eDriving encourages employers to assess driver risk and tackle dangerous behavior this Drive Safely Work Week

eDriving, the largest provider of online driver training and global driver risk management solutions, is issuing a stark warning to fleet managers this Drive Safely Work Week™ (DSWW): Assess driver risk and improve the on-road behaviors of employee drivers before it’s too late.

According to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), motor vehicle-related incidents are the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the U.S. and are responsible for 1.6 million lost work days each year, with 90% attributed to traffic crashes that occur off the job. To help reduce this statistic, the organization launched its quarterly DSWW campaign this week to highlight a huge cause of workplace auto fatalities: impaired driving. Impaired driving is driving under the influence of alcohol, illicit drugs, prescription drugs, or other substances.

A toolkit featuring DSWW campaign launch letters, fact sheets, pledge cards and employee presentations is available for employers to download on the NETS website.

A campaign’s evolution
Originally implemented as an annual campaign, NETS has increased the frequency of DSWW to help employers sustain employee engagement in road safety activities.

“Employers and their driving workforce often face a myriad of daily road safety risks and challenges,” said Joe McKillips, Executive Director, NETS. “A core aspect to the NETS mission is to provide members and non-members alike with helpful, user-friendly road safety campaigns designed to increase employee road safety awareness and appreciation towards this risk. Expanding the traditional NETS DSWW campaign from an annual to quarterly basis gives employers the opportunity to sustain their road safety messaging throughout the year, therefore impacting employee driving behavior on a more frequent basis.”

Tools to fight impaired driving
To coincide with the launch of the DSWW campaign, eDriving is encouraging employers to identify driver risk and act to tackle dangerous attitudes and behaviors; research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tells us that 94% of all crashes are tied to human choice or error. Ultimately, it is the driver’s decision that determines whether they take risks on the road, including speeding, driving while distracted, and driving while impaired.

eDriving’s RoadRISK® Plus is a two-part risk reduction and training program that identifies an individual’s risk level by assessing multiple variables including attitudes, knowledge of defensive driving principles, behavioral attributes, travel patterns, vehicle use, and personal profile. The program classifies drivers as either high-, medium-, or low-risk. Based on the resulting risk analysis, the tool prescribes individualized training from a batch of RiskCOACH courses that are available in 45 languages with country-, region-, language- and culture-specific content.

Several large-scale research studies involving up to 26,000 drivers have shown the RoadRISK assessment component can accurately predict, with 70% accuracy, a driver’s risk of being involved in a traffic collision. Subsequent studies have continued to confirm the validity of RoadRISK’s approach.

“Highway crashes remain one of the biggest on-the-job risks, and 10% of fleet drivers are classified as high-risk,” said Ed Dubens, Executive Vice President, eDriving FLEET. “Our goal at eDriving is to minimize these risks by improving driving skills across the board. With RoadRISK® Plus we’ve taken another big step toward meeting the demand for proven tools with tremendous risk management return on investment, whether you have a fleet of five, 50, 500, or 5,000 vehicles.”

Earlier this year eDriving launched its patented “closed loop” smartphone telematics solution for fleet drivers that incorporates behavioral change best practices as well as app-based micro learning. Mentor by eDriving uses the new industry standard risk predictor FICO® Safe Driving Score to ranks users’ driving behavior and, in turn, delivers tailored driver training content straight to the user’s device.