Road Safety: Looking After Your Drivers 101

If you have a team of drivers on the road delivering or servicing customers, it can be difficult to keep up communication levels. Long hours on the road can quickly bring down the motivation of your employees, and they may begin to feel disconnected from the rest of the team. However, if you take the right steps to look after your drivers, you will end up with a team of trustworthy and happy employees for many years to come. Looking after employees on the road is much more challenging than looking after employees in an office setting, so let’s take a look at how you can look after your employees on the road!

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Check alcohol consumption

You already know the risks associated with drivers that are over the limit, and we don’t need to tell you that alcohol can stay in your bloodstream even well into the day after drinking. While you can’t stop your employees from having a drink in their free time, you have the responsibility to stop them from driving if they are over the limit. By carrying out random breath tests on your drivers, you can help reduce how much they are drinking the day before a shift on the road.

Service their vehicles regularly

You could have the safest and most conscious drivers in the world, but accidents can still happen. Sometimes this is because the vehicle itself isn’t safe to drive. You should encourage your drivers to check their vehicles before setting off on a journey, but it’s also your responsibility to make sure they are serviced regularly. Once every six months is usually recommended to be 100% certain that they are safe to drive.

Give them a simple communication method

As mentioned earlier, drivers on the road can feel very disconnected from the rest of the team, especially if they are staying overnight and travelling long distances. While it’s not safe to use a phone while driving, you should give them a way of communicating with you and anyone else they may need to contact. Get some help from IT support to install a safe and handsfree method of communication. This might be a screen on their dashboard that they can use to call, or it might be a bluetooth handsfree set. Not only will this help prevent any feelings of disconnection, it will also allow you to effectively communicate with your drivers in real time.

Check in on their health

If you drive, you probably already know how uncomfortable it can be to drive when you’re feeling a little under the weather, and this is something you should keep in mind with your drivers too. Don’t allow anyone who isn’t well to drive long distances, and arrange annual health check ups so you can be sure your drivers are fit and healthy, therefore not a danger to themselves or others on the road.

Looking after your drivers will help protect themselves and other users of the road, and also reduce employee turnover.