What are the hidden threats to driver safety?

When you run a business, you have a lot of obligations. Those obligations range from shareholder earnings obligations to smaller obligations, such as a promise made to a lesser member of your team.

However, above all else, your first and foremost obligation is always the safety of your employees. It comes above all else and is severely punished by law if it does not guarantee effective care and protection for your staff.

At your own facility, ensuring safety is easy. After all, risks within a building are often predictable and easy to manage. But what happens when your staff leave your facility and hit the road using your fleet’s vehicles? You still have a duty to care, after all.

The answer is fleet risk management, but what are the hidden threats to your business that fleet risk management can protect against? We’ll see.

Invalid / prohibited driving licenses

It may seem like a minimal risk, but there are a shocking number of drivers on the road who have had their license revoked, are driving on an expired license, or have been disqualified from driving for a period of time. In fact, 1 in 650 drivers whose license has been verified drives while disqualified and 1 in 300 has a revoked or expired license. Also, 1 in 16 drivers has problems with their photo card.

Driving with any of these problems is illegal and, if an accident occurs, you will be personally responsible for not verifying your credentials. That is why fleet driving license verification is absolutely vital in a comprehensive risk management solution.

Bad driving clothes

We are all guilty of bad driving habits, acquired over years of driving on the highways. Those bad habits are dangerous in our own vehicles, but in a fleet vehicle, you run the risk of putting your entire business at risk unless you move to board them.

Whether it’s taking a corner too fast, failing to check your rearview mirrors, constantly driving over the speed limit, braking late, or any other bad driving habit, anything can put the safety of you, your staff, at risk. and the public. That is why the conversion of drivers is a legal requirement.

Other drivers

You can be as safe as possible on the road, but you just can’t always predict what other drivers will do on the road. Whether it’s due to inattention, drunkenness, or simply dangerous driving, many of the accidents that occur will not be the fault of your staff.

However, fleet driver training can teach your staff to pay more attention to warning signs and act accordingly. It’s another little way that training is essential, especially if it saves a life.