How To Prioritise Driver Wellbeing In Your Fleet

The safety and wellbeing of your drivers is a vital aspect of fleet management. Long hours, irregular schedules, solitary journeys, and extended periods of inactivity sat behind the wheel are the realities of the job, all of which can contribute to an increased risk of physical and mental health issues.

By ensuring your drivers are supported in their role and making their health an ongoing consideration, you are not only prioritising your drivers but also securing the safe and effective operation of your fleet. Productivity levels, running costs, customer satisfaction, and overall fleet success are all directly linked to driver wellbeing, so making every effort to ensure that drivers are made to feel safe, advocated for, and motivated is the key to helping them perform at their very best.

Read on to discover how to improve driver safety, boost motivation, and provide the right support for your fleet drivers.

Introduce in-cab coaching

Aggressive driving is more likely to lead to stress, road rage, and accidents. When drivers are routinely exhibiting dangerous driving habits such as speeding, rapid acceleration, harsh braking, and sharp cornering, they’re putting themselves and other road users at risk. A more calm and considerate approach behind the wheel can help to reduce stress levels and give drivers more time to anticipate and react to hazards, helping to prevent incidents.

This is where in-cab coaching technology comes in. By training drivers in real-time to adjust their driving behaviour, in-cab coaching devices help to make safer, smoother journeys a permanent feature. This approach also grants drivers more autonomy – they are responsible for their own driving performance and essentially become self-managing, as by altering their driving in the moment to avoid dangerous situations, there is less need for disciplinary conversations with retrospective feedback from managers.

Create a positive working culture

The key to making safer driving practices the norm in your fleet is to reward your drivers rather than punishing them. Incentivising better behaviour behind the wheel is a great way to motivate your team and ensure that this behaviour gets repeated. Recognition, friendly competition amongst peers, prizes, and monetary rewards are all effective methods of cultivating a positive culture and ensuring that drivers feel valued and supported in their role.

Meanwhile, the traditional punitive approach to fleet management is more likely to create a negative working environment, leading to greater levels of stress for drivers and high turnover rates. Instead of relying on disciplinary action to transform how drivers travel, focus on celebrating good driving to encourage more of it.

Install dashcams

You can take your commitment to safer driving one step further by introducing dashcam technology into your fleet. Road-facing cameras can be used to monitor driver behaviour and identify any areas for improvement where further road safety training may be required, whilst the footage can also be used to exonerate drivers in case of false claims. This can help to reduce anxiety and stress for drivers as they go about their job, knowing that they are supported in the event of an incident that isn’t their fault.

Driver-facing dashcams are also available and can help you instil safer in-cab habits in your fleet. Intelligent cameras can pick up on distracted driving, alerting drivers to behaviours that could be endangering themselves or others – e.g. falling asleep at the wheel, using a mobile phone, or not wearing a seatbelt. It’s estimated that fatigue plays a role in 20% of collisions, whilst drivers using mobile phones are four times more likely to be involved in a crash. Similarly, wearing a seatbelt can reduce the risk of death or injury by 60%. Although recording in the cab, these cameras can be configured so as not to save any footage, ensuring that drivers are kept safe whilst their privacy is respected at all times.

Keep vehicles in peak condition

Make sure your fleet vehicles are regularly serviced and given routine maintenance to ensure they stay in optimal condition for your drivers, and consider investing in enhancements such as lumbar support and adjustable seating. This will give your employees confidence in the tools they’ve been provided with, removing some of the stress or worry that could be associated with the role and lessening physical strain.

Making vehicle inspections part of your everyday fleet operations will also help you to mitigate many of the risks that come with operating a commercial fleet, as faulty vehicles can lead to breakdowns and accidents. This helps to keep drivers safe behind the wheel, as well as removing the hassle of any potential downtime, which can also be damaging for your drivers’ mental health.

Protect lone workers

Feelings of isolation can be a common occurrence for commercial drivers due to the solitary nature of the job, so make sure you check in with drivers regularly on long journeys and create a culture of open communication between yourself and your team.

Drivers working alone will also benefit from additional safety provisions and the peace of mind they provide, so consider prioritising their welfare by installing a panic button that can be used to alert management in the event of an emergency. Fleet management tracking technology can also be used to notify you when a suspected collision has occurred, allowing you to fulfil your duty of care obligations and send help straight away when drivers are involved in a traffic incident.

Encourage proper breaks and rest

When concentrating on the wellbeing of your drivers, it’s hugely important to factor in sufficient downtime between journeys and to check that drivers are taking regular breaks. Driving for long periods of time can be tiring, and as shown above, driver fatigue can significantly increase risk on the road, largely due to reduced alertness and impaired judgement. It can also lead to heightened feelings of stress and anxiety. By encouraging your drivers to get enough rest, you’re not only improving their safety, but also boosting productivity and ensuring the smooth operation of your fleet.

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Prioritising driver health and wellbeing is key to running a safe and efficient fleet – and something that can be achieved in a number of ways. Here at Lightfoot, we use our technology to foster a culture within a business that recognises and rewards good drivers – in turn making them safer and more economical behind the wheel.

Our advanced driver coaching system already delivers impressive results, with real-world data from our customers showing a 40% reduction in at-fault accidents and an 84% decrease in dangerous driving. The addition of our latest development – Lightfoot Vision, further enhances these outcomes.

Lightfoot Vision uses in-cab cameras enhanced with AI learning technology which powers up the driver coaching aspect of Lightfoot by alerting drivers to unsafe actions behind the wheel such as smoking, mobile phone use, eating, not wearing a seatbelt, and becoming inattentive.

This dual technology underscores a culture of mutual investment in fleet safety between employees and companies – when everyone buys into the project, it produces significantly better results.

We’re finding that using Lightfoot alongside Lightfoot Vision is proving to create an even safer and more economical fleet operation. By recognising and rewarding safe driving behaviours, we can boost drivers’ confidence and job satisfaction while providing them with an in-cab ally in the event of an incident.

For more information about how Lightfoot can help you improve driver wellbeing in your fleet, please get in touch or book a free trial of our solution.