Opinion: Expecting drivers to multi-task or multi-fail

By Simon Turner, engagement manager at Driving for Better Business

It’s a fair bet that most responsible fleet managers have policies in place to avoid drink-driving. You probably also manage your drivers’ hours to avoid them falling asleep at the wheel.

So why would we expect our drivers to make and take phone calls, eat their lunch or plan their routes while engaging in risky behaviour that could result in horrific consequences?

Distractions are anything that takes attention away from driving, all of which causes poor hazard awareness, slow reaction time, and a greatly increased risk of collision.

Most distraction is either physical – you are doing something which means your body can’t control the vehicle – or it’s mental – your brain is engaged in something else. Often, it’s both.

The truth is our brains aren’t designed for multitasking. Driving takes a huge amount of mental work, even if it doesn’t feel like it. And the brain really only does one thing at a time. 

Imagine you are reading a text. Your brain is using your visual, language and decision-making functions to see the text, to understand it, and to think of a response.

You may believe you are glancing at the road, but your brain will not process what you are seeing on the road, or read road signs, or have any situational awareness because it is busy decoding that text.

Voice activation systems are also a distraction – again because it’s the same brain issuing instructions as is trying to drive.

This is one reason that hands free calls are so dangerous – because we become involved in the conversation, imagining the person, the situations we are discussing and problems to be solved.

Even though you are looking straight ahead, the chances are your visual processing systems are ‘seeing’ something quite different..

It also takes time for our brain to switch task – almost half a minute for the brain to start processing driving information again after giving voice commands or reading a text. 

Collision risk

Vehicles move fast and the road environment changes quickly. When travelling at 30mph, you cover 27 metres in two seconds. At 60 mph, that’s 54 metres.

How far would your vehicle travel without your attention if it takes you five seconds to compose a text and 27 seconds for your brain to refocus on the road?

If you need to act suddenly, your reaction will be much slower, and you will have far less time to react in than if you had been focused on driving.

Tips to share with your drivers

Typical distractions include:
•    Programming your sat nav, putting on your seatbelt, or adjusting your driving position while moving. Do these things before pulling away.
•    Changing the radio or fiddling with infotainment systems.
•    Phone calls, whether handsfree or not. This includes video calls which one in 10 drivers admits to doing. If work calls, wait until you can pull over safely and then ring back.
•    Texts and social media. An RAC survey showed 15% of drivers check messages on their phones, and 10% write texts, emails, or social media posts while behind the wheel.
•    Notifications. Silence them while you’re driving. Not only does your brain hear and respond to notifications, which is distracting, but people often feel under pressure (internally and from others) to read and respond. Some research suggests 97% of texts in the UK are opened and read within three minutes. 
•    Thinking about situations or problems not relevant to the immediate task of driving
•    Pain and discomfort
•    Eating, drinking or smoking behind the wheel

Beware of seeking distraction because you are bored or tired. It won’t help your alertness or concentration – it will just disrupt your focus even more.

Pull over, take a break, have a drink, move around, chat to someone. Refocus for the next leg of your journey.

Penalties

If you are found using a handheld mobile phone while driving, you can be given a fine of £200 and six penalty points. 

However, any distraction can leave you open to prosecution for Dangerous Driving, Careless and Inconsiderate Driving, Failure to Be in Proper Control of the Vehicle, or Driving without Due Care and Attention, all of which carry far higher penalties.

The highest penalty, however, is that you could kill or injure yourself or someone else.

Drivers causing collisions which hurt or kill others may end their careers, go to prison – and often live with guilt and trauma for the rest of their lives. Is anything worth that risk?