While safety is always on my mind, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance’s 2024 Operation Safe Driver Week results made me pause and think more deeply about fleet safety.
Operation Safe Driver Week is an annual, pre-announced safe-driving initiative aimed at improving driving behaviors through traffic enforcement strategies, interactions with law enforcement, and outreach and awareness campaigns, according to CVSA.
Unlike Brake Safety Week, Operation Safe Driver Week is aimed at drivers of both trucks and cars, but I will focus on the results for commercial motor vehicles. From July 7 to 13, officers issued 2,439 warnings, 1,583 tickets/citations to commercial motor vehicle drivers, and 789 warnings for unsafe driving behaviors.
Speeding was the top infraction this year, with commercial motor vehicle drivers receiving 1,221 warnings and 502 tickets/citations for speed-related infractions. Failure to use a seat belt was another common violation, with commercial motor vehicle drivers receiving 328 warnings and 473 tickets/citations for not wearing their seat belts. Texting or using mobile devices was also an issue, with 91 warnings and 115 tickets/citations for texting/using a handheld device while operating a commercial motor vehicle issued.
See also: CVSA Brake Safety Week yields predictable results
The connection between all these violations is that they are preventable. Fleet managers can eliminate a lot of speeding by adjusting engine parameter settings at the pedal and in cruise control. It’s possible to govern speed while still giving drivers the power and torque they need to complete their routes.
Fleets can also focus their driver training and coaching efforts on items like seatbelt use and distracted driving. Ensure you have spelled out mandatory seatbelt use in your driver’s training manual, that you cover it in driver onboarding, and reinforce it in driver meetings. The same goes for using handheld devices like cell phones while driving. These policies need to be clearly written with penalties enforced.
Your driver safety efforts do not all have to be punitive. You also should acknowledge and reward drivers who reach safe driving milestones. You can use data from your vehicles’ telematics devices to coach drivers who are engaging in unsafe driving practices like speeding, hard braking, etc. Also, monitor alerts from advanced driver assistance systems showing when these systems intervened because the driver was following too closely, leaving a lane without signaling, etc. Data from the ADAS provides a great opportunity to coach drivers, especially since you have time and place information to pinpoint the exact violation, making it difficult for the driver to argue about his or her behavior.
OSafely operating your fleetdoesn’t just happen. It takes a commitment from management and driver engagement. However, taking these few simple steps can make a big difference and keep your driver and others on the road safe.
