Technology is at forefront in bid to increase driver safety

In the week following Brake Road Safety week, fleet decision-makers came together to discuss their own safety initiatives at a Fleet News roundtable, sponsored by Trakm8.

Technology is playing a starring role, with a blend of telematics, video and software giving fleets access to huge amounts of data which is underpinning their risk management policies. Most are using the insight to measure driver behaviour and inform the training and support programmes.

Fleet News: What initiatives have you introduced to improve drivers’ skills?

Shaun Atton, Auto Windscreens (pictured): We use telematics as a coach-and-reward scheme, not as a stick. We look at all events and have camera footage which shows the reason for the incident – it could be someone breaking hard because a child has run out into the road, for example. The data drives our driver training but, even before someone goes out onto the road for the first time, they receive training.

Matt Hammond, M Group Services Plant: We don’t believe in rewarding drivers – it’s the standard they should achieve. We use telematics to understand driver behaviour and patterns. If they fall short, we will invest in them with training and support. If they continue to fall short, they don’t meet the standard to drive my fleet. First offence is a talk and training; second they can’t drive for the business for two months; third they can’t drive for 12 months. We also look at trends in driving patterns over the past three years to understand what it means and assign the right type of training.

We look at the types of incidents we are facing, the biggest cost and where we can make the biggest impact. We also do town halls to explain to drivers why we have telematics and the potential savings from insurance and accident reduction.

Andrew Jack, M Group Services Plant: We show drivers the footage where it’s worked in their favour so they can see how the cameras benefit them.

FN: Do you have league tables comparing driver performance?

AJ: We have a report each month on the 10 worst drivers looking at accident stats, telematics data and training records (they get bonus points for training).

SA: We do it as league tables monthly in each area and quarterly for the business. This gamification creates friendly banter and competition.

MH: No one wants to be at the bottom; we see an instant improvement in their behaviour because they don’t want to have a conversation about their driving style. But they also don’t want to be at the top and seen as the teacher’s pet! They want to be in the safe ground, near the top.

Tony Murphy, Murphy Plant: We don’t have in-cab alerts because we think it’s a distraction, but often the first time a driver knows about it is when they are pulled up for poor driving. We want to enable them to address it straight away.

Chris Woods, Trackm8: It’s like Marmite – some love the in-cab alerts, others don’t. But the results can wane unless you stay on top of it with other processes.

MH: You have to have the end-to-end processes.

Neil Thomas, Royal Mail: When we introduced telematics to our van fleet, we saw an 11% reduction in RTCs (road traffic accidents).

FN: Does anyone do risk assessments for new employees before they drive for the first time?

Leigh Aston, Murphy Plant: We brought it in at Murphys for all new starters. It generates a risk score so we can address any issues before they go out onto the road. We also have a road risk group with profile on the board and we have a ‘consequence’ table with punishments and actions that we recommend are taken dependent on each risk type.

AJ: We also risk profile drivers as part of the onboarding process looking at their licence, health checks, eyesight and vehicle familiarisation, and build in the accident investigation and post-accident procedures. At a previous business, we had 60 vehicles; we did a health check and found that 10 drivers couldn’t see properly.

FN: With so much data coming from connected devices, how do you stay on top of everything?

Beckie Edwards, Severn Trent: It’s an impossible task to manage all the data. We get a lot of reversing incidents. For any cost that is more than £1,000, we put them on slow manoeuvring training which goes on their line manager’s budget. That makes them pay attention and get involved in managing driver behaviour.

TM: Our telematics provider puts everything into a BI (business intelligence) report that is shared with the MD in each sector. It says how much it costs; money talks.

MH: You ignore 90% of it! You have to decide what you want to focus on and stick with it. You can’t take it all on to start with, but you widen out as you get control.

CW: We have ‘perspectives’ where you can identify the key parameters and focus on the red.

SA: We don’t use dashboards; we have APIs (application programming interfaces) that feed into our own fleet management system where we have top line sight of data.

TM: There are may variables, with telematics data, accident data, etc. which may, or may not, be related. You have to focus on the things that stand out.

FN: Do you look at the root cause of any incident?

TM: We look at the hours they have worked, lifestyles, personal issues, whether they are working at night – you have to consider all the variables, not just the data.

SA: Managers do an incident investigation for every accident looking at the telematics and camera footage. This includes driver welfare as well. Drivers’ hours were playing a major role, so we have fixed that by reporting on it. We ensure they are doing the right number of hours per day rather than assume they are, especially with travelling to and from jobs. We increased the resource to reduce mileage and working hours.

Graham Short, Culligan Water Treatment Supplies: Before they carry out a vehicle check, our drivers have to do a self-declaration to say they have not been affected by drink or drugs. It also includes eyesight. We are doing a lot of work on wellbeing as well.

SA: We have a confidential line that people can call and we put a sticker on the dashboard to remind them.

Highlighting the cost to the business from driver incidents or poor driver behaviour can act as a catalyst to prompt managers to take action.

“We report and recommend, but, ultimately, it’s the operations team that has to implement it,”says Hammond.

“Often, they see the vehicle as a tool and don’t see or acknowledge the value. You have to put money against it; then they listen.”

Royal Mail has introduced a weekly high-cost vehicle report which identifies any driver-induced faults and costs. It has unearthed a £10 million opportunity on tyres, lost or broken keys and misfuelling events, according to Thomas.

And, Edwards adds: “We have a monthly business report which shows how much money the business could save if the fleet was fully utilised; we had no accidents and no harsh braking. We charge out fleet to each business unit so it’s in their interest to take action. The report is red/amber/green so they can clearly see where they can save money.”