10 Fleet Tracking Metrics for Improved Driver Safety/Performance/Behavior
Ensuring fleet safety begins with a strong commitment to it; a commitment to enabling drivers to operate under the safest conditions. Whether the fleet is 10 street-sweepers or 10,000 oil tankers, monitoring safety metrics in a scalable way is essential to actualizing that commitment. As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. And towards effectively monitoring safety metrics, fleet managers utilize fleet tracking software to perform fleet “checkups” that, much as an annual physical, reveal where the fleet is “hurting” and what can be done to help.
The following metrics can help you effectively address the root causes of poor driver performance, safety concerns, and make necessary improvements.
- Define fleet safety policy
- Attain management endorsement
- Ensure safe drivers
- Train new hires on safety best practices
- Analyze MVR (motor vehicle report) annually (and if possible, more than once/year)
- Continuously advance safety training
- Balance rewards and penalties for non-compliance
- Maintain safe vehicles
- Make safety integral (versus peripheral) to the larger fleet policy
- Make safety non-negotiable
The following scenarios are real-life examples of the many ways fleet tracking software can articulate fleet safety concerns and enable drivers to improve their safety performance.
SPOTLIGHT: THE PRICE OF ACCIDENTS
From 2011 to 2012, the number of occupants killed in large vehicle accidents rose by 8.9 percent and the number of injuries increased by 8.7 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) 2013 report. (Source: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811856.pdf) Speeding nearly triples the odds of being involved in a crash and factors into 23 percent of all large truck crashes. (Source: AAA Foundation Report and http://www.umtri.umich.edu/content/LTCCS_Codebook_060106_v6.pdf) The vast majority (87.2 percent) of all at-fault large truck crashes are driver related, according to the Large Truck Crash Causation Study (LTCCS) conducted by the U.S Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and National Highway Safety Administration. (Source: http://www.umtri.umich.edu/content/LTCCS_Codebook_060106_v6.pdf) How can fleet managers of average-size fleets get eyes on the price of accidents and promote creating a safety program or revamping the existing one? One way is to capture the total cost (or cost-savings) of creating or improving that program and a hypothetical scenario can help create a proportionate sense of urgency to this effort.
SPOTLIGHT: ERRATIC MAINTENANCE
Inconsistent maintenance correlates to unnecessary downtime and increased risk of preventable accidents. In a study conducted by Navman Wireless, they found that fleets were able to reduce downtime (.25 days/month per vehicle) and preventative maintenance cycle (50 percent) by utilizing a fleet tracking solution.
MINI CASE STUDY: TECH A.I.R. – 26 VEHICLES
Keeping up with the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) recommended maintenance schedule was a distant dream for the fleet management team. Consequently, maintenance was done “as needed”. By bringing the Navman Wireless’ Maintenance Report system online, Tech A.I.R.can readily see which trucks need maintenance, before they need it. As a result, the fleet has fewer breakdowns and repair costs have plummeted from $62,000 to $38,000 per year.
SPOTLIGHT: POOR DRIVING HABITS
Speeding has a cost that can be measured, beyond accidents and tickets. The EPA found that speeding a mere 5 miles above the speed limit (or a vehicle’s optimal speed – usually 55 – 60 mph) adds a net 20 cents to the cost of each gallon of gas. In addition to higher insurance rates, speeding also contributes to increased wear-and-tear on vehicles, which in turn increases maintenance costs. Conversely, letting vehicles idle also incurs unnecessary expense. The conventional thinking is that idling is better than turning a vehicle off and on frequently, but this is a misperception. Letting vehicles idle for an hour (perhaps while taking a call or checking directions) is equal to driving 25 miles, according to the EPA.
Source: http://www.mpgforspeed.com/
By establishing clear safety targets and tracking relevant metrics, measuring success against internal and external safety best practices, reviewing your data routinely and adjusting when needed, fleet managers can create a culture of excellence and safety among their drivers that will, in turn, yield many beneficial returns.
