All over the world, driver error and risk-taking is a leading cause of road crashes [1]. For many employees, driving is the riskiest activity they undertake at work. Organisations looking to encourage and manage safe driving behaviours will benefit from new guidance published by the Global Fleet Champions (GFC) campaign.
Engaging drivers on key safety messages guides fleet managers through sharing important safety messages with their employees through effective communication and training; raising awareness of how they can reduce their road risk and making sure they can get home safely at the end of the working day.
Whether you’re operating a small fleet or running a global fleet of vehicles, providing an effective programme of training and education for your drivers is one way you can help make roads safer.
The guidance explores some of the key methods and themes of driver education and discusses the different methods you can use to inform and engage your drivers about road safety issues and how to successfully implement a holistic approach to education, raising awareness and driver training.
Engaging drivers on key safety messages features expert advice from key players in road safety, including Lisa Dorn, associate professor of driver behaviour at Cranfield University and research director for DriverMetrics. Dorn advises fleet managerstoevaluate their driver training procedures to determine their effectiveness in encouraging positive driver behaviours.
David Ward, senior technical manager – functional safety at HORIBA MIRA, explains how fleet managers can introduce training programmes that focus on what drivers should and shouldn’t do when driving vehicles fitted with increasingly automated systems.
Sarah Plumb, senior fleet officer at Brake, the road safety charity, said: “Everyone who employs people who drive for work has a moral responsibility to ensure their staff get home safe at the end of the working day, and a legal obligation to manage work-related road risk. This report contains guidance on how fleet managers can engage drivers with key road safety messages and raise awareness of how they can reduce their road risk.”
Jonathan Bates at MiX Telematics said: “This report illustrates the inherent driving-related risks associated with employees in the fleet industry. Impactful telematics technology helps reduce this risk.”
Download the report here.
Endnotes
[1] World Health Organization, Global status report on road safety, 2018