Who Has the Keys?

How to protect your company and employees by emphasizing driver safety on the road and at the jobsite, with close monitoring and ongoing training.

Safety in the workplace has emerged as one of the top issues facing business executives today, particularly for contractors. Federal laws clearly require employers to provide a safe work environment for all employees, and 26 states have adopted their own workplace safety standards and enforcement policies.

What does that mean for you? Simply put, it means the days of blindly handing out keys to your employee-drivers are over. When examining your own worker safety policies, your primary concerns should be the safety of your drivers and the condition of their vehicles, both on the road and at the jobsite.

Driver safety must be emphasized across the board. Not only should your company take aggressive steps to monitor potential safety issues, it should also make safety the focus of new employee training. Statistics indicate that ongoing training reduces the number and severity of driver accidents over time.

Some of the safety practices business owners can implement include:

• Collecting and verifying the motor vehicle records of your driver-employees. Typically, about two-thirds of drivers have relatively clear driver histories, but about 25% will present some degree of risk on the road, and between 5 and 7% will be revealed as high-risk drivers with multiple infractions.
• Not skimping on the maintenance of company vehicles. Having cars and trucks routinely serviced ensures that they stay in good working order. This is especially important in the construction industry, where jobsites generally expose vehicles to much higher levels of dust and dirt, which shorten the intervals between oil changes, replacement of air and fuel filters and other maintenance.
• Keeping complete and accurate files on all fleet vehicles. Hire a fleet management provider to monitor fleet maintenance and ensure vehicles are inspected regularly.
• Reading the factory guidelines for each company vehicle in your fleet and requiring your drivers to do the same. The safety guidelines listed in a vehicle manual are there for a reason. Most vehicle specifications outline the loads the vehicle can safely carry. Your employees may think they can push those limits and occasionally overload a work vehicle, but an unbalanced load is an unsafe load.
• Putting a system in place that assigns consequences to unsafe drivers in your work force. Analyze your drivers and look for repeat offenders. Implementing consequences for unsafe driving protects employees, other drivers and your company, and it levels the playing field. A top sales executive with an unsafe driving record is just as liable for his or her actions as the new construction foreman or summer intern.
• Implementing a point assignment program that ranks your drivers according to the severity of previous motor vehicle infractions. After conducting an MVR search, assign points to each infraction to determine each driver's overall risk.
• Providing drivers with training opportunities, so that poor driving behavior can be ad-dressed and changed immediately and good behavior can be rewarded.

As your company grows, so will your vehicle fleet. Consider partnering with a fleet management company to assist with related issues-and possibly save money and manpower in the long run.

Tips For Running An Effective Fleet Safety Program:

• Do your homework. Know your drivers and evaluate their risk behind the wheel.
• Implement a safety policy. This sets specific guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable driving behavior.
• Enforce your policy. From the top down, drivers must be held accountable.
• Be proactive. Address poor driving behavior with training opportunities and reward good driving habits that save your company money.