How to Build a Fleet Safety Culture
June 20, 2025
June 20, 2025
Fleet safety doesn’t get enough attention. The annual accident rate for commercial fleets is approximately 20 percent, and accidents cause some of the most costly workplace injuries for fleets. A typical workplace injury averages $35,592, while fleet accidents cost almost twice that amount. More importantly, accidents can cost lives.
While the danger of losing anyone is enough of a motivation to make fleet safety a priority, there are many other reasons to build a culture of safety. In addition to protecting the bottom line, companies with strong safety cultures usually have lower employee turnover, increased engagement, and better morale. They also enjoy good reputations.
Creating a driving safety culture is a team effort that requires a multi-pronged approach. Whether you have strong safety practices in place or not, these seven elements will help you boost your overall fleet safety culture.
How do you create a fleet safety culture in the workplace? It all starts with good communication. The first step is publishing a set of written policies that outline your fleet's traffic safety expectations and procedures. These documents should be clear, comprehensive, and enforceable. Make sure to distribute these safe driving policies regularly.
Ultimately, the prominence of your safety policies will reflect how seriously your fleet views safety. Is it simply a box to check? Or is it an integral part of your fleet culture?
Also, you should establish a contract with all your drivers as part of your fleet safety program for employees. By signing the contract, drivers acknowledge their awareness and understanding of your fleet's expectations regarding vehicle maintenance, reporting violations, and safety performance.
Although many fleets employ a safety manager, that’s only the beginning. Employees notice whether a fleet truly places a premium on safety. Does fleet leadership attend meetings where safety is discussed? Do fleet managers encourage drivers to bring up safety issues?
When customers make demands that may impact safety, do managers ask, "Can we do this safely?" A culture of safety is created incrementally every day through the consistency of company messaging and the values communicated by top leadership.
To create long-term behavioral changes, you should incorporate data measurement into your driver safety program. Metrics help an organization define thresholds of acceptable transgressions. They keep drivers accountable while also providing them with data to pinpoint areas that need improvement for workplace safety.
Dash cam systems that combine telematics with video are a highly effective tool for tracking and collecting fleet driving metrics. Netradyne's dash cam solution collects a multitude of safety-related metrics, such as unsafe passing, harsh braking, speeding, and distracted driving. You can use these metrics to assess each driver's safety habits. When you identify safety issues, you can use them as coaching opportunities.
Even experienced drivers benefit from periodic corporate driver training. You can increase the impact of your driver safety training by regularly coaching all drivers in groups. Reserve one-on-one sessions in your fleet safety training program for drivers who drop below a predetermined safety score threshold.
To keep coaching unbiased, it's a good idea to document your best practices and provide coaches with standardized scripts for your driver safety program for employees. Fleet safety organizations can help with this task.
Real-life dash cam video footage is an invaluable training tool. The Netradyne Driver•i dash cam system records video of every road event. Discussing drivers' firsthand experiences — and how they could've been handled more safely — is a highly effective coaching method for curbing dangerous behaviors and creating positive change.
When you’re building a fleet safety culture, it's important to reinforce safety messaging through regular safety meetings and emails. Sprinkling safety messaging throughout fleet communications creates an environment where drivers feel comfortable opening up about their safety concerns. When your door is always open, you can better understand drivers' challenges and proactively make important safety changes. Some of the best safety initiatives come from drivers themselves.
Changing your safety culture requires positive reinforcement. As drivers adjust to your fleet safety program, it's essential to celebrate successes. When you connect every short-term success to longer-term fleet-wide goals, every safety achievement becomes further motivation to do even better.
This doesn't mean rewarding drivers each week or month for simply not having accidents. But it's important to recognize drivers who achieve extraordinary safety milestones, such as years without an accident. Here are a few ways to recognize exemplary safety records:
Even the best fleet safety programs won't work without driver buy-in. Remember that every accident that's prevented represents thousands of dollars saved. A safe driving awards program enables drivers to share in some of those savings.
Whether you offer bonuses, gift cards, special privileges, or other prizes, rewards go a long way toward motivating employees to drive more safely. They also improve driver retention, increase driver buy-in, and create a positive safety culture.
Leadership has the power to set the tone for safety across a fleet by creating policies, communicating values, and allocating resources for safety. When a fleet builds a strong culture of safety, every driver feels responsible for their contribution to safety and will go out of their way to eliminate unsafe behaviors.
Drivers should view fleet safety the same way they view hard work, honesty, and punctuality. By creating a safety culture, a fleet will not only save lives but also increase morale, improve retention, and protect the bottom line. Learn how dash cams can support your fleet's safety initiatives.
Fleet safety is the shared responsibility of managers and drivers. Although it is management’s job to set and enforce safety standards, only drivers can ensure that each route is driven as safely as possible each day.
Drivers never outgrow the need for safety training. Even the most experienced drivers can generally improve in some aspect of their driving — and over the course of many miles, it’s easy to start slipping in some areas. Meanwhile, less experienced drivers can make massive improvements with the right training and coaching. It’s very helpful to offer all drivers in-cab alerts that warn them of potential hazards as they drive.
Rather than simply punishing drivers for unsafe maneuvers, it’s best to reward them for all the safe things they do on the road. By following a consistent driver safety scoring system and letting all drivers see the leading performers on a dashboard, your fleet can instill a healthy sense of competition that brings out the best performance from every driver.
* Individual results and conditions may vary.
** Based on customer data.
† Netradyne must receive written approval to share client data.
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