Does your driver program provide a positive return on investment? In other words, do you save money by investing in driver training? That should be your goal. If you’re not at that point yet, you might not be focused on the right things. Consider leveraging fleet telematics and event video recorders to improve your fleet safety training program.
SAFETY TRAINING
The goal of safety training is to reduce the unsafe behaviors that cause accidents. Meanwhile, many companies use fleet telematics to accrue data on the behaviors that cause their most common and costly accidents. It should be obvious how these two can synergize.
Companies with a world-class fleet training program use telematics to discover the causes behind their most common and costly accidents. Then, they focus their training efforts on reducing those unsafe behaviors and preventing accidents. This process saves money, makes the training program more effective, and protects employees from harm.
SAFETY & TELEMATICS
So, if your goal is to reduce accidents by basing fleet safety on your accident data, how should you do so? There are five steps you need to follow.
1. Invest in the right tools
Of course, you need telematics programs or event video recorders to capture the data you need. However, you also need to invest in the right fleet safety training tools and programs.
For example, you may choose to create your own safety training, but this is time-intensive and doesn’t guarantee results. Instead, we often recommend investing in a professionally-produced safety training program. There are many cost-effective options that guarantee large reductions in accidents.
2. Begin tracking data
Begin tracking accident data in order to determine what areas drivers need training. There are two parts to this: determining the most common and costly accidents and determining what causes them.
This is an important distinction to make. For example, your employees’ most common type of accident might be rear-end collisions. However, there are many factors that contribute to rear-end collisions, such as improper following distance, distracted driving, speeding, and more.
Thus, it’s helpful to use event video recorders to see what caused the collision and categorize them as such. Most event video recorder or telematics software makes it easy to do so.
3. Determine 6 most common and unsafe driving behaviors
It’s important to determine the top unsafe behaviors that lead to your fleet’s most common and costly accidents.
When determining these behaviors, factor in both what is common and what is costly. For example, your fleet’s most common accidents are likely backing, fixed object strikes, and rear-end collisions. These are not always serious, but they add up over time.
On the other hand, a pedestrian or cyclist collision is rare, but it is extremely costly. While it’s possible none of your employees have caused one of these accidents, it’s still worth it to prevent.
All that being said, your “Top Six List” won’t include events such as rear-end collisions, pedestrian strikes, or fixed object collisions. Instead, it will list behaviors that contribute to those events, such as distracted driving, failure to maintain a proper following distance, and failure to look ahead for pedestrians and cyclists.
Remember, we don’t care as much about the accident type as the unsafe behavior that caused it.
4. Train new hires
When you hire a new employee, you train them on company policies, vehicle pre-trip inspections, how to log their hours, etc. However, you must dedicate time to training them on safety and defensive driving. It should make up the majority of your safety training.
More specifically, spend time on your “Top Six List.” Make it clear that these are the most important unsafe behaviors to avoid.
5. Monthly safety meetings
Safety meetings are where the “six” come into play. It’s recommended to host a monthly safety meeting focused on one of your top six unsafe behaviors. Switch to a new behavior every month, and then repeat them in the second half of the year.
This training cycle ensures that your employees will put time and attention toward avoiding those unsafe behaviors. Thus, your most common and costly accidents will go down.
You can further supplement these safety meetings with videos, posters, and safety pledges. There are even services that will send you professionally produced safety training materials monthly.
START TODAY
You won’t develop a world-class safety program overnight. It takes time. That being said, you don’t have much time to waste. Every moment your employees spend behind the wheel is a moment where they could cause serious injuries.
Get started today to reduce your costs and protect your people.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Kudor is a senior instructional designer at Avatar Fleet, the creators of the non-CDL safety training course. Find out more about telematics and learn about the safety training course, visit go.avatarfleet.com/fsc-free-pass.
