In part one of our fleet driver coaching series, we examined the fundamentals of coaching – what is driver coaching, why does it matter and what are common hurdles fleets face when implementing a coaching program? Those challenges included everything from preparing coaches to managing coach-to-driver ratios, frequency of coaching, visibility into risk and measuring program effectiveness. Now, we’re diving into helpful driver coaching tips that can directly address some of these challenges and help you reap the rewards of a well-structured driver coaching program.
8 Tips to Improve Your Driver Coaching Program
1. Create Clear Metrics, Goals and Expectations
A common pitfall with driver coaching is the difficulty in measuring the success of your driver coaching program. Vague goals make it impossible for coaches and drivers to know if they’re hitting the mark.
Create Specific, Measurable Objectives: Rather than “lower crashes,” set numerical goals like “reduce harsh-braking events by 30% within six months” or “cut speeding violations by 20% in Q1.” With clear metrics, you can tell if coaching is working or if interventions or adjustments are necessary.
Not sure where to start? Michael Tuomi, Director of HSE and Training at Liberty Energy, suggests finding two or three behaviors that are most important to you and creating a targeted strategy to mitigate them. "For example," Tuomi says, "if distracted driving is making up 5 to 10% of your behaviors but 50% of the wrecks, you start with those metrics to build on – rather than trying to fix too much too soon."
Clarify Expectations for Coaches: Provide your coaches with a blueprint of responsibilities that clearly states how their success is measured. For instance:
- Number of coaching sessions per month or quarter
- Timeliness in responding to risk alerts (e.g., within 48 hours of a flagged event)
- Improvement targets (e.g., a percentage drop in identified at-risk behaviors or improved driver scores)
This explicit framework makes it easier to offer targeted support to coaches who are not meeting benchmarks. We’ll discuss this in more detail in the next section.
Tie Coaching to Organizational Metrics: Let your coaches and drivers see how meeting these goals and improving their driver scores leads to bigger outcomes, such as a reduction in insurance premiums, legal exposure or CSA violations. Connecting the dots gives everyone a stake in staying on target.
Pro Tip: One organization boosted results by linking coaching metrics to performance incentives. By making measurable improvement part of a branch manager’s bonus, expectations stay top-of-mind and ensure coaching doesn’t become a purely disciplinary tool when issues arise.
2. Measure Coaching Effectiveness, Not Just Driver Performance
Many fleets use telematics and motor vehicle record (MVR) data to track driver performance but rarely measure how coaches perform. When risk remains high despite repeated feedback, it may not be a driver issue but a coaching issue.
Coaching Frequency and Timeliness: Are coaches intervening quickly when data shows a spike in speeding or harsh braking? For example, coaching could be required within 48 hours of an incident to prevent recurring issues.
Improvement Curves: Do risk behaviors actually drop and stay down after a coaching session? If drivers revert quickly within a certain number of days, you may need to refine the feedback approach or use more robust data to understand root causes.
“Graduation Rates” for At-Risk Drivers: If certain drivers remain high-risk after multiple coaching sessions, look closer. Do they need formal discipline, or is the coach missing key communication or follow-up strategies?
Pro Tip: A fleet introduced a “coach the coach” tier upon discovering that high driver risk often stemmed from under-trained or unsupported coaches. After adding mentor-led refreshers, they saw a drop in overall incidents, proving that measuring coach performance is just as critical as tracking driver behavior.
3. Coach the Coach
A critical aspect of successful fleet coaching is coaching the coach. Without proper training and support, even the most experienced managers may struggle to lead effective, two-way conversations when it comes to safety.
Hands-On Practice and Mentoring: Role-playing sessions, side-by-side training with an experienced coach and sitting in on coaching sessions can give newcomers a model for how to effectively navigate their responsibilities and handle tough conversations. Some companies even assign mentors for coaches to support them in the first year of their new role.
Focus on Communication Skills: Good coaching is collaborative, fostering dialogue rather than defensiveness. Ensure your coaches are regularly trained in effectively communicating with drivers so that coaching remains more of a positive, supportive approach rather than a disciplinary action.
Leadership Self-Assessments: Not all coaching styles are alike. Tools like Myers-Briggs or CliftonStrengths can help coaches identify their natural communication styles and potential blind spots, so they can develop a coaching style and approach that works for them.
Pro Tip: One company implemented a two-day “train the trainer” course. Their fleet mixes classroom theory with on-road coaching demos, where they actually practice coaching drivers in the cab on day two of their training program.
4. Right-Size the Coach-to-Driver Ratio
Too many drivers and too few coaches can dilute feedback’s impact.
Assess Workloads: If coaches juggle dispatch duties, customer calls and paperwork, they’ll likely rush through safety discussions. Regularly review how many drivers each coach manages to ensure quality over quantity.
Establish a Peer Coaching Model: Where feasible, consider also training reliable, safety-focused drivers to mentor their teammates. This approach can help reduce coaches' workloads, particularly in large or geographically dispersed fleets. However, it’s crucial to monitor and compare the effectiveness of these mentors with that of official coaches to ensure consistent results.
Spot Trends and Reallocate Resources: If certain branches or teams report consistently high risk, you may need to add more coaches or rotate them to balance the workload.
Pro Tip: Some industry leaders agree that, although every company will have its unique needs, aiming for a ratio of 15 to 16 drivers per coach is a solid benchmark.
5. Develop a Process for Underperforming Coaches
Coaching is a specialized skill; not everyone will excel at it. Even your highest-performing drivers may need additional support to transition into effective coaches. Just as you have intervention steps for struggling drivers, you'll need a system for underperforming coaches.
Identify Gaps Early: If a coach’s drivers consistently show repeated risk patterns, that’s a sign the coaching process isn’t hitting home. Initiate extra support or training for that coach.
Offer a Grace Period: When introducing new coach metrics or requirements, allow a few weeks for them to adapt. This is a good time to provide ongoing resources, such as workshops on communication skills or conflict resolution.
Reassign if Necessary: If performance still lags after additional training, consider assigning the coach to a role that better suits their strengths. A lackluster coach can stall the entire safety program and keep risk levels high.
Pro Tip: A large fleet uses its “driver intervention” approach for its underperforming coaches as well. After multiple shortfalls, coaches must complete special training in topics such as navigating difficult conversations.
6. Offer Multiple Coaching Formats for Different Needs
No single coaching style works best for every driver or scenario. By mixing and matching various approaches, you can ensure that fleet coaching reaches your drivers more effectively.
One-to-One Manager-Led Sessions: This approach is ideal for sensitive or repeated issues, offering private, personalized attention for each driver.
Group Coaching Sessions: This approach is perfect for discussing common topics like seasonal weather challenges or new regulations. Use this format to highlight standout performers and share best practices.
Self- and Peer Coaching: For less serious events, drivers can review video footage of their own near-misses or infractions, guiding them to reflect on what went wrong before meeting with management. You can also encourage experienced drivers to mentor newer teammates, sharing tips and best practices.
In-Cab, Real-Time Coaching: AI-driven dash cams can alert drivers to issues like following distance or phone usage as they happen, allowing them to correct the behavior instantly.
Pro Tip: One company creates friendly competition within their group coaching sessions by revealing and rewarding the top drivers. They display a leaderboard of safety scores during group meetings. The competition this created has cultivated a tight-knit, motivated environment where drivers see safety as a collective goal rather than an obligation.
7. Know When Coaching Becomes Discipline
Even if your coaching approach is supportive and proactive, repeated instances of unsafe driving behaviors may call for more direct measures. If a driver continues committing the same violations (like consistently speeding or not wearing a seatbelt) after multiple coaching opportunities, you may need to escalate to disciplinary action.
“When a driver hits that high-risk threshold, [Sunbelt Rentals brings] them into what we call a monitoring intervention program. That program basically says, ‘Hey, you’re high-risk.’ We actually coach the coach, who then coaches the driver. We do that for a period of time and make sure their scores get back to what we consider a safe driving score. For context, we’ve done that with almost seven hundred drivers now, with a 95% success rate.” - Sara Wojcik, Senior Director of DOT Compliance & Transportation Safety, Sunbelt Rentals
Driver safety coaching is designed to help drivers improve, but there must also be clear consequences if repeated coaching fails to change unsafe behaviors.
8. Harness Technology to Drive Success
Throughout these best practices, timely data – whether from telematics, in-cab cameras or MVR monitoring – can help coaches pinpoint risky driving habits before they escalate. In our third and final blog of this series, we’ll explore how technology can proactively support your coaching program, including:
Timely Alerts: Setting thresholds for speeding or harsh braking so coaches can intervene immediately.
Centralized Tools: Integrating MVR data, telematics events and CSA history to paint a holistic view of risk, with the ability to implement quick interventions.
AI-Generated Training Assignments: Delivering online training modules tailored to a driver’s specific risk behaviors.
With the right technology ecosystem, you’ll transform your approach from reactive “post-incident” coaching to a highly proactive model that prevents violations and collisions.
Get More Tips for Strengthening Your Safety Culture
These best practices zero in on many of the root challenges of coaching, showing how each can be resolved through clear goals, robust coach training, multiple approaches and effective performance measurement. By integrating these practices, your organization can transform its safety culture, reduce risk and boost driver engagement.
Ready to learn more? Explore how to spot and address risky behaviors before they escalate into collisions or hefty violations in our free guide, Knowing Isn’t Fixing: Proactive Intervention Tactics for Addressing Driver Risk.
