How to Stop Bad Driver Behavior From Impacting Your Fleet Costs
Alarmingly, there are more than 5 million car accidents every year on city streets and county roads across the nation.
Many of these accidents are caused by bad driver behavior. And if your employees drive for work, your company could be impacted if they are involved in an accident.
Continue to read to learn more about the importance of creating a safe driving culture at work, how bad driving behavior affects your bottom line, and how proactive solutions can help eliminate bad driver behavior.
What Are Common Types of Bad Driving Behavior?
Common types of bad driving behavior include, but are not limited to:
- Speeding
- Texting when driving
- Distracted driving (eating/drinking/making phone calls/etc.)
- Fast acceleration
- Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Hard turns
- Unexpected and sudden stops
Any of the above behaviors can result in a collision or crash. If one of your employees is an aggressive driver, they may be more inclined to engage in such behavior. If an accident occurs and involves another vehicle, your company and its insurance provider will most likely be held liable.
What is the Impact of Bad Driving Behavior?
Not only will bad driving behavior affect your company’s reputation, but such behavior can result in significant financial repercussions.
Let’s examine some numbers.
Car Accident Costs
Shocking as it may seem, some car accident expenses can reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Such costs are often associated with fatal cases. If an accident causes an injury to a third-party victim, expenses can be close to $80,000.
And then you must consider injuries to your employee, the damaged vehicle, and lost production time. All of these items can cost your company money and can be detrimental to your bottom line.
Traffic Ticket Costs
Traffic tickets are another financial consequence of bad driving. Many traffic tickets may fall within the $150-$200 range, but some can reach $1,000 or more, depending on the violation and the driver’s record.
Traffic tickets are more than an expense, though. Depending on ticket reasoning, your driver’s record can be permanently damaged, and the driver may face more severe legal punishment.
Insurance Premium Increases
Did you know that car insurance typically increases by at least 30% after an accident if it is your fault?
If one of your fleet drivers is at fault for an accident with damages over $2,000, your insurance premium can increase significantly. Your new insurance plan will not only cost your company more but could affect your overall profits.
Driving Under the Influence of Drugs and Alcohol
While you would hope that none of your fleet drivers would operate a company vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs, such situations do happen.
While rare, these situations are complex in nature, and their scope is far greater than financial expenses.
If your driver was driving the under the influence of alcohol or drugs, this behavior can have severe legal implications.
Your driver could be charged with a DUI or DWI and will be required to pay expensive fees. The average DUI cost is between $10,000 to $30,000, including attorney fees and government fines. Some individuals with DUI or DWI charges may be forced to spend time in jail or prison.
After a DUI occurs, most companies begin intensive investigations regarding the incident. When a driver gets a DUI or DWI charge, this is permanently on their record.
Protect Your Fleet Drivers and Your Company
In the above sections, we hoped to convey the significance of bad driving behavior and how it can affect your bottom line. Poor driving can cost a lot of money and can be a major source of stress for your company.
There is good news, however. By proactively incorporating a defensive driving course into your fleet employee training, you can decrease bad driving behavior!
You may be thinking; my drivers have already taken driver’s courses to receive their licenses. Yes, that’s true, but safe driver courses offer an opportunity for drivers to refresh their knowledge of laws and regulations, as well as the chance to learn defensive driving procedures and techniques to avoid dangerous road hazards.
More importantly, a driver’s safety course is an investment in your company. When your team is better educated about safe driving practices, they will place more focus on their behavior. When employers understand what is expected of them, there is no excuse for inappropriate behavior.
How a Defensive Driving Course Makes a Difference
Besides teaching ethical driving practices, a defensive driving course helps avoid accidents by educating your team members about different situations drivers may experience.
The course takes your drivers step by step through a variety of scenarios and teaches them what to do. The goal is to teach drivers to anticipate, identify, and avoid road hazards. The best way to address the high costs of accidents is to prevent them from happening at all.
As your team learns more about better driving, you will increase fleet driver safety, save money, have a more productive team, and reduce wear and tear on your vehicles.
Reduce Fleet Costs Today with DriveSafe Online
The DriveSafe Online Defensive Driving course is an essential component of your employee training, whether you need to train your fleet drivers how to safely navigate neighborhood streets, avoid fixed objects, or steer clear of traffic violations.
Click here to learn how you can make your fleet more effective.
Patrick M. is Editorial Director for the always expanding DriveSafe Online library of courses. With over two decades of experience developing award-winning training, he now focuses on innovating online driver safety training. Pulling from his background in journalism, he steers the wheel behind the creation of top-tier content that promotes a better journey—whether on the digital highway of learning or the real roads we travel every day.