In fleet management, fleet vehicle accidents are common. In fact, fleet vehicle accidents account for over 30% of all fleet-related injuries and fatalities. Understanding how to reduce fleet vehicle accidents is the key to reducing fleet injury rates and improving fleet safety. Here are four tactics for preventing or minimizing fleets from suffering these types of accidents:
Avoid driving when fatigued
In fleet vehicle accidents, fatigue is a common cause. One study found that fatigued drivers of company vehicles were involved in over 60% more crashes than those who reported high levels of alertness during their commute.
A fleet driver who is fatigued greatly increases the chances that they will be involved in an accident. Fortunately, it’s fairly simple to prevent fatigue by ensuring drivers get enough rest before a shift begins and taking regular breaks during a long trip. Also, these GPS systems including dash cam can help you to better manage your safety. Some fleet operations managers have even gone so far as setting up rules on how many hours their employees can drive without stopping to take care of non-work-related necessities.
“Moving beyond company vehicles,” says Scott Taylor of Fleet Insight Management Solutions when describing this tactic further: “as safety professionals, we must also make sure our workforce arrives home safely each day.” This means not only caring about preventing fleet vehicle accidents while employees are on the job but also caring about fleet employee safety once they leave their fleet vehicle behind.
When driving for work purposes, it’s important to avoid pushing yourself and your team too hard when tired or on the verge of being too tired to drive. This can be done by ensuring fleet vehicles are properly maintained and scheduling regular fleet maintenance checks so that employees know they have a safe vehicle in which to drive for work purposes.
Drive defensively
Driving defensively is a tactic that fleet managers can use to reduce fleet vehicle accidents. Defensive driving, according to the National Safety Council (NSC), refers “to those actions drivers take in anticipation of and response to hazardous conditions.” In fleet management specifically, defensive driving means anticipating and avoiding potentially dangerous situations so that fleet vehicle are not involved in collisions or other forms of fleet-related accidents.
According to Scott Taylor: “A first step [in preventing accident] may be asking employees about their commute home from work; how they feel on the road during this drive; whether there’s an opportunity for them to carpool with someone else who drives home at the same time each day – or as much as possible avoid commuting during rush hour traffic.”
Maintain your vehicles well
Maintaining fleet vehicles well is the third tactic fleet managers can use to reduce fleet vehicle accidents. Regular fleet maintenance checks include inspections for safety features and components in a fleet vehicle, such as brakes, lights, tires, and more. If any of these components are faulty or broken, then it increases the chances that an employee will be involved in some form of a fleet-related accident while driving their company car home from work one night.
In addition to inspecting your fleet vehicles regularly at regular intervals during their lifecycle with your business (different types of fleets have different lifespan needs), you should also check up on individual employees who drive service vans or other large forms of transportation equipment every now and again too – especially if they’ve been known to cause collisions in the past.
Practice good habits on the road
Lastly, fleet managers can use “good habits on the road” as a tactic to prevent fleet vehicle accidents. In this case, good habits refer to driving practices such as obeying traffic laws and signs; using high beams when there are no oncoming vehicles insight, not speeding or tailgating another car, avoiding distractions while behind the wheel (such as cell phones), always wearing your seatbelt correctly – even if you’re just making a short drive around town for errands instead of going home from work at night.
When it comes down to fleet safety management and accident prevention tactics, one thing is clear: fleet managers must take an active role in preventing their employees from being involved in crashes on company time by taking steps towards improving driver safety.
Fleet vehicle accidents are a major concern for many companies. To reduce the number of fleet vehicles involved in such accidents, it’s important to take precautions like avoiding driving when fatigued or tired and maintaining your vehicle well.
Maintaining good habits on the road is also key – you should drive defensively, avoid aggressive driving behaviors and be aware that other drivers may not follow traffic laws as closely as they should be following them. If one of these tips helped you get through a tough day at work safely, share this article with others so we can help prevent more fleet vehicle-related injuries!
