Prevention for Commercial Fleet
Distracted Driving
For many California commercial fleets, driver and public safety is a top priority, and organizations take great care to prevent costly and potentially deadly accidents. While a number of factors can lead to a crash, distracted driving is a common preventable cause of accidents. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that every year, up to 391,000 people are injured and 3.450 people are killed in crashes involving distracted drivers. Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving Prevention is more important than ever for your business.
Contact GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. for your comprehensive commercial fleet insurance quote 209-634-2929.
Why is Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving So Dangerous?
Distracted driving reduces awareness, decision-making and performance, increasing the likelihood of driver error, near-crashes or crashes. What’s more, distracted driving is not always attributable to a medical condition, alcohol and drug use or fatigue.
Distracted driving is an ongoing safety concern for commercial fleets. However, the widespread increase in cellphone use over the past decade has brought the issue to the forefront.
Studies have shown that many collisions and near-collisions involve some form of driver inattention, often just three seconds prior to the event. These statistics are particularly noteworthy for commercial fleets, as many commercial vehicles have poorer driver visibility than personal cars and are much more difficult to control or stop in the even of an emergency. For commercial fleets, distracted driving can lead to increased commercial auto insurance premiums, costly repairs, decreased productivity, reputational damage and driver injury or death.
Types of Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving
Often, when thinking about distracted driving, it’s easy to focus on inattentiveness caused by cellphones and other electronic devices. However, while texting and taking phone calls while driving are major causes of accidents, they aren’t the only distractions.
Distracted driving can be broken down into one of four categories:
- Visual Distractions: Any distraction that diverts a driver’s eyes from the road (pedestrians, collisions or road signs).
- Physical Distractions: Any distraction that causes a driver to take their hands off the wheel (eating, drinking or tuning a radio).
- Cognitive Distractions: Any distraction that causes a driver to think about something other than the duty of driving carefully (daydreaming or multitasking).
- Auditory Distractions: Any audible distraction that diverts a driver’s attention away from the road (listening to music or talking to passengers).
Any time a driver reaches for an object or gets distracted by outside stimuli, the chances of an accident drastically increase. In fact, studies show that simply by dialing a cellphone, the likelihood of a crash is six times greater.
To remain safe on the roads, drivers need to be aware of common distractions that can put them and the public in danger:
- Using electronic devices such as a GPS, MP3 player, radio, cellphone or laptop
- Reading maps, books, texts or printed directions
- Combing hair, putting on makeup, shaving, brushing teeth or performing similar grooming activities
- Eating, drinking or smoking
- Talking with passengers or tending to children or pets
- Focusing attention on visual distractions outside the vehicle, such as collisions, police activity, street signs, pedestrians, construction or billboards
- Multitasking
- Daydreaming
Responding To Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving
Even the most experienced drivers can become distracted from time to time. In order to maintain safe driving practices, organizations must take a top-down approach to combating distracted driving. Only through effective policies and training can commercial fleets identify and respond to potentially harmful driving behaviors.
Tips for Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving
The following are some ways organizations and their fleet managers can help reduce the risk of distracted driving:
- Create a driver safety program and a distracted driving policy. Regularly communicate your policies using things like emails, blogs and posters.
- Use applications to detect when your drivers are on the road. Many of these applications prevent individuals from contacting a driver while their vehicle is in motion.
- Instruct drivers to pull off the road and park if they need to use their phone or an electronic device.
- Equip vehicles with lockboxes that drivers can use to store potential distractions, like smartphones and tablets.
- Educate your drivers on the risks of driving while distracted. Use real-life examples and stories to explain how dangerous distracted driving can be.
- Update your organization’s handbook, noting any disciplinary actions you will take if you identify unsafe driving behavior.
- Ask your employees to sign a pledge form indicating their willingness to drive in a safe and courteous manner.
- Work with drivers to plan trips. This ensures that drivers have a clear understanding of their routes, which can reduce the need for GPS and other potentially distracting navigation devices.
- Manage driver schedules to ensure employees are well-rested between trips.
- Use telematics, driver monitoring programs and in-cabin camera systems to evaluate individual drivers. Whenever possible, reward positive driver behavior to encourage a culture of safety.
- Perform a safety audit, which will give you a high-level overview of distracted driving risks and other concerns.
Creating a Commercial Fleet Distracted Driving Policy
Even if employers provide adequate training and oversight, drivers are effectively on their own when they’re out in the field. To help prevent distracted driving long after training is complete, fleets need to develop and implement a distracted driving policy. These policies are typically part of larger driver safety programs and promote safe driving practices through well-communicated initiatives.
While the specifics of policies may differ from fleet to fleet, they should include the following:
- A policy statement that clarifies your organization’s stance on distracted driving. This statement should specify the purpose and goals of the policy.
- A definition of distracted driving. This definition should highlight the dangers of distracted driving and the ways it affects your organization.
- A summary of whom the policy applies to. In general, your policy should account for all company employees, even if driving a vehicle isn’t a regular part of their daily duties.
- A list of what constitutes as distracted driving and actions that are strictly prohibited to ensure driver safety.
- A list of suggested practices to reduce the risk of distracted driving.
- A list of potential consequences if the terms of the policy are breached.
- A space for the employee’s and fleet manager’s signatures.
California’s Leader in Insurance and Risk Management
As one of the fastest growing agencies in California, GDI Insurance Agency, Inc. is able to provide its clients with the latest and greatest of what the insurance industry has to offer and much, much more.
We are headquartered in Turlock, CA, with locations across the heart of California’s Central Valley, Northern California and beyond to provide a local feel to the solutions and services we provide our clients. We pride ourselves on exceeding our client’s expectations in every interaction to make sure that our client’s know how much we value and appreciate their business. Contact us today 1-209-634-2929 for your comprehensive California commercial fleet insurance quote!