The issue of truck driver’s lack of compliance to the rules of the road has come back to the fore. This comes after Jaskirat Singh Sidhu was sentenced to eight years in jail for his involvement in last year’s Humboldt Broncos bus crash. The crash claimed 16 people’s lives and wounded 13 others, after ignoring five road signs warning him to stop. In addition, he had 70 regulatory violations in the days leading up to the incident.
A 2012 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report on truck accidents showed that more than 300 000 large trucks were involved in crashes. The latter resulted in 104,000 injuries and 3,921 deaths. Different factors contributed to the truck accidents, including negligence from drivers such as speeding or fatigue. Faulty or defective equipment such as tires or brakes, and truck overloading, were also to blame. Furthermore, in recent study by NHTSA, it was found that 94% of all accidents on the road are caused by driver error.
With reference to the above, running a fleet today requires finding the right drivers. In addition to recruiting these drivers, you also need to train them and ensure that they follow operational policies and comply with the road regulation requirements. Consequently, ensuring fleet compliance has become an extremely challenging job within many fleets, largely because many companies struggle to oversee their drivers, when they are out on delivery.
How Telematics Assists Drivers in Complying with the Rules of the Road
Building the right compliance process requires innovative, new technologies that help and guide drivers to comply with the thousands of rules and regulations fleet operations must abide by. Although this may be a costly investment, it reduces unnecessary expenditure as a result of fines in violations, or fixing or replacing a fleet vehicle that was involved in an incident.
Geotab’s fleet management system offers a range of customisable tools to assist fleet businesses to maintain the highest levels of safety and compliance. Through its ability to generate real-time vehicle location and vehicle operating data, Geotab’s telematics solution offers the following benefits:
1. Identify and Immediately Act on Unsafe Driving Behaviour
Through Geotab’s web-based fleet management platform, MyGeotab, fleet managers can access various vehicle operating data in real-time, ranging from harsh braking to rapid acceleration. This allows fleet managers to gain insight and act against risky driving habits that could jeopardize drivers’ lives and other road users. Read more on the benefits of using a fleet management system.
2. Reduce Risks of Accidents with Exception Rules Feature
The MyGeotab software comes with an Exception Rules feature. This feature allows fleet managers to create safety policies by selecting specific rules in the exceptions report to guide a specific vehicle and driver. Fleet managers can improve driving behaviour by setting various exceptions such as speed and braking. Read more on how to prevent dangerous driver behaviour with Exception Rules.
3. Prevent Parking Lot Accidents with the Reverse Parking Accident Detection Feature
Although accidents can happen unexpectedly, they can also be avoided using the reverse parking accident detection feature. Geotab’s GO7 devices are equipped with patented technology that helps drivers detect in-reverse vehicle movements so that drivers can avoid crashing during this activity.
4. Reduce the Severity of Accidents
There is evidence that shows that leveraging the power of telematics can improving driving and limit the number and severity of accidents. A research study conducted by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) found that 56% of drivers improved their driving after their insurance companies installed telematics devices in their vehicles. Therefore, using Geotab’s GPS vehicle tracking device, fleet managers can promote safer driving habits, such as: driving within the required speed limit, accelerating and braking smoothly, and encourage reverse parking instead of reversing out parking spaces. These entire steps will lead to fewer insurance claims and liability costs caused by accidents.
Author: The Geotab Africa Team
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