According to our insights, distracted driving surpasses drunk driving as the top crash contributor, claiming 3,142 lives in 2020 alone. Combatting this driving behavior is not an easy battle for companies that employ drivers. It also greatly increases a company’s risk of future crashes, costly claims and lives lost if they don’t have a proactive safety strategy in place.
The Importance of Receiving Violation Alerts ASAP
A proactive strategy means more than just pulling MVRs on a yearly basis and holding your breath for the other 364 days of the year. This risky practice leaves you with an immense lack of visibility on your employees’ driving behavior throughout the rest of the year – creating a “visibility gap” that effectively eliminates any form of proactive action you may be able to take.
With continuous MVR monitoring, you can receive automated alerts when an employee receives a negative violation. Upon receiving a violation, you can then indicate if someone is more likely to be involved in a crash within the next year, intervening before it occurs.
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Distracted Driving: Strategies for Refocusing Your Drivers on the Road
Distracted Driving Violations Help PREDICT Future Crashes
If you had the ability to understand and predict which drivers in your fleet ran the highest risk of causing future crashes, would you want to know? You can take control of your risk if you know what behaviors to look for.
Top Three Indicators of a Future Crash
Driver’s License Status: It’s easier than you think to have a driver’s license status lapse. Between 3-5% of drivers are currently behind the wheel with a suspended license. Of that number, 80% of suspensions are due to administrative reasons. Often, even the most vigilant of drivers may not be aware of such a change.
Vehicular Crashes: Crashes are the result of negative driver behavior and can have a lasting impact on your business. The data doesn’t lie – a study conducted by SambaSafety shows that a history of reckless, careless, inattentive or negligent driving increases the likelihood of a crash by 64%. That’s why it’s integral to only have the best drivers behind the wheel.
Driver Violations: As we mentioned, driver violations are a strong leading indicator of future risk. Violations like speeding 15 MPH over the limit increase the chances of crashes by 67%. Nothing should be left to chance, especially when knowing that 10% of drivers cause 40% of a company’s crash-related costs.
Violations also provide specific insight into who in your fleet could be engaging in distracted driving. Our recent crash prediction study correlated MVR events with insurance claims. The results give a clear indication as to which distracted driving violations are the best leading indicators of claims. For example, receiving a violation for failing to signal a lane change, a sign that someone was likely distracted, increases the probability of a claim within the next year by almost 113%!
You can take better control of your risk if you know which trends to look out for. But knowing about a violation isn’t the same as fixing it. Upon discovering a violation, you need a fast, simple and effective strategy in place that’s aimed at improving driver behavior.
Driver Training Helps You PREVENT Future Crashes
Even if you’re pulling MVRs to identify violations, every mile that an individual drives without intervention puts your company at greater risk. That’s why the shortest distance between knowing and fixing is assigning relevant driver training as soon as possible.
Let’s say your driver receives a violation where they failed to signal a lane change. As we see from our chart above, the probability that this driver will be involved in an insurance claim within the next year increases by almost 113%! But because you were alerted of this violation as soon as possible, you can quickly intervene and assign remedial training targeted at fixing that specific behavior.
>> Check Out Our Online Driver Training Course Catalog <<
With a customizable and comprehensive driver training platform, like Qorta University, you can offer distracted driving courses such as:
- An Approach to Safe Driving
- Electronic Distractions
- Automobile Distractions
- Avoiding Rear-End Collisions
- And much more!
Whether it’s on a remedial or proactive basis, training reminds your drivers that safety matters. It’s a proven method to reduce crashes and violations. Fleets who train monthly have far fewer violations – 25% less than the industry average and 50% less than fleets who train twice a year.
Download our white paper, Distracted Driving: Strategies for Refocusing Your Drivers on the Road, for a deeper dive into how to prevent distracted driving and future crashes across your driver population:
