Your fleet driver isn’t the only one on the road, and when your driver poses a risk, it’s to both their own safety and those they share the road with. For government fleets, that means the citizens of the communities they’re meant to protect.

So, what can driver risk and fleet managers – particularly managers of organizations that are integral to their local communities – do to show they care about the people in their municipalities and ensure their practices benefit the wider community?

“It starts with a strong safety culture,” said Ed Dubens, eDriving Executive Vice President of Fleet. “If safety is at the heart of an organization it will gradually spread as employees take the message home to their families, friends and communities.” Here are Dubens’ top five tips for organizations that want to demonstrate how they value safety to the wider community.

  1. Establish a safety culture. Define, communicate and reinforce mission-critical, non-negotiable policies and standards designed to keep drivers – and the wider community – safe while driving for work. “This includes privacy policies, customized driver pledges, internal communication plans, training for managers on their important roles in the process and the necessity for regular interactions with their employee drivers, as well as driver onboarding,” said Dubens.
  2. Assess driver risk. “It’s critical for managers to be aware of driver risk levels,” said Dubens. Assessments can be taken online and can be combined with other data such as license infractions and incident and collision history to build up a complete picture. “Pre-employment, managers can carry out checks to determine whether employees have the right skills and attitudes to drive safely in the community on behalf of the organization,” Dubens added.
  3. Score ongoing driver performance. “The purpose is to reinforce the low- and medium-risk drivers and identify the most at-risk drivers in need of greater support and training,” said Dubens. “Identifying changes in driver performance helps to keep communities safe by giving managers the opportunity to intervene before a driver gets into a collision.”
  4. Provide ongoing, relevant and personalized training and remediation. Technology can provide managers with insights into risky behaviors such as speeding, harsh acceleration and phone use; behaviors that don’t reflect well on an organization and put the employee and communities at risk. “High-risk response plans might include assignment to a telematics program, to behind-the-wheel coaching, to frequent one-on-ones with managers, and to a higher frequency of training modules,” suggested Dubens.
  5. Utilize benchmarking tools. “Benchmarking has many benefits for managers, employees and the wider community,” said Dubens. “It enables employees to see how their performance compares with their peers, it allows teams to see how they compare with others—and it can also be used by insurance companies to assess the risk of a whole organization. Not only that but if organizations utilize a smartphone method of improving driver behavior they can invite the friends and families of employees to take part too, resulting in an organization’s safety culture becoming a real community effort.”

To learn more about eDriving’s fleet solutions visit edriving.com/fleet/ or visit us at booth #1005 at the 2018 Government Fleet Expo, June 4 – 6 in San Diego.