Fleet Safety - Duty of Care
Fleet drivers practise a high-risk activity and the costs to companies when managers fail in their duty of care can be considerable.
Duty of Care is already an essential board issue due to current Health and Safety legislation and regulations such as the Working Time Directive, but despite this, it seems that many businesses have failed to recognise the dangers of not implementing a road risk reduction programme.
Road accidents involving company fleet drivers over the last few years have led to a burgeoning number of calls for new corporate manslaughter legislation, similar to that introduced in the UK in 2008. This Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act makes it easier to prosecute companies and public sector organisations where gross negligence leads to death. In the wake of this, companies and their fleet managers need to take resolute steps to minimise occupational road risk.
How can you minimise your risk?
Telematics and Vehicle Safety Equipment
Telematics technology isn’t simply a means of saving money by cutting fuel bills and increasing efficiency, it can also save lives.
Companies using vehicle tracking technology have the information at their fingertips to successfully manage road risk and provide tangible proof of their ongoing commitment to your duty of care responsibilities.
Better training: Vehicle tracking data enables managers to identify high risk drivers who speed regularly and address such problems - ultimately stopping accidents – through driver training. Managers can assess risks by running off speed analysis reports at the touch of a button.
More breaks: The need for companies to adhere to a strict policy on working hours and miles driven per day is vital. Vehicle tracking ensures that drivers comply with the demands of the Working Time Directive, giving alerts when a break is needed, stopping drivers from working too many hours thereby helping to eliminate the risk of drivers falling asleep at the wheel or suffering the possible repercussions of driver fatigue.
Safer working conditions: Tracking can actively protect employees. Panic buttons are often integrated into tracking systems, triggering an automatic email or being converted into a text message. They are particularly valuable for lone workers in remote areas or drivers delivering high value goods.
Safer driving conditions: Integrating tracking with messaging technology also means that drivers are no longer tempted to answer mobile calls from the office without pulling over.
Less stress: With vehicle tracking, if your drivers are running late for any reason, the office team can warn the customer in advance, improving standards of customer service and making sure drivers don’t have to deal with aggressive or disgruntled customers.
Fairer distribution of work: As tracking distributes jobs as efficiently as possible, it means that diligent drivers no longer have to fill in the gaps for the less committed ones. Management can also see which drivers are working the hardest and can reallocate schedules accordingly.
Vehicle Safety Equipment
RODS (Rear Obstacle Detection Systems)
Advances in 12v / 24v Camera and Recording solutions appear regularly that can greatly reduce, if not eliminate, avoidable accidents.
These technologies are perhaps some of the most important innovations for fleet vehicle safety since the Airbag.
No matter how good your driving skills are, modern vehicles seem to be designed to make it impossible to judge how much room there is when reversing into a parking space or what dangers lie out of sight behind your vehicle.
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