Risky or unsafe behaviors of truck drivers are a prevalent issue faced by fleet management companies. Since truck drivers travel on the road for such long hours, it causes fatigue and exhaustion, leading to dangerous situations.
However, tiredness and fatigue are not the only reasons for such accidents. Truck drivers are often seen driving recklessly, speeding, running over a red light, etc. While these behaviors might be casual for truck drivers, they can create heavy losses for the fleet company.
The more these drivers behave negligently and recklessly on the road, the more your company will pay fines and claims to the government. Not to mention dealing with the insurance company is challenging in itself.
So to avoid these cases, you must first identify the dangerous behaviors of truck drivers that can get your fleet management company in trouble. The below article will discuss the four most prominent behaviors of truck drivers that you should be aware of.
Without any further ado, let us dive into the details!
5 Risky Driving Behaviors Which Are Hazardous For Fleet Companies
These four driving behaviors are the most common reasons for accidents on the road by fleet drivers. To learn about them, as it is better to be safe than sorry.
- DUI, or Driving Under the Influence
Driving under the influence of alcohol is one of the most dangerous behaviors for truck drivers. However, this is also prevalent in them, given the long hours truck drivers often drink alcohol to stay awake and counter fatigue.
However, this potentially threatens truck drivers and those driving around them. Several people go through brain damage, disfigurement, and paralysis due to drunk driving. In some cases related to drunk driving, the repercussions can also be fatal.
While the truck drivers and others will struggle with severe injuries, the fleet company will also bear financial losses. The insurance company might take care of the damages and injuries caused to parties involved in the accident, but your company will have to pay the legal charges and fines.
- Driver Fatigue
Although driver fatigue is prevalent in truck drivers, they must take breaks since they travel such long distances. However, many truck drivers do not stop in between to regain their energy to reach their destination faster. As a result, their tiredness might prevent them from driving carefully and with complete attention.
Driving on the road with such massive vehicles is risky, especially when the driver is not careful about their surroundings or does not have the energy to be alert. This might result in a gruesome accident causing injuries and property damages. Hence, GPS truck tracking software can help you avoid hazards with the help of the data collected.
- Reckless Driving Behavior
To avoid reckless driving, you must first be able to identify the slight hints in a person’s driving behavior. Reckless driving consists of hazardous, negligent, and aggressive behavior while driving.
However, there is a slight difference between reckless driving and careless driving. In careless driving, the accident caused by the at-fault driver leads to property damage or injuries. However, in reckless driving, the person is fully aware of the actions and knows this dangerous behavior can harm someone.
But they continue to misbehave and choose not to care about others’ safety and themselves. For example, ignoring the put on the seat belt before driving, even though the driver knows how important it is, is reckless driving.
Some common examples of reckless driving are speeding, hard braking, and tailgating. Also, aggressive driving and road rage is prevalent among truck drivers. However, not thinking about the repercussions of road rage, crossing through the red light, and lane changing is erratic behavior that can lead to severe damage, injuries, and even death.
- Distracted Driving
Distracted driving is seen among several fleet drivers. Distracted driving mainly involves behaviors that draw their attention from driving and focus on other tasks. Texting, phone calls, eating, and loud music are some behaviors that come under distracted driving.
You might think that these distractions are minor and have minimal effect on the person’s driver. However, according to a recent study, about 3 to 4 thousand deaths happen in America every year due to distracted driving.
Nevertheless, fleet drivers are not the only ones practicing distracted driving. This behavior is quite common in other commercial and noncommercial drivers. Hence your fleet drivers must practice defensive driving. In addition, GPS for vehicle tracking is also an efficient way of preventing distracted driving.
You can train your current drivers based on the collected data you get, and the real-time tracking in fleet management software can help you with the latest updates.
- Driving Too Closely
Driving too closely to other vehicles on the road involves a high risk of an accident. This is why this driving behavior is even legally prohibited in some states. If your driver is covering a long distance, it is essential to the states’ regulations as they might get a fine which your company must bear.
According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety, driving too close to a vehicle has a high risk of accidents causing severe damage. Since the vehicle going behind cannot control the speed, it is advised to maintain a safe distance if the front driver brakes suddenly. The accident’s impact due to tailgating can be fatal if the vehicles travel at high speed.
- Speeding
A widely seen driving behavior is that a fleet truck driver is overspeeding or driving over the speed limit of the road. Covering long distances can be tiring for fleet drivers; hence they resort to speeding to reach their destination faster.
Nevertheless, speeding at such high limits can lead to a hard acceleration in lanes with intersections. Head-on collisions are the expected result of speeding at intersections. Still, even if the driver applies emergency breaks, it can result in a rear-end collision causing severe injuries or even death.
In addition, hard acceleration and braking cause wear and tear in vehicles, leading to unnecessary maintenance expenses. As a fleet management company, keeping your vehicle in good condition for timely deliveries and customer satisfaction is essential.
Wrapping Up!
Often fleet management companies are struggling to deal with the risky driving behaviors of truck drivers. While truck drivers and their habits might take time to change, you can start the process by getting an efficient and robust fleet management solution.
Fleet management software has excellent features like vehicle GPS tracking, real-time location tracking, delivery tracking, etc. The functionality can help you reduce accidents and ensure driver and vehicle safety, preventing financial losses for the company.
We hope this article helped you identify the reckless driving behaviors of fleet drivers. If you wish to know more about fleet management solutions, contact us today!
