Establishing a Fleet Safety Program
A fleet safety program focuses on the operation of motor vehicles in use for company business and the potential risks to employees and the public. Fleet safety programs help control exposures, provide a written driver policy for carriers and enhance an existing risk control program. In addition, it helps reduce worker’s compensation claims due to injury and employee turnover, especially in the first year of employment.
A fleet safety program begins with a written safety policy. The safety policy covers all employees who are authorized to drive a motor vehicle for company business. Having a formal policy can help with underwriting insurance engineering requests, reduce risk of hiring unqualified drivers and help employers streamline their decision-making process.
A written safety policy should be drafted with the minimum policy goals:
Driver Safety Policy
Distracted Driving Policy
Driver Selection & Disqualification Processes
Motor Vehicle Records (MVR Review)
Motor Vehicle Records Matrix
Disciplinary Action Policy
Vehicle Maintenance Policy
Accident Reporting Policy
Insurance Requirements for Use of Personal Vehicles
Driver Acknowledgment Release
Employee training is also crucial for a successful fleet safety program. Offering a standardized orientation training process with role specific trainings that incorporate safety and operational responsibilities helps to reduce employee turnover and injuries. Best practice employee training programs include:
Entering and exiting the vehicle | 3 Points of Contact
Trucks, vans and heavy equipment have high points of entry and the number of times entering and exiting the vehicle increases the chance of injury.
Falling from a tall piece of equipment leads to knee, shoulder, hand and foot injuries. These have long recovery times and extended workers’ compensation exposures along with extended OSHA 300 reporting lost time days.
Daily Vehicle Inspections | 5 key mechanical parts + 3 key documentation parts
Mechanicals – Lights, tires, fluids, hoses and brakes
Documentation – Driver’s license, insurance cards and vehicle registration
Standardizing the inspection process keeps dangerous vehicles off the road and ensures that drivers are not cited for driver qualification and vehicle safety violations
Vehicle Backing Safety | parking spots, onto roadways, and into driveways
Most backing up accidents occur in to and out of parking spots. While these incidents rarely result in injuries, they can result in damage to vehicles.
Establishing a fleet safety program with a written safety policy and proper training will help reduce hazards and risks to employees. Contact us to learn more ways we can support your company in achieving your risk management goals.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Murphy
Adam Murphy is a Safety Consultant at Marsh & McLennan Agency. He is responsible for identifying safety hazards and providing solutions to help minimize risk for our clients. This includes offering both onsite and remote safety consultations, safety trainings and meetings, policy reviews and implementation, and operations compliance reviews. Adam excels in developing client-focused risk management programs with a heavy focus on safety and loss prevention. His extensive experience in a wide range of client services, such as Claims Root Cause Analyses, CSA and SMS analyses, DOT mock and HOS audits, a variety of driver training programs and DataQ corrections, has served as a difference maker for clients.
