Keeping drivers safe is a necessity for any fleet business. There are many ways to keep drivers safe, and a safety assessment is just one way that fleets can do so. Conducting safety assessments not only keeps your drivers safe but lowers insurance rates and helps vehicles last longer. They are an absolute necessity for fleets of any size that prioritize safety. Find out how to get safety assessment reports and how Azuga’s technology gets you started on the right foot.
How to Conduct a Safety Assessment
There are four steps in a safety assessment, and each of them is important to complete to ensure that you are keeping your fleet safe. We will go over these four steps below.
1. Identify Risks
Naturally, the first step when determining how to keep your fleet safe is to find out what poses a risk to your fleet. Every fleet faces different risk factors, but there are three risk factors that most fleets do have to address.
- Distracted Drivers: The CDC estimates that eight people are killed on the road every day in accidents involving a distracted driver. Distractions occur when a driver takes their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel, or their mind off of driving. Texting while driving, eating while driving, and driving while distressed are common examples of distracted driving in fleets.
- Drowsy Driving: Fleets that have to drive long distances often have to deal with the risk of drowsy driving. While regulations are in place requiring breaks to try and prevent this, the issue can persist. Experts estimate that drowsy drivers cause 21% of fatal accidents, so it is important to address.
- Aggressive Driving: Aggressive driving often happens in high traffic, where drivers get frustrated with other drivers. Hard braking, fast acceleration, speeding, and swerving can easily cause accidents and pose a danger on the road.
2. Establish How to Mitigate Risks
There are many ways that drivers can mitigate these risks using fleet technology. We will list a few of the significant examples.
- Telematics: Telematics can track information like speed, location, fuel efficiency, and hours, making it easy to track driver behavior and keep them safe.
- Dashcams: Dual-facing dashcams can show what’s happening both on the road and with the driver. They can track distracted behaviors and aggressive driving behaviors as well.
- Maintenance Alerts and Checklists: Keeping vehicles in their best condition is crucial to ensure that they don’t have any breakdowns on the go or cause accidents. Maintenance will go a long way in keeping drivers safe.
3. Record Findings
After you’ve implemented safety features to keep drivers safe, keep an eye on your drivers to ensure that these features are working and that no other risks arise. If any issues arise, make a report indicating how you plan to take care of them.
4. Update the Assessment
A safety assessment is useless if it is out of date. Be sure to check your assessment regularly and look for new risks that may arise. If new technologies come out that may keep your fleet safer, see if you can upgrade.
How Does Azuga Improve Safety Assessments?
Azuga offers many features that help you track driver safety and better determine what risks exist and how to combat them. For example, the driver scores feature evaluates driver behavior gathered from telematics and dashcams and assigns each driver a score based on how many dangerous behaviors they display. They track distracted driving, speeding, hard braking, and other risk factors determined by accident risk models to pose a significant risk to your fleet. A 10 point increase in a driver’s score reduces the risk of an accident by 57.4%. Azuga has gathered accident models over three years and developed models to determine the risks fleets face. For example, they found that only one hard braking event for 100 miles of driving can increase the risk of an accident by 20.1%. You can read more in Azuga’s risk assessment report.
Conclusion
Fleet safety assessments are critical to keep drivers safe, and to maintain a business’s positive reputation. Numerous accidents and safety events harm a business’ reputation in the community, so it’s necessary to ensure that drivers are as safe as possible and reduce the impact on your business and drivers. Azuga is here to help keep your fleets as safe as possible. Find out what Azuga can do for you with a demo today!
