How to prevent dangerous driving

Whether you are a Fleet Manager, a parent, or a business owner, helping to prevent dangerous driving is always a top-of-mind consideration. Not only do you want to ensure the utmost safety of your drivers at all times, but also you want to avoid unnecessary costs associated with careless driving. So, what can you do about the way your drivers behave while on the road, if you’re not in the vehicle supervising their actions? You have several options, starting with GPS fleet management – also known as telematics.

With telematics you have immediate insight into all driving activities so as to better identify dangerous driving behaviors, including speeding, harsh braking, sharp cornering, engine revving and rapid acceleration. Moreover, you have the ability to view your drivers past trips history. You can:

• Proactively communicate with your drivers with the use of in-vehicle audible alerts. These alerts act as buzzers that inform your driver(s) when they are either about to break one of your safe driving rules, or when they are already breaking a rule. This gives drivers the unique opportunity to realize their error and make corrective actions. Additionally, these reminders help to shape driving improvements over time as drivers begin to break bad driving habits.
• Easily view and re-create trips on a map at any time. You can place your mouse over any of the map points, such as the small red star symbol to see broken rules – like speeding occurrences.
• Review your custom selected dashboard reports. The reports graphically illustrate yesterday’s top speeding drivers, risk and safety scoring reports, unauthorized after-hours trips, and much more.
• Set rules in the fleet management software to notify you of when your drivers are breaking a rule. For example, you may want to receive a text message or email alert if your driver(s) are on the road without wearing his/her seatbelt, idling for a long time-period, or speeding.

Suggested Reading: Is Your Company’s Distracted Driving Policy Up-To-Date?

Accidents, however, can still occur despite management’s proactive efforts. In the event of an accident, you can re-create the trip with the use of a GPS fleet management system and identify what happened and who was at fault. With this invaluable information you can act fast and depending on the outcome, provide ‘no fault’ evidence for insurance coverage purposes.

Another way to prevent dangerous driving would be to integrate your GPS fleet management system with other safety-oriented solutions. For instance, operating a cell phone while driving is not only dangerous for the driver and other surrounding drivers, but also it is illegal. Although GPS vehicle tracking solutions can show indicators of distracted driving occurrences, you can further enforce the no cellphone use rule while driving with the use of automatic motion detectors that switch the phone into safe mode.

To learn more, connect with one of our consultants. Each business environment is unique and requires a custom approach to developing a safety plan for your drivers. Our team can help you gain a better understanding of how telematics can be used to help you prevent dangerous driving.

Related Post: Detecting Dangerous Driving Patterns