics, costs or downtime required for installation.

According to Smith, “A comprehensive telematics program combined with a multifaceted driver training strategy is still the best option to improve driver safety.”

Using driver scorecards, which assign each operator a score based on their driving performance, is a best practice employed by many fleets.

“Holman’s proprietary driver scorecard seamlessly integrates data from key areas such as accident reports, motor vehicle records, telematics devices and risk assessment results to provide a holistic view of driver performance,” Smith said. “This insight helps fleet managers quickly identify and address high-risk drivers before incidents occur. Scorecard data will also help you measure the impact of your driver safety program.”

Gain Visibility with Video Telematics
Where GPS-based telematics solutions gather vehicle data that can reveal risky driving patterns, video-based telematics solutions allow both fleet managers and drivers to see unsafe behaviors. Some platforms also offer real-time, in-cab alerts so drivers can immediately correct risky behaviors.

“Video-enabled devices allow fleet operators to monitor in-cab driver behavior and easily identify incidents of distracted driving and other high-risk behavior,” Smith said.

Spec Vehicles for ADAS Safety Features
Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) – like lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring and automatic emergency braking – can be beneficial technology to include in your safe driving program.

“These systems, which are now standard equipment across many models, can mitigate human error and improve safety,” Smith said. “If they are not included as a standard feature on a particular model, fleet operators should strongly consider options or packages that include these valuable safety features.”

Take a Multi-Strategy Approach
While each of these safety best practices is effective on its own, employing all of them together will likely provide the largest safety payoff.

“A safety program is often most effective when several strategies – like skills assessments, telematics and proactive training – are used together and supported by meaningful data intelligence,” Smith said.

About the Author: Shelley Mika is the owner of Mika Ink, an Omaha, Nebraska-based branding and marketing communications agency. She has been writing about the fleet industry since 2006.