Any company that has a fleet of mobile workers considers the safety of their truck drivers, and the public, a top priority \u2013 and for good reason. Fleet vehicle accidents are costly on multiple levels for any business\u2013 injury claims, vehicle repairs, employee morale, loss of productivity, company reputation and DOT audits and interference, just to name a few. That\u2019s why having an effective fleet safety program in place is so important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Two big contributors to commercial motor vehicle accidents\nare driving behaviors and maintenance issues. Accidents resulting from either\nof these often could have been avoided and that\u2019s what makes them so\ndevastating. Today\u2019s article will review specific steps you can take to develop\nan effective fleet safety program for your business. But first, we\u2019ll touch on\nthe importance of culture and how you can work to improve the safety culture of\nyour fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Safety Starts with Culture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Safety culture consists of shared beliefs, practices and\nattitudes within an organization. Creating a strong safety culture takes time\nand starts first with top management buy-in. It\u2019s a process that brings all\nlevels of the organization together to work toward a common goal where everyone\nfeels responsible for safety and it becomes an integral part of daily\noperations. Developing safety recognition programs or incentive programs can even\nmake safety fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies with a mature safety culture can not only reach\ninjury rates approaching zero but also find people support and challenge each\nother to work safely. While zero incidents may seem like an impossible dream\nit\u2019s important to aim high. Trucking companies report that through the use of\ntechnology and a strong safety culture they experienced a 60% reduction in\npreventable accidents \u2013 equating to 75 accidents that did not happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first step to developing an effective fleet safety program\nis doing a thorough risk assessment. A risk assessment is the process where you\nidentify hazards, analyze or evaluate the risk associated with that hazard and\ndetermine appropriate ways to eliminate or control the hazard. The goal of the\nrisk assessment process is to remove a hazard or reduce the level of its risk\nby adding control measures or precautions, and, in doing so, creating a safer\nand healthier workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How Do You Conduct a Risk Assessment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n First, you need to know where your organization is now –\nassess the current level (or lack) of safety. Getting to know the true state of\nyour organization\u2019s safety status will involve asking questions. For example:\nWhat is the overall safety behavior of the organization? How can we quantify\nour safety behavior? Are we compliant? How does our CSA profile compare to our\ncompetitors\u2019? As part of your initial review you\u2019ll also want to be thinking\nabout where you want to end up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a process you can undertake yourself, but you will\nprobably get more value from having an independent group do the assessment for\nyou. A fresh, objective set of eyes can see unsafe blind spots that you\u2019ve been\nmissing for years. You need to conduct a risk assessment based on known\nquantities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The risk assessment document defines behaviors in 11\ndifferent categories including Loss\/Run Analysis (previous 3 years), Loss\nPrevention, Incident Investigation, Claims Management, Emergency Response\nProcedures, Regulatory Compliance, General Liability, Motor Vehicle\/Fleet\nSafety, On-Boarding\/Training, and Safety\nPolicy and Ergonomics (as applicable).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with your risk assessment, get the current state of\nyour baseline organizational safety behaviors. With this done, you\u2019re in a good\nposition to start developing a strategy to improve safety and set realistic\ngoals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developing a Safety Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you\u2019ve identified the critical issues your\norganization needs to address, it\u2019s time to set goals and objectives (both\nshort and long term) and develop a strategy and an action plan to obtain your\ngoals. For example, if your goal is to improve your CSA score, one of your\nstrategies could be to reduce the occurrence of avoidable accidents. The\ntactics you could use to do this are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your strategy should include a well-defined safety policy. This should be made available as a company-wide document (shorter is best, e.g. two pages) and should discuss safe and unsafe behavior within the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [wp_ad_camp_2] <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important that your safety policy creates a sense of\nindividual responsibility and accountability at all levels of the organization,\nfrom the CEO and safety manager to the drivers. To help create stickiness and a\nlevel of fun, incorporate safety recognition or incentive programs to reward\ndesired behavior or improvements. For example, the driver with the least number\nof speeding incidents in a specified time period is rewarded with a pair of\nmovie tickets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something else that will help get buy-in from all employees\nis making sure they feel like their voice has been heard in forming the safety\npolicy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting Up Effective Training and Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Quality safety training provides the tools to protect\nworkers\u2019 health and lives and to prevent work-related injuries. An effective\nsafety training program develops employees who are not only educated but\nempowered to improve the conditions where they work \u2013 be it behind the desk or\nbehind the wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While most organizations provide training, many undermine\nthe value of it by not assessing its effectiveness. So, make a key part of your\ntraining a systematic measurement of employee engagement, interactivity and\nretention (of knowledge) through surveys and post-training evaluations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoid the trap of just going through the motions – employees\nare quick to detect a lack of genuine commitment to the training process. If\nyou\u2019re not dedicated to making it work, how you can expect them to be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, organizations that are adopting more scalable\ntechnologies such as cloud and converged devices are seeing greater growth\nopportunity. Technology can connect assets, people and the work they do and, as\na result, transform the way companies do business. The use of technology can\nalso be a vital and effective element of your safety program \u2013 when used\nproperly. There are plenty of vendors out there that have designed technology\nsolutions that are focused on not only making your mobile worker\u2019s workday\nsafer, but more enjoyable, productive and easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at the following technologies that are not only\nchanging but improving the way drivers go about their day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These types of technologies are not just improving and\nreinforcing safety standards in mobile workforces – they\u2019re improving driver\nretention, and that\u2019s good for the whole industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trucking companies today should not have a hard time finding a cloud-based connected intelligence platform that requires route optimization, real-time work order management, commercial navigation, telematics and mobile integration services for their mobile workforces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [wp_ad_camp_2] <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many vendors dedicated to enhancing the value of\ntheir customers\u2019 businesses through intelligent integration of location\ntechnology, information and services. The question now is, why aren\u2019t you\ntaking full advantage of their products and services?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"