Managing fleet safety

When it comes to managing the safety of a mobile workforce, it often surprises business owners and managers just how much control and influence can be gained over the safety of staff in vehicles.

Often people are not aware of the extent of their obligations and how simple it can be to avoid unnecessary risk.

In the past, the best an employer could do was to provide a safe, well-maintained vehicle and send drivers off with a “take care out there" hoping for the best. Nowadays, advances in technology, driver training, driver aids and safety equipment have given employers a range of affordable tools to improve safety on the road.

Factory-standard features have made vehicles easier and safer to drive, but how can you build on that and why should you?

Why should you invest in fleet safety?

Aside from the obvious moral and ethical reasons, there are legal and financial benefits and the opportunity to reduce environmental impact.

According to the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2011, to properly manage exposure to risks, you must:

• identify workplace hazards
• determine who might be harmed and how
• decide on control measures
• put controls in place
• review the controls regularly

Since 2011, the vehicle has been recognised under the Act, as a workplace, so the above points all apply to a mobile workforce as well. Failure to identify and control those hazards risks heavy fines and even imprisonment. This not only applies to directors, but to anyone found responsible for neglect within the chain of responsibility.

Aside from legal requirements, an investment in fleet safety provides a surprisingly obvious return on investment. The implementation of a fleet management system, such as simTRAC GPS Fleet Management, is an obvious display of due diligence when it comes to fleet and staff safety.

By knowing the location of employees and having access to detailed alerts and reports on how vehicles are being used, field service managers will meet the majority of legal requirements. Additionally, users reap the additional benefits of reductions in wear and tear, fuel use and timesheet discrepancies, which equates to increased productivity, and improved customer service and brand reputation.

Reducing unnecessary mileage, harsh vehicle use, speeding and idling better serves the environment.

Managing fleet safety

Taking steps to meet both moral and legal obligations will deliver returns. This starts with an audit of the existing fleet to identify vehicles in need of replacement, in order of priority. When purchasing new vehicles, those offering the highest levels of protection and driver safety aids should be identified. The easiest way to assess this is via a recognised safety rating system, such as ANCAP.

An ANCAP rating of four or five stars provides drivers with a reasonable level of safety, so three stars or fewer should be left off the shopping list.

Additional equipment and features to consider:

• first aid kit
• fire extinguisher
• vehicle with 4WD technology
• satellite phone
• duress button
• roll bars
• snake bite kit

Ensure vehicles are well maintained and regularly inspected. There are a number of ways to manage this: from basic calendars, spreadsheets and paper-based systems to more advanced tools including mobile apps, desktop software, cloud software and outsourcing to fleet management companies.

Don't leave vehicle inspections solely to drivers. Enforce a policy of prestart safety inspections, sharing the responsibility across the whole team, and remember it must have control measures.

Driver monitoring

The safest vehicle available is useless if the driver is a leadfoot, throwing the vehicle into corners, stomping on the brakes, using unsafe routes and exceeding safe driving hours. These behaviours drastically increase the likelihood of an accident. Short of putting a manager in the passenger seat, how do you monitor driver behaviour and correct bad habits?

Creating a 'driver safety culture' is much easier when you implement a fleet management system. It's the next best thing to having someone physically monitor mobile teams. Most good systems will provide regular updates of the vehicle's status and location.

Monitored and reportable stats should include:

• driving
• parked
• idling
• direction
• speed
• the ability to define alerts and set up reports

Systems such as simTRAC include a fully integrated Maintenance Manager. The hardware features built-in sensors for harsh braking, cornering and acceleration, as well as events like rollover. Good quality hardware will allow the addition of other inputs such as a duress button, driver ID tag readers and sensors for 4WDs, seatbelts or the handbrake.

The point of driver monitoring is to reward the best drivers and educate the rest and this carrot and stick approach is what creates a driver safety culture.

Monitoring drivers needn't mean sitting in front of a PC all day. Being able to set up alerts for speeding and harsh vehicle use should include tolerance settings, meaning the user is only alerted in the case of more dangerous violations, not transgressions at the lower end of the scale.

Dangerous violations require immediate action. In terms of analysis, it is important to run a mixture of reports and consider the distances each driver covers. For example, a driver travelling 1000 km per week with 10 exceptions is better than one driver 100 km with five exceptions.

Solutions such as simTRAC take valuable data and turn it into Driver Score Cards, which allow quick identification of top and bottom performers to enable reward and re-education. The outcome is a team of safer and more economical drivers.

In addition, it's important to speak regularly with the GPS provider to ensure that the system is being used in a way that facilitates the best results and that any new available features are implemented.

Image credit: ©freeimages.com/Peter Suneson