How to Institute a Driver Safety & Vehicle Program

Imagine if your construction superintendent was involved in a car accident while traveling between job sites and the resulting injury left him off work for months. Not only would that be horrible for the injured superintendent and his loved ones, but morale in your company could suffer, projects might fall behind, work quality may suffer, and someone will have to pick up the slack to keep your projects and workers on track.  

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2019 census of fatal occupational injuries, 56%* of workers who died in motor vehicle accidents were not in the transportation industry. Many of these workers were likely running errands, visiting customers, picking up supplies, or traveling from one work site to another.  

A great way to reduce the likelihood of a motor vehicle accident affecting your company is to institute a driver and vehicle safety program. I have listed the elements of a good program below.

• Responsibilities – It's best to establish what is expected of both drivers and management. This may include reporting incidents and moving violations, following the rules of the road, keeping vehicles properly maintained, and more.
• Driver qualification – This includes initial and annual motor vehicle record checks and a driving evaluation.
• Training – Reminders about safe driving should be given at least seasonally and after an incident.
• Discipline – After an accident, it is important to take action to help prevent a future occurrence. Discipline procedures already in place for your company can often be adapted to include driving incidents.
• Vehicle inspection and maintenance – Just because the DOT doesn’t ask you to inspect your smaller vehicles doesn’t mean you should skip this task. A daily inspection will help keep only safe vehicles on the road and reduce the likelihood of an incident.  Proper vehicle maintenance helps ensure that there will be no critical failures while using the vehicle that could lead to an accident.
• Personal use policy – Every time a driver uses your vehicle for personal use, they are increasing the frequency of exposure to a vehicle accident. If you choose to allow personal use, establish rules about passengers, towing, travel radius, etc.
• Incident reporting – A best practice is to require any vehicle incident to be reported ASAP. This includes minor damage to the vehicle that may not have caused any third-party damage. 

Implementing these key elements is a great way to reduce your company’s exposure to motor vehicle accidents, keep you employees working, and maintain a positive public image. If you are an Acuity customer, you can download a sample driver and vehicle safety program from our website.