You don’t have to be a driver in order to effectively manage your team – but you do need to understand exactly what it is they do.
One of the key frustrations fleet managers experience is that they’re not in the field with their drivers. If you’re not on the road with them, how do you ensure everything's running smoothly? If you speak to drivers they will often tell you the same thing – their managers don’t understand the numerous small frustrations and delays they face on an hourly basis.
The first thing for both sides to accept is that this is not going to change – so how do you work around it to make improvements? Firstly, face the facts: it’s easy to sit in an office and assume that being a driver is an easy job. It’s not: it is strenuous, often dangerous, and in many cases, doesn’t pay incredibly well either. So, managers need to ensure they’re doing as much as possible to make it easier and worthwhile for drivers to improve their performance. Nobody is going to keep working harder without some kind of incentive.
We have done quite a few posts on effective management courses, as well as how to keep your drivers happy. But what is the company / fleet manager’s incentive for ensuring drivers are properly trained and well managed? What’s the point? This article and infographic is brilliantly informative and perfectly sums up why it pays to care about your drivers, like we do.
Here's how driver management can revolutionise your fleet:
Interesting statistics
Note: these numbers are derived from the United States (local statistics are always hard to find), but many are applicable to South Africa as percentages / ratios will be similar.
- An estimated 12,802 lives were saved by seat belts in 2014 in the US.
- 3,477 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2015.
- 391,000 people were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2015.
- Reducing your speed can be the difference between life and death: a person struck by a vehicle at 30 KM/H will be injured, but is likely to survive, however a person who is struck by a vehicle travelling at 50 KM/H is much more likely to be killed.
- Increasing your speed from 70 KM/H to 80 KM/H increases the risk of crashing by 60%.
- A driver with a blood alcohol level of 0.10% is 7 times more likely to be involved in a fatal motor vehicle crash.
- A driver with a blood alcohol level of 0.15% is 25 times more likely to be involved in a fatal motor vehicle crash.
- A driver is 3.6 times more likely to get into an accident when eating while driving.
- A driver is 6 times more likely to get into an accident when talking on a cell phone while driving.
- A driver is 24 times more likely to get into an accident when texting on a cell phone while driving.
It’s a good bet that every fleet manager reading the above statistics is adding up the costs in their heads. According to the article quoted above, “the difference in whole lifecycle costs between a fleet of good drivers compared to a fleet of bad drivers can be 25%. Data collected from Chevin’s customer base shows that the best drivers can reduce costs by more than 12%, but the worst drivers can increase costs by more than 13%.
Effective driver management is not simply about drawing up checklists and checking GPS locations – it’s about training (and ensuring everyone understand the reasons behind the training) and giving drivers real incentive to stick to the rules and continuously improve their performance.
According to EQSTRA Fleet Management, “Fleet managers should always ensure that their drivers are operating in a safe environment. Therefore they always need to protect their drivers by availing appropriate safety training and making them aware of company policies which cater for it. Statistically in South Africa, 10000 people are killed on the road annually (Dube, 2015) which prove the importance of driver safety training as it has an enormous impact on customers operational cost translated in vehicle downtime, customer deliveries etc.”
It can be a complicated and ever-changing task as you’re dealing with many different personalities – once you find the right recipe, however, you’ll find that good driver management is one of the most effective ways to save money and build your company’s reputation for efficiency and reliability.
