What Is Driver Safety Management?

There can be a clouded judgement from many within the fleet world to what exactly should fall under 'Driver Safety'. These blurred lines echo throught the fleet industry, leading to many misguided attempts to ensure employee safety.

Within this piece we aim to take a deeper dive into driver management & the safety issues that are constantly of high concern for fleet managers and drivers.

A Driver Safety Management System helps identify, record and monitors reasonably foreseeable risks to the health and safety of lone workers, drivers, passengers, other road users and members of the public.

It is every organisation's responsibility to ensure sustainable & controlled measures are taken to eliminate or minimise any potential risks and to maintain and monitor those control measures.

Driver Safety Management Systems are generally seen as paper based, but these days it is more efficient, transparent and accountable if the system is managed via a combination of in vehicle telematics hardware and software solution together providing a rigid framework for meeting obligations and ensuring mobile workers and the broader community are kept safe.

Its more and more prevalent these days that a digital solution is sourced and the old methods of paper based are generally harder to manage and rely solely on employees being proactive in keeping records.

What Should a Driver Safety Management System Include?

There are a lot of different solutions out in the market that may or may not cover every category of safety, however, generally speaking any good solution should include many of the following.

The ability to communicate with drivers or lone workers every couple of hours is a must, also ensuring that there is an ability to have a notification instantaneously as soon as any incidents occur is mandatory.

A driver self-declaration document is also essential. This will help determine if the driver is fit for work, that also including being drug and alcohol free. Apart from the driver checking in on themselves, the vehicle check list should also be maintained daily. Allowing for any issues that may arise to be dealt with by management and maintenance before the driver commences.

Another inclusion to a good system is a journey management plan that allows for authorisation, monitoring and review of driver fatigue logbooks. Within this, ensuring that WHS/OHS/HSE & SWMS forms are completed prior to commencing work can give fleet managers peace of mind that all obligations have been met.

A staff induction program can also provide to be an important element to be included into a good driver safety system. Covering issues such as seatbelts, sun exposure, smoking, mobile phone use, parking, dealing with passengers etc. The capability to also have a system that can monitor driver license credentials, validity, demerit points as well as rego, insurance, CTP, roadworthy status, warrants of fitness are also key components.

The recording of incidences & infringements is an essential element that should be included with any solution. Ensuring that a driver is equipped with the correct PPE and safety kits on board should be mandatory too.

Lastly, having a daily task quota that is realistic is important to ensure that the drivers are getting breaks for the travel time they are working. A job dispatch & task management solution integrates perfectly integrates into a system like this and will save a lot of time and headaches down the road.

What should a Great driver safety system include?

There are many 'good' GPS telematic driver safety management systems on the market already, differentiating between an entry level solution over a high end, industry leading system can be defined by its advanced features.

Advanced features such as driver identification are where you should begin with. The capability to know who is driving the car is pivotal, they should also have access to SOS and man down features if an emergency was to occur. Driver ID cards are also important to combine the drivers licensing qualifications, skill sets, induction registers all within a database to ensure that unauthorised vehicle use does not occur.

Electronic diaries are an essential element to a great system, ensuring that the electronic diary can provide a driver self-declaration form, pre-start check lists & SWMS/JSA at the minimum. Also providing an electronic fatigue management logbook on mobile data terminals or mobile phone apps really provides that next level to the employees of a company.

Within the vehicle, dashcams to monitor driver activity are also essential for any high performing fleet. Implementing this and electronic route optimisation, job planning and driver behaviour tools can elevate a fleets performance and safety in the one go.

Heavy vehicles should be fitted with vehicle scales interfaced to the Telematics device to warn drivers and back-office staff if vehicles are operating above safe limits. All vehicles should be fitted with tyre pressure monitoring systems interfaced to the Telematics device to warn drivers and back-office staff if vehicle tyre pressures or temperatures are not operating within safe limits.

Journey Management Plans should be Documented, Authorised, Monitored & Reviewed electronically via the telematics device which should also provide instantaneous alerts if criteria are not met during a journey.

Using Telematics to Record, Monitor, Report & Alert on expired Driver Licence credentials, validity, demerit points is essential. Also using the system for the same purposes to achieve a currency of registration, insurance, CTP, roadworthy are just some of the essential features a great system would have.

Lastly, a system should ensure that there is a way to monitor, record, report, and alert on driver infringements, register of works and most importantly it should be able to provide instant feedback via sound or notifications to let the driver know how they have performed.

The benefits of a great system?

They really speak for themselves, as a safer workplace and environment is heavily weighted on for most employees when it comes to why they do what they do. A compliant driver management system will always result in a lower incident and infringement rates which will ultimately lead to better things such as staff satisfaction and productivity increase.

The main benefits in summary are:

Pre-start checklists are completed daily ensuring that drivers are fit and safe to work and the vehicles that they are using are also safe to drive.

Fatigue management guidelines are being adhered to by reminding drivers to take rest breaks when required. This ensures no driver works a minute more than necessary.

Driver behaviour increases as drivers are more aware of what they are doing right and wrong within the vehicle. This is all based on a cabin coaching system within the telematics system alerting the driver.

Daily workload is a lot easier to plan. Employees can take into consideration breaks, distance to travel and potential hazards upcoming on their journey.

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