How can we prevent fleet accidents? It’s a critical question, and we must find answers. Accidents involving large trucks are deadlier than those involving cars.
A recent news story reported on a truck that had rolled over, blocking a Sydney tunnel for twelve hours.
The authorities ordered an inspection for all 17 trucks owned by the company responsible for the delay. Six had defects, and the company was given 24 hours to fix the problems or be taken to court and face significant fines.
If this happened to your company, would you be prepared?
Why is it Important to Keep Your Fleet Compliant?
Compliant fleets have a lower risk of accidents. Fleets that follow regulations ensure vehicles are in better shape.
Keeping your fleet compliant delivers these benefits:
Improving Roadside Safety
There is typically more expensive property damage and bodily injury when commercial trucks are involved in an accident. A heavy truck weighing up to 80,000 pounds can easily crush a much lighter vehicle.
Fleet compliance verifies that your fleet of trucks, assets, and employees follow all applicable laws and policies on road safety. Audits, part of the compliance process, guarantee that your organisation follows internal and external standards.
Being compliant means forms are consistently completed, double-checked, and filed. It preserves crucial information, mitigating panic in an unexpected external or roadside audit.
Liability is also different, with commercial trucking accidents potentially involving several parties. There are various avenues via which people and businesses can be held responsible for an accident involving a commercial truck.
Lowering Insurance Costs
To be covered by an insurance policy, you often need to meet specific requirements.
Usually, this means following the insurance company’s specific guidelines and state and federal laws. A fleet must meet these requirements to avoid paying more or acquiring the insurance they need to get their vehicles on the road.
Businesses can reduce insurance premiums by establishing that their fleets are safe through evidence like compliance records and accident and incident reports.
Ensuring Employee Safety
Fleets must follow state and federal labour rules to keep their employees safe.
Compliance with these standards is essential to ensure the health and safety of all employees in the workplace.
In case of an accident, fleet operations should have workers’ compensation insurance. Maintaining a safe workplace and operating environment can reduce costs and claims.
Avoiding Legal Expenses
Failure to maintain compliance places a fleet operation in danger, both legally and financially.
Accidents involving fleet vehicles might place the fleet service at blame if it a truck violated safety or maintenance regulations.
The fleet may be held liable for any damages or injuries caused by a driver operating a vehicle without the required education, licensing, or certification. When safety rules aren’t followed or enforced, businesses risk legal repercussions if an employee gets hurt on the job.
How do you keep your fleet of vehicles or equipment compliant?
You can keep your fleet of vehicles or equipment compliant by focusing on five key areas.
Safety Management
Fleet safety management means having a well-coordinated safety policy for keeping your drivers safe. It provides you with better command over your fleet’s operations.
Your fleet safety management program must have the following elements:
- Driver selection
- Safety policies and guidelines
- Vehicle inspection and maintenance
- Training and education
- Employee incentives
Safety management helps you avoid legal trouble by putting safeguards that will keep everyone at work safe.
Effective fleet safety management includes reliable data collection and storage. You must have up-to-date information on drivers, vehicles, repairs, insurance, and road conditions.
Reporting on all areas of fleet operations fosters an understanding of compliance rules and gives enough chance to regularly examine company-led risk management and safety programs.
Fleet Maintenance
Businesses often need a fleet of vehicles to perform their function. You must, therefore, ensure vehicles are well-stocked, often examined, and well-maintained.
Maintaining a fleet decreases the amount of gas used and the frequency with which parts need replacement.
Proper fleet maintenance contributes to lower operating expenses. It also ensures your trucks comply with all internal and external regulations.
Driver Performance
Fleet drivers must meet all the legal and health standards for handling commercial vehicles. Your drivers must have valid driver’s licenses, proof of completing the appropriate training and awareness of safety procedures.
Skilled drivers know when to take breaks, remain alert, practice defensive driving, and adhere to all business and government safety regulations.
Vehicle activity monitoring and driver compliance management prevent fleet accidents. They are crucial to maintaining compliance.
Fleet compliance helps prevent fleet accidents by observing drivers against risky and distracting driving behaviours. You must have measures that prevent drivers from overspeeding, hard braking, forceful acceleration, and mobile phone use.
With the help of mobile apps, fleet managers can immediately take action against non-compliant drivers concerning driver programs and operational procedures.
In addition, fleet management software allows for the encrypted storage of documents like driver’s licenses, medical records, training certificates, safety policies, and insurance records. Fleet management technology enables fleet managers to keep a driver’s information up to date, organised, and readily accessible during roadside audits or other compliance checks.
Company Policy
Maintaining fleet compliance is an ongoing procedure affecting every business aspect. As governments pass new laws, business requirements change, and so may the company’s policies. You must educate employees when such development occurs, mitigating the risk of non-compliance.
Having clear company policies and making them easily accessible promotes a culture of compliance amongst all company vehicles, assets, and employees.
In-depth operational assessments constitute the backbone of compliance management procedures. Regular inspections help create company policies that cater to your specific needs.
Internal Audits
Your vehicles, employees, and assets must meet company-led safety and efficiency requirements and all road safety compliance regulations.
You can hire an auditing firm to guarantee that your business meets all internal and external standards. It ensures you complete, double-check, and file the necessary paperwork consistently.
Internal audits ensure you save and preserve crucial data. With proper audits and reliable data storage, you don’t have to worry about being unprepared for an unexpected external or roadside audit.
You must scrutinise every detail of the compliance process to avoid mistakes that could leave gaps in your certifications. Gaps are where disasters are born.
A fleet’s ability to comply with regulations depends on its capacity to continually assess its cars, drivers, and operational processes.
Businesses must inspect vehicles regularly to ensure they are in good working order and that all required safety features are active.
Operations must routinely evaluate drivers to confirm that they hold the necessary certifications and licenses as part of a compliance evaluation. It ensures that all drivers have the proper documentation to operate vehicles for the business. It’s also a chance to check in on drivers’ stats and any reported incidents.
Addressing potentially dangerous acts and habits can improve fleet safety and prevent fleet accidents
It is essential to conduct regular reviews of all operating procedures to guarantee that appropriate measures are in place for compliance. It is the responsibility of the corporation to examine all relevant papers, rules, and regulations set forth by government bodies, state and federal, and the company itself.
As a bonus, this allows operations to check in on the standards and policies to ensure they’re still relevant and implemented. Everything from work hours and schedules to safety procedures can fall under this category.
Accidents happen, but when authorities find defects in one vehicle or equipment, they can expose the rest of your fleet or company.
FocusIMS can help ensure that your assets are maintained and managed thoroughly by:
- Allocating your vehicles, equipment, and other assets to staff. Included are accompanying photos so reporting conditions are precise and ensure assets are maintained judiciously.
- Programming maintenance requirements, so you know when requirements are due and completed.
- Providing complete, instant online reporting alerts, so issues are immediately addressed.
- Designate and monitor resource targets based on daily prestarts to help you make strategic decisions on purchasing or disposing of assets.
If you want your business to be completely prepared in the face of a potential disaster, get started with FocusIMS today. Click here for FocusIMS 2 week Free Trial
