When you think of dangerous work, what comes to your mind?
The defence force, firefighters and police might be at the top of your list, but what about heavy vehicle drivers?
In Australia, around 80 workers are killed each year while working in or around a highway-heavy vehicle (Safe work Australia Chair).
Speeding and fatigue play a significant part in these deaths.
Hence, having the proper fleet management systems in place is essential for managing vehicle and driver safety.
When heavy vehicles are involved in a crash, the severity of it is often a lot more serious because their vehicle mass elevates the crash forced involved.
Hence, GPS tracking provides the transport industry effective solutions to manage drivers and the chain of responsibility to ensure safety on the road. Here’s how:
1. Safety before a shift starts:
Mitigate risks with early detection, most GPS tracking solutions provide fit for duty declarations and pre-departure checks which take drivers through a set of customisable safety criteria before starting a shift.
If any issues are detected an alert is immediately sent to a supervisor by email or SMS and the driver won’t be able to start the shift before the issue is addressed.
2. Reduce speeding:
Speed is the leading contributing factor to heavy vehicle accidents. Loaded trailers take 20-40% farther than cars to stop, even further when the roads are wet and slippery (Transport for NSW).
The only way to mitigate the risk of speeding is to monitor drivers and prevent it from happening.
GPS tracking provides automated speed detection solutions across all speed zones, managers can be alerted:
– When a driver is speeding;
– Where a driver is speeding; and
– Why it happened.
With two-way communication managers, can provide drivers live feedback on their driving performance so they can make corrections in real-time and increase safety on the road.
GPS tracking and Fleet telematics provide safe driving solutions and reliable tools to detect speeding and identify the causes, managers can implement safe driving policies and train drivers to avoid speeding.
3. Fatigue Management:
Driver fatigue is unstoppable. Affecting anyone, at any time. Unfortunately, no matter how experienced the driver is, no amount of skill can defeat the biological need for sleep.
The truck driving industry denies the natural sleep pattern, with many long-haul drives going well into the hours of the night and through to the morning. Hence, effective management of fatigue is crucial to the safety of heavy vehicle drivers.
GPS tracking provides chain of responsibility systems which have control measures to address fatigue, including electronic log books, automated breach alerts and recording driving hours.
Overall, GPS tracking and Fleet telematics solutions provide seamless and efficient communication between managers and drivers; instantaneous information is received via mobile devices and in-vehicle display unit so managers have an unprecedented level of knowledge of their operations.
Help your business grow and expand by maintaining a safe work environment, it will increase efficiency and most importantly, it will ensure your drivers get home safely.
