The Top 5 Ways Fleet Tracking Is Being Used To Improve Road Safety

In case you weren't already aware, this week is Road Safety Week 2016. Road safety charity Brake is helping to organise events all over the UK involving schools, businesses, grassroots campaigners and other organisations to raise awareness of issues relating to road safety and encouraging motorists to drive more carefully and considerately.

Teletrac Navman works to make the roads safer by providing detailed data on vehicle performance and driver behaviour, so we're delighted to support Road Safety Week 2016. To mark this year's Road Safety Week, we've put together this list of the five most important ways in which fleet tracking technology is helping to make road users safer.

 

• Driving style analysis. This provides fleet managers with unprecedented insight in to the way drivers conduct themselves when they're on the road. It allows them to analyse unacceptable driving and provide individual drivers with feedback on where they need to improve. This helps to set a standard process. According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), human error is a factor in 90 per cent of road accidents - and the sole cause in 76 per cent of them.

 

• Encouraging social driving. Fleet tracking technology is being used to create a culture of safe driving across organisations. With this technology, it's possible to implement safe drive zones with set speed limits in certain areas - for example, close to schools, around small villages and in high density locations.

 

• Fatigue management. RoSPA notes that tiredness may be a factor in up to 20 per cent of road accidents. Fleet tracking technology can identify the length of time that drivers have been out on a single trip, and advise them when it's time to take a break. This makes both drivers and their fellow road users safer, as well as contributing to building that organisational culture of road safety mentioned earlier.

 

• Speed limit monitoring and training. Exceeding the speed limit is thought to be a contributing factor in more than a quarter (27 per cent) of road accidents in the UK. A 2015 Co-operative Insurance survey, meanwhile, found that over a third of drivers didn't know the speed limit on either dual carriageways or motorways. Fleet tracking technology allows fleet managers to find out which of their drivers breach the speed limit. They can then arrange review sessions where these individuals are debriefed about their conduct on the roads, with training sessions for drivers who consistently exceed speed limits.

 

• Reducing mobile phone use when driving. Drivers who find themselves distracted by a complex secondary task - such as using a mobile phone - when driving are three times more likely to crash. Fleet tracking allows for integrated workflow solutions, reducing the need for communication over the phone by updating fleet managers on driver location and allowing for real-time routing.

 

In addition, evidence-based strategies are essential for improving fleet road safety. The in-depth data provided by fleet tracking solutions such as Teletrac Navman's Director can therefore play a crucial role in enhancing road safety. This data also empowers fleet managers to devise training and education programmes that develop safe driving skills, thereby reducing the risks both to themselves and other road users.