The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance has set October 15-21 as the dates for this year’s Operation Safe Driver Week. The annual event is a partnership between CVSA and the Federal Motor Carriers Association.
The goal of the effort is to “help improve the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner through educational and traffic enforcement strategies to address individual’s exhibiting high-risk driving behaviors.”
Law enforcement officers will be monitoring both passenger and commercial vehicles looking for dangerous driving behaviors including speeding, distracted driving, texting while driving, not using a seatbelt, following too closely, improper lane change and failure to obey traffic signals.
Last year, law enforcement officers issued approximately 21,000 warnings and citations. Nearly 12,000 of those citations were given to drivers of commercial vehicles. Moving violations — speeding, failure to obey traffic signals — accounted for the largest percentage of violations. This was followed by failure to wear seatbelts and using handheld phones.
Fleets want to operate in a safe manner and most of them talk about safety during the driver onboarding process. The months leading up to Operation Safe Driver Week are a good time to reinforce safe driving practices with your drivers.
Fleet managers should make an effort between now and October to remind drivers of the importance of operating in a safe manner and should spend time reviewing the fleet’s safety policies and procedures.
Talk about safe driving during driver meetings, include safe driving tips in any driver communications, and ask dispatchers to reinforce seatbelt and handheld phone policies during their interactions with drivers.
Safe driving is always important, but Operation Safe Driver Week gives fleet managers a reason to talk about it. This will help drivers avoid warnings and citations but also help ensure drivers stay safe as they travel the nation’s highways. And isn’t that what we all want?
