National Safety Month: Improve Roadway Safety with Fleet Solutions
How do you Improve Roadway Safety with Fleet Solutions? With June being National Safety Month the aim to promote safe practices in all walks of life, we wanted to highlight one of this month’s four safety topics: roadway safety. Driving presents a myriad of risks and potential dangers. The first step to achieving safer roads is to first be able to identify those dangers – distracted driving, poor vehicle maintenance, speeding, etc. This is particularly important for fleet managers seeing as they have a whole fleet of vehicles to keep in check. Fleet management solutions such as camera and GPS systems can help with these safety concerns.
One of the easiest ways to achieve a safer road is to stop driving while distracted. According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 3,308 people were killed and nearly 290,000 people were injured in traffic crashes involving distracted drivers In 2022. Installing camera systems in your vehicles helps train your drivers and set the precedent of good driving habits. With Safety Track’s remote playback features fleet managers can watch back footage to ensure their drivers are consistently adhering to safety procedures such as wearing a seatbelt and keeping their eyes on the road. Safety Track’s AI Mobile DVRs are equipped with lane departure warnings, collision warnings, and driver distraction detection — providing instant feedback to drivers and customizable alerts to fleet managers. Even if you are not worried about your own drivers partaking in distracted driving, there is still the risk of others on the road. If an accident occurs, having a dash cam can prove that your driver was not at fault and reduce insurance claims.
Fleet management solutions can also help ensure vehicle maintenance is up to date, so there’s never a surprise breakdown. Safety Track’s transportation management system (TMS) interface has a maintenance tab that allows you to set up alerts based on service intervals you enter. Oil changes, tire rotations, all the way down to replacing the wiper blades. Another way to ensure safe roads is instilling your drivers with good habits. Although it may seem obvious, ensuring drivers get plenty of sleep and feel well rested before long drives can help prevent countless number of incidents. Even if a driver isn’t tired to the point of falling asleep at the wheel, driving while tired can still lead to a lower level of alertness. This means they might be more likely to be unaware of hazards such as erratic drivers, deer, and pedestrians. On top of staying alert, it is also essential to also keep a safe following distance, which means being no less than 3 seconds away from the car in front of you. This buffer ensures that if the car in front of you were to stop suddenly you have enough time to stop and avoid a collision.
When it comes to being on the road you can never be too careful, this is why taking proactive steps like investing in fleet management solutions is so important. The National Safety Council (NSC) is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate – and has been for over 100 years. NSC has provided a month’s worth of free safety resources to highlight leading causes of preventable injury and death. Additionally, NSC has an online training program specifically for non CDL drivers who are required to drive for work but may lack formal training. Ensuring these drivers feel more secure in their abilities behind the wheel is one step to achieving safer roads. Let’s work together to make people safer this June and all year long.