Safe driving is essential for ensuring road safety and the efficient operation of fleets that rely on timely delivery of goods over long distances. One of the keyways to promote excellent driving habits is through positive driver recognition. This strategy not only encourages safety but also helps your business to flourish and drivers’ careers to grow. To achieve this, fleets need to train their drivers with safety and positive recognition as key priorities. It all begins with understanding what good driving is and establishing this understanding among new and seasoned drivers alike.
What Makes a Good Driver?
All good drivers have the following safe driving habits:
- They are alert and cautious on the road. This means they do not lack sleep and take the appropriate breaks during their shift. Drivers have their full attention and can watch out for instances that enable defensive driving.
- They do their best to avoid distractions while driving. They are in tune with what’s on the road, the ongoings of traffic, and can prevent any potential accidents. They do not succumb to distractions like texting while driving, eating, or going through their bag.
- They complete their job to the best of their abilities. No one is perfect and delays are bound to happen. Good drivers will do everything in their power to complete their job while keeping safety a top priority.
How to Help Your Drivers Develop Good Driving Habits
What steps can managers take to develop good driving habits among their staff? Start with coaching them on both their positive and negative behaviors. Don’t focus only on what they do wrong but balance it with feedback and emphasis on what they are doing right. Including what they do well reminds them what safe driving is and what they can continue doing to become better drivers. Be sure to list and show examples of what good driving is like. Cite specific instances such as what they do on their own trips or what their fellow drivers do on the road. You can refer to dash cam videos and use these as your examples in training sessions.
Technology helps organize recognition of your best drivers and improve their training. Using the gathered data available, you can coach them virtually. With an app like Driveri®, managers and drivers alike can access the information and use the driving behaviors as references during training. They can playback videos and refer to a score that lists what they did well as action points.
The app also cues in-cab audio alerts when the internal dash cams detect risky behaviors like distracted driving. Drivers have time to correct their behavior in the next moments and their positive acts add up to the final score. AI also completes the picture of the vehicle and driver performance with reliable, organized data. Managers need not sift through tabs or several files to find how well drivers are doing, access specific footage, and review fuel usage or vehicle maintenance records.
Why Positive Driver Recognition Pays Off
After gathering all the data, noting driver scores, and polishing training programs, be sure to recognize and reward your good drivers. They’re likely to keep performing well with incentives like cash rewards and bonuses. In the long-term, these improved behaviors can save your fleet on operational costs like:
- Fuel
- Moving violations
- Accident and litigation claims
- New hire expenses
As a result, over time, these drivers become more proficient and reliable on the roads, ultimately leading to fewer accidents and traffic violations. Consequently, this cost-saving measure helps decrease insurance claims expenses as well as repair and maintenance costs that might have resulted from reckless driving or avoidable collisions.
Additionally, by encouraging drivers to use fuel-efficient practices such as cruise control or avoiding sudden acceleration or braking, fleets can benefit from lowered fuel costs. In short, recognizing good drivers not only positively impacts the safety of all drivers on the road but also provides long-term savings.
Final Thoughts
Good drivers are essential to any commercial fleet business – without them, you can’t provide the valuable services that your customers rely on. That’s why it’s so important to establish a safety culture within your organization and to reward your drivers for their efforts in maintaining a safe work environment.
By fostering a culture of positive driver recognition with technology providers like Netradyne, you can ensure your drivers are motivated and committed to growing your business moving forward. To learn more about how we’ve helped fleets across the country recognize and reward their best drivers, click here.
