Distracted Driving, Liability and What You Can Do About it.
Distracted driving has become one of the biggest issues in terms of liability for any business with a fleet on the road. Businesses with 1 driver to thousands all need to understand the potential liabilities that distracted driving can have on their business.
As evidence from a recent lawsuit against Coca Cola, even having a policy in place may not protect you. There is no magic wand that can prevent drivers from being distracted but there are many things you can do to protect yourself.
- Have a safe driving policy in effect which clearly states what distracted driving is and what is not allowed.
- Review this policy with all employees on a monthly basis. Many insurance companies can assist you with material or help in setting this up. In order to protect yourself you must show consistent updates and contacts with all employees: meetings, flyers, emails etc…
- Pay for hands free Bluetooth devices for all employees, if cell use is allowed.
- There are also devices that can block cell use while driving, but these can be expensive and may not work with personal phones.
- Keep contact with drivers to a minimum by using a GPS tracking system. This type of system can also identify speeding drivers as well as keeping office to driver contact to a minimum.
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Review phone records to see which drivers may be excessively texting or speaking on the phone. Many cell carriers can provide this information if requested.
The benefits of all of this is employee protection, cost reduction, and liability insulation, all leading to reduced costs. We must all remember that Return on Investment is really the objective for any business, and our perspective demands that an effective distracted driving solution yields 500% or better ROI in the most conservative of scenarios.
Fleet Solutions Magazine. has a great article on this subject.
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/naylor/NAFS0512/index.php?startid=20&goback=.gde_2542318_member_163229932
