Fleet safety management and best practices

Fleet Safety

The Methods of Profit & Determination and Selection of Drivers

The objective of this work is to discuss the ways a company can profit from a good fleet safety program and to discuss as well how to make the determination of the driving skills required for hiring drivers. This work will finally list the driver selection steps and describe each and will then discuss the responsibilities of a fleet safety supervisor and how they can affect a safety program.

Introduction company can either profit or lose depending upon the excellence of its' fleet safety program. There are many costs associated with vehicle incidents, both hidden and known. The commercial transport company has within its' organization the element to determine the level of safety achieved in the company. The company has full control of selection of drivers, training of drivers, safety attitudes, driving schedules and hours as well as the selection and maintenance of vehicles.

Profits from a Good Safety Fleet Program

Murray, et al. (2003) states that a company's profits are realized through avoiding negative events:

Such as being involved in a fatality or very expensive crash." Also realized as profits to the company is the avoidance of "increasing insurance premiums and excesses, insurers refusing cover, crash and maintenance costs increasing, and a rising number and cost of third-party claims."

In addition to the high crash rates described above, commercial vehicle crashes place a heavy financial burden on business and the community. Bureau of Transport Economics (BTE 2000) estimated the average cost of road crash types in Australia. In 1996, a fatal crash cost $1.7m, serious injury $408,000, minor injury $14,000, and damage only $6,000."

The report of Murray, et al. (2003) states that safety costs are divided into three categories as follows:

Injury costs;

Damage-only costs; and The iceberg effect.

Stated in the Australian Fleet Safety Case Study Report is as Work-Related Road Safety Injury Costs are the following facts:

In the 1999/2000 financial year in Queensland, almost $17 million was paid in workers' compensation claims for injuries and illnesses sustained from work-related vehicle crashes, including commuting to and from work (Seljak 2002). A further $4.4 million was paid in workers' compensation for injuries and illnesses sustained as a result of incidents related to occupational driving (such as hearing loss and back strain), but not directly from vehicle crashes. Travelsafe34 (2002) examines this data in more depth. According to WA (2001), WorkCover Western Australia data shows that each vehicle related claim has about 80 lost days. Compensation costs average $20,000, including medical, rehabilitation, staff replacement and property damage."

The same report states that "Work-related road safety damage-only costs are of the nature that:" cause unnecessary expense to organizations in terms of repair costs, reduced productivity, and death or injury of workers. These include costs associated with injured employees, repairs to damaged vehicles, insurance premiums and excesses, and staff down-time. Based on Lumley Insurance benchmarking data, 27% of fleet vehicles are involved in a crash each year with a range from less than 10% to more than 50%, with the fleet driver being at-fault in about 60% of crashes (Collingwood 1997). Wheatley (1997) used Stone's 25% figure and assumed an average cost of about $2,000 each. He estimated that there were two million light vehicles used for business in Australia, giving about 500,000 damage only crashes at a cost of $1 billion per annum. Applying the profits to sales ratio of 10%, Australian industry has to generate $10 billion dollars to pay for all these crashes. (Murray, et al., 2003)

The Iceberg Effect is stated:

Crash costs show an 'iceberg or ripple in the pool effect' Baran and Jones (1997) suggested that many areas of a business are affected by a vehicle crash. Fleet crash costs are much higher than just vehicle repairs and include both insured and uninsured costs such as down time and legal fees. Business Motoring (2000) quoted the Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS) data suggesting that the indirect costs of fleet crashes, including personal injury, medical/hospital, rehabilitation, absence from work, workers compensation, downtime/lost productivity, and potential loss of custom are about ten times the average repair bill. Easton (1997) argued that every injured worker in an organization involves financial (between four and ten times the obvious) and productivity costs that could have been prevented." (Murray, et al., 2003)

II. Driver Selection Steps

The basic attributes required to becoming a truck driver are (1) Physical; (2) Mental; and (3) Communication. First one must be physically fit to become a truck driver. Secondly one must have the mental capacity and have the right attitude in accepting the rights of others to use the road, displaying courteousness to other drivers, be able to remain clam in an emergency or working under pressure, have the ability and desire to learn and to apply that learning in the work environment, be able to sustain performance under strenuous working conditions and situations, and accept the disciplines of working within the framework of abiding by the law and meeting rules and policies of the company that they are employed with. Lastly, it is very critical that the driver has the ability to communicate with other in the industry in various forms whether verbal, written, or through other media. (Baas, 2003) The following is a list of other requirements for screening candidates for possible hiring:

Driver's Employment Application - this will include information concerning the individual's past experience, education and history as a driver.

Medical Certification - Checked is general appearance and development. Head and eyes, ears, throat, thorax heart, lungs, gastrointestinal system, abdomen, tenderness, genitor-urinary, neurological, extremities, spine, recto genital studies, and any other laboratory or special findings.

Background check - This will be a check performed in relation to any possible criminal history of the applicant.

Driver's License Check

Road Test - Inspected on the road test will be the coupling and uncoupling of combination units, placing the commercial motor vehicle in operation, use of the commercial motor vehicle's controls and emergency equipment, turning the vehicle, operating the vehicle in traffic, passing other vehicles, braking and slowing the vehicle through means other than braking and parking the vehicle.