Track Driver Behavior to Save Money and Keep Clients Happy

On a personal level, poor driver behavior may result in some dirty looks from others on the road or a ticket from the police. For fleets, it might mean lost business, increased costs and upset clients.

In order to protect drivers and ensure minimal problems, you may want to start monitoring your drivers’ behavior, if you aren’t already. Tracking this information will help you out in a number of ways, from reduced fuel costs to lower insurance rates and other aspects of fleet management.

While this may be something you are interested in, you might not know where or how to start. Here are a few things that can help you monitor your drivers’ behavior:

Identify common driving risks
In some cases, you can stop your drivers from getting on the road altogether, should they exhibit a few warning signs. A recent study conducted by CarInsurance.com found that many people get behind the wheel when they shouldn’t, with some key situations the common culprits.

For example, 68 percent of the survey group reported driving while sleepy. Even so, 60 percent also believe that driving while too tired should be illegal. Other common instances where people drove when they should have stayed home include driving with a headache at 53 percent, driving while too sick at 35 percent and driving under the influence of narcotic pain medication, at 15 percent.

Any of these issues alone, or combined with another problem, could drastically increase the risk of an accident.

Track drivers to prevent problems
This is one key reason why you need to monitor your driver behavior. At the start of the work day, you can limit your drivers who exhibit these symptoms or send them home.

According to TruckingInfo.com, driver monitoring is a popular trend for fleets today. And, technology is making it easier than ever for management to follow along with important behavior.

Robin Hamlin, product manager for McLeod Software, explained to the news source that fleets are on the hunt for technology that can say when drivers are acting erratically on the road.