Maintaining the safety of your drivers is essential for more reasons than merely ensuring their welfare. Your bottom line and the safety of other drivers on the road are both directly impacted by their safety. In fact, fleets in the logistics and transportation sectors have some of the highest rates of occupational fatalities and injuries, and those numbers seem to be growing year after year.
You may secure your drivers’ protection while lowering expenses related to accidents, claim payouts, and increases in insurance rates by increasing the safety of your drivers. The good news is that by cultivating a workplace culture that actively teaches, educates, and promotes the safest drivers, you can increase the safety of your truck drivers. Continue reading for top truck driving suggestions and guidance on how to raise the general level of safety for your fleet, brought to you exclusively by Fastrack driving academy, the best driving school in Calgary.
- Be Sure To Encourage Your Truckers To Drive Defensively
Defensive driving is advised for truck drivers, which entails staying vigilant at all times for potential threats and modifications to the traffic or road conditions. Drivers are reminded to reduce their risk of crashes and injuries by being aware of potentially dangerous situations and making the right decisions when using a motor vehicle. Defensive driving techniques help drivers avoid incidents, so you don’t have to worry as much about astronomical repair costs, claim settlements, and escalating insurance premiums.
- Make Your Truckers Inspect The Vehicle Thoroughly Before And After The Trip
In order to ensure that all trucks are secure before drivers take on the road, maintaining vehicles safely goes hand in hand with conducting thorough vehicle inspections. Although pre-and post-trip inspections are required by the DOT, any inspection won’t do. To protect your drivers’ safety, employ technology that ensures all inspections are thorough and properly documented.
- Make Distraction Prevention Coaching Mandatory For Drivers
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the primary contributing factor to truck driver accidents is distracted driving. Anything that leads a motorist to take their hands off the wheel or their eyes off the road is considered a kind of distracted driving. Distractions might include everything from eating lunch while operating a vehicle to looking out the window at a billboard. However, texting is the most prevalent kind of smartphone use while driving.
When a driver is distracted, the camera can detect it based on their head position (for example, if they are gazing down at their smartphone), if your vehicles are outfitted with dual-facing dash cameras with artificial intelligence (AI) built-in, like AI dash cams. With the help of this video, you may instruct drivers on how to alter their activities in order to prevent distractions and lessen the probability that they will cause an accident.
- Make Sure You Have Tools In Place To Respond To Changes In Road Conditions
For long-haul drivers who put in lengthy hours traveling across several states or regions, the quality of the roads might be unpredictable. Traffic and severe weather are the two factors most likely to affect how safe it is for drivers to travel. The chance of accidents rises as a result of the continual stopping and starting that bumper-to-bumper traffic produces. Additionally, unfavorable weather, such as snow, ice, hail, or rain, can impair a driver’s sight or make the roadways slick, both of which increase the likelihood of an accident. Make sure you have the appropriate tools to handle it, then.
So, enroll at the best driving school in Calgary today to learn more about Truck driving safety and reduces the likelihood of you risking your and others’ life while on your fleet.
