As a savvy business owner or manager, you know that one of your top priorities is keeping your staff safe when their job implies driving on the road. The car becomes your employees’ workplace, meaning you need to create a risk-free environment and ensure they’re aware of the potential hazards that mano euvring the wheel poses.
Each car must be fit for purpose and meet the requirements of both the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and the employee. If you were to consider that one-third of the total number of traffic accidents occur while someone’s at work, the need to approach safety measures in your company becomes more important than ever.
The more your employees adopt healthy driving habits, the lower the chances of being involved in a mishap, so let’s discover what it takes to protect your staff from potential dangers during their driving-for-work journey.
Table of Contents
Incentivise Safe Drivers
Incentives are an effective way to promote safe driving and prevent traffic accidents. In the long run, you will achieve a “safety-conscious” culture by taking proactive steps to change your employees’ attitudes toward driving. It’s easy to get distracted when driving and lose control of the wheel or lack the needed reflex to avoid a mishap in case the action of another participant on the road puts you at risk. Other drivers’ negligent behavior leading to accidents is a reason to make a vehicle accident claim in the UK and protect the victim’s legal rights. However, finding comfort in knowing that there are ways to cut down on the damage done is not enough to ensure maximum safety for your employees.
The change for the better should start within themselves, and recognition that takes the form of bonuses and rewards will motivate them to change their behaviour for the better. What better motivator can you think of to improve one’s attitude than gift cards, money, or even special privileges? If monetary rewards are putting a strain on your business’ budget, you can think of other methods to inspire your employees, like providing flexibility regarding their working hours.
With the right actions in place, you’ll improve the retention of reliable drivers, reduce insurance premiums, and, consequently, boost your company’s revenue. However, for a successful incentive strategy, it’s important to ensure the manual your employees are provided includes explicit rules and goals. This way, you will avoid favouritism-related problems and avoid any potential confusion.
Educate Employees on Drowsy Driving
Driving while fatigued may not carry the same stigma as steering the wheel under alcohol or other substances. However, this doesn’t mean that it’s a less risky undertaking. This is why road participants who suffer from a medical condition that jeopardises their driving and hide it from the DVLA may end up with hefty fines.
Car accidents take a toll on businesses, costing sobering sums of money in legal costs, medical expenses, decreased productivity and afferent damages. But taking the matter into your hands and adhering to the right strategy to reduce the risks can only translate into improved productivity and the bottom line of the company, as well as cheaper insurance premiums.
If your staff is operating cars on your business’s behalf, and your company has employees at greater risk of steering the wheel while tired, now’s the ideal time to implement educational programs and well-defined policies. Many drivers need to become more aware of the importance of proper sleep habits and the dangers they may be exposed to when pushing the pedal while sleep-deprived. This is even more important if a tremendous amount of your employees is spent driving at night. With educational programs in place, they’ll understand the gravity of the situation better.
Ensure Distractions are Prevented
Distracted driving is among the common issues that lead to car accidents. According to the latest reports available that we can look into, in 2020, this accounted for 8% of fatal crashes on the road. Even with hands-free devices, there’s a risk of having attention caught and losing concentration. This happens because there are more types of distracted driving besides manual, like visual or mental. Daydreaming, talking to somebody else, reaching for an object, and even insects flying inside the car can take their toll on your employees’ observation.
More often than not, the employee is held liable if the safety of their workers is compromised because they’ve been speaking on their cell phones, even if this action implies hands-free communication. If your workers rely hard on their smartphones to conduct tasks, now’s the moment to review the phone use policy and remind them that safety comes first!
Encourage Mindful Driving
Employees may experience tunnel vision when they’re dealing with deadlines, time limits, or any other stress-inducing factors. This comes as no surprise, as you probably know too well that distractions come from a wide variety of sources.
By emphasizing the need to take a safety-first approach and drive mindfully, you will help your employees become calmer and deal with stressful traffic situations better. This undertaking can take many forms, but usually, it’s required to make the necessary adjustments and changes in your company’s working policy to ensure your employees aren’t facing a worrying amount of unnecessary stress, especially when it’s related to their job. Getting from one point to the other doesn’t mean it’s an employee against the whole world, nor that the unexpected can’t be prevented and approached correctly.
Conduct MVR Checks
If you’re hiring applicants whose part of the job is to operate motor vehicles, how are you making sure that they’re not posing a threat in traffic? It’s important to gain a glimpse into their background before extending a job offer. To prevent your company from property and reputational damage and lawsuits, motor vehicle reports (MVR) provide the comprehensive check you need to discover your candidate’s driving history. They include significant details, from traffic crimes and violations to license suspension, so you can make informed decisions before extending a job offer.
If your company has employees on the road, liability and risk grow exponentially higher owing to this fact alone. Therefore, proactive measures and boosted efforts from trainers and managers become an obligation to ensure they are safe and sound.
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