Every commercial motor carrier should have a fleet safely program in place to adequately protect the company’s human and financial resources, to ensure compliance with state and federal motor carrier regulations, and to guard against the potential company and personal liabilities resulting from truck accidents. Seven elements of a successful fleet safety program include:

1. Management Commitment and Leadership

The success of your fleet safety program depends largely upon how management promotes safe driving practices, what is expected in terms of safety and accident results, how management measures, monitors and responds to those results, and what resources are invested to achieve and reward improvement.
Management’s attitude toward safety should be defined in a written safety policy. The policy should also serve as a reference for specific procedures and rules pertaining to the safety program.
While every driver, supervisor and dispatcher has the responsibility to help prevent accidents and do their part in the safety program, a specific person should be assigned ultimate responsibility and the authority to make the program work. In a larger fleet this may be a full-time responsibility handled by a trained professional. In smaller organizations this duty may be handled by the owner or general manager.

2. Compliance with State and Federal Safety Regulations

Compliance with State and Federal Safety Regulations is NOT an option. These are the statutory minimum requirements for your fleet safety program.
Motor carrier safety and long-haul trucking regulation falls under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). While compliance with FMCSA rules can be a daunting task, it is a fact of life for the commercial motor carrier – often requiring an experienced manager to understand the rules, stay current and administer compliance. Failure to do so not only affects safety, but can result in penalties and fines, the loss of operating authority and ultimately your ability in business.

3. Driver Selection and Qualification Guidelines

Safety experts agree that proper driver selection is so important to the success of a fleet safety program that it can account for at least half of the program’s results – good or poor. FMCSA rules should be considered the minimum acceptable standards. If you want to hire and keep safe drivers, you need to establish hiring criteria that go beyond the federal rules. Develop standards based upon age, experience, driving record and accident experience. These standards should be sued in screening candidates AND as qualification to maintain driving privileges for all existing drivers.

4. Effective Driver Training

One of the most important elements of an efficient and successful fleet safety program is employing drivers who possess and exhibit safe driving skills. Every carrier, regardless of size, should invest in ongoing training programs to help their drivers keep and improve the skills they need to perform as a professional driver.
There are many types of effective safety training methods and programs available for motor carriers to use, such as classroom instruction and audio/visual training, driver rodeos and driving simulators. Today companies are finding that computer-based or e-learning methods are both effective and inexpensive. The point is to match the subject and method to the need. Any of these training methods – or a combination of methods – may work at one time or another.

5. Awards and Incentives

Research indicates that safety incentive programs can reduce the incidence of insurance claims, workers’ compensation claims and crashes.
Safety program awards and incentives very widely, and can include monetary rewards, bonuses, gifts, discounts, at truck stops and recognition programs.
Many safety-related incentive programs include recognition, including bonus payments, for passing certain milestones of “accident-free” miles driven. For some carriers, drivers earn safety bonuses using a point system in which safe miles are converted into bonus money that then is added to their paychecks. Other carriers reward drivers who are crash-free for a full year with a savings bond or similar instrument. In an era of high driver turnover, such incentive programs that offer progressively increasing safety bonuses for longer periods of cash-free operation can give drivers a material reason for staying with their employer rather than moving to another place of work, where they would have to start again to accumulate safety credits.

6. Inspection and Maintenance Practices

Vehicle inspection, repair and maintenance standards are critical to the safe operation of commercial motor vehicles. Federal rules found in part 396 detail requirements for systematic maintenance, pre-trip inspections, post-trip inspection reports and annual inspections. All motor carriers need to put procedures in place to ensure compliance with these rules.
Worn, failed or incorrectly adjusted components can cause or contribute to accidents. Preventive maintenance and periodic inspection procedures help to prevent failures from occurring while the vehicle is in operation. Such procedures also reduce reliance on the driver, who may have limited skill and knowledge for detecting vehicle deficiencies.

7. Accident Reporting, Investigation and Analysis

A good motor carrier fleet safety program includes a system to quickly and effectively report accidents. It must also detail an accident investigation process so you can use this information to prevent future accidents from occurring. It is important that each motor carrier train every driver on what to do immediately following the accident. This will help ensure compliance with federal and state reporting rules.
Each of your drivers should be taught and continually encouraged to know and use the step-by-step procedures are printed on the accident form kit provided to you .
The driver’s account of an accident is your first report taken at the scene of the accident. The driver’s report should be an objective collection and reporting of facts and details regarding the accident. The driver’s accident report must be followed up with an effective accident investigation and analysis. This process is essential in helping to expose problems and suggest remedies to flaws in your fleet safety program. For example, if your analysis shows repeated backing accidents, there may be a need for additional driver training on this subject.
Effective accident analysis provide the motor carrier the times, places, conditions equipment and drivers most often contributing to accidents and helps indicate what actions can be taken to prevent or reduce similar accidents in the future. If, for instance certain drivers are found to be accident repeaters, there may be a need for specific corrective action. Small fleet operations may only need to analyze their accident data once a year or every couple of years. Larger fleet operations with frequent accidents may need to do so quarterly or even monthly.

Source: Sentry Insurance