11/12/2013

Are You Doing Everything You Can to Keep Drivers Safe?

You might think that by fulfilling your legislative responsibilities for health and safety, you are keeping your drivers safe enough. But your premiums are still going up.

The answer is, to adopt a best practice approach, using technology to help your drivers understand the importance of safe driving.

Driver safety is paramount to any business which uses fleet vehicles in it’s day to day operation. But how can we be sure enough is being done to keep van drivers safe?

It’s clear from recent research that road safety is a key part of the transport industry. In the latest report from TomTom, it was found that 91% of fleet managers include road safety within an overall health and safety in the workplace policy, and 97% conducted regular vehicle safety checks.

These are certainly encouraging findings, but nearly 50% of those surveyed said that their insurance premiums had continued to rise. If fleet managers have such a good handle on the safety issues, why then are their premiums so high?

The answer lies in the approach that companies take to road safety. Rather than simply fulfilling their legal responsibilities, companies should ensure that they take a more holistic approach to road safety, by adopting a best practice approach for their fleet.

The research revealed that many companies fail to take such an approach, and as a result are putting their drivers at risk and costing themselves a fortune in insurance premiums in the meantime.

Only 52% of the businesses surveyed said they provided their drivers with regular training. And only 44% of companies surveyed said they used technology to monitor driver performance. As a result, drivers were inevitably left unmonitored whilst out on jobs.

With regards to driver fatigue, the results really are staggering. Just 61% of companies operated systems for monitoring their driver’s fatigue. Of these, just 16% used technology to view driver hours. The rest relied on employee awareness and safety advice.

A third of all accidents on the roads are work-related, with driver error the main cause of accidents.

Technology might not be able to prevent every accident that occurs on the road, but it can help to improve overall driver safety, meaning a reduction in dangerous accidents and lower insurance premiums.

TomTom products, like the WEBFLEET system, feedback instant insights such as speed, how long a driver has been on the road for and also highlights bad driving practice like hard braking or erratic steering. Once highlighted, this can be used alongside driver training to educate drivers on the need for more efficient driving practices. You can even target particular drivers, and help them to learn how to improve their performance.

As a result, you gain a more efficient, productive and safer workforce, and at the same time can bring your premiums down by demonstrating to your insurer that you are taking steps to increase safer driving.

Remember, this isn’t about spying on drivers. It’s a way to make them safer and more efficient. TomTom WEBFLEET can offer them instant feedback, which helps them to improve their driving on the spot. This empowers them to make decisions, rather than waiting to be told to by management.

A WEBFLEET package can help your business in so many ways. To find out more, and to see the WEBFLEET packages that we have available click here, or call us on 01928 715 724.

And remember to drive safely and efficiently!

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