Readers are Talking: Risk & Safety

Fleet professionals offered their own perspectives in response to a recent Automotive Fleet article examining trends in fleet safety. Below are key pointsfrom It’s Imperative to Identify High-Risk Drivers.

• On average, 10% of fleet drivers are responsible for 40% of fleet crashes.
• A consistently enforced, well-communicated fleet safety policy defines acceptable driving practices and standard driving performance expectations.
• Telematics technology can help modify driver behavior by monitoring, identifying, and correcting the behaviors that lead to increased risk, crashes, and liability exposure.
• Distracted or fatigued driving remain significant factors in preventable fleet accidents.
• The use of recreational marijuana or its transport in a company vehicle is presenting growing liability exposure.
• Of the 20% of vehicles involved in an accident, about 40% are involved in preventable accidents resulting from driver negligence.
• Partnerships with the many stakeholders involved with fleet — e.g., Environmental Health & Safety, HR, legal, risk, compliance, and sourcing/purchasing — is key to an effective fleet safety policy.

Drivers Must be ‘Insurable’

The Market Trends blog entitled “It’s Imperative to Identify High-Risk Drivers” was a great article. I would suspect alcohol is a factor too. What employees don't understand is that they have to be “insurable” for their employer too.

I recently witnessed a fleet delivery driver collision in California. The light turned red, and the fleet driver turned left as he was partly in the intersection. He probably should have waited. Another oncoming driver definitely should have stopped but instead followed the traditional Los Angeles area “you have 1 to 2 seconds after red” to make it through, and the car was pretty much destroyed as it hit the truck. I was in a rental car, and the car ahead of me at the light got hit by one of these two.

Thomas J. Sweet, Chief Information Officer, Industrial Refrigeration Pros, Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Texas

Predictive Analytics

I agree 100% with the Market Trends blog “The Fleet Imperative to Identify High-Risk Drivers.” My question to you is, how do we identify those 10% today and those trending to that group? Then, how do we prevent it? Is it possible to predict those fleet drivers that are more likely to have a crash next week, month, or in 12 months?

Keon Briggs, Senior Enterprise Account Executive, SambaSafety, Greenville, S.C.

Inside Employees are the Biggest Distraction to Drivers

I read the blog “The Fleet Imperative to Identify High-Risk Drivers” and of all the articles written on this topic, I have NEVER seen any mention of telling the employees on the “inside” how they should be communicating with their own field personnel. As a former field manager of 27 years, there was NOTHING that would irritate me more than people sitting at a desk e-mailing and expecting an immediate response. Tell the employees on the inside to restrain themselves and dial a phone number. Accumulating 50,000 miles per year is not the place for reading e-mail.

Letter to AF eNews, MJG, [email protected]