Every time one of your fleet drivers gets on the road, your company is exposed to a variety of risks. It’s essential to reduce those risks to keep your company moving forward.

Part of the answer is to have good driver assessment procedures. Understanding your drivers’ faults and habits, from the moment they’re hired and throughout their employment, can help you minimise accidents and admin headaches, ensure employee safety, and keep operation costs down.

In this blog, we’ll show you how a good ongoing driver assessment programme can lower your company’s exposure to risk while providing major cost savings over time. 

Why is Fleet Risk Management is so important? Find out here.

Uncovers the risks associated with fleet management 

The risks presented by fleet drivers can affect everything from your company’s long-term financial outlook to the ability to stay in business. The three broad categories of risk are:

• Safety risks. Your fleet drivers’ safety, as well as that of passengers, other motorists, and pedestrians, comes into play with every journey.

• Financial risks. Because vehicles are expensive assets — and maintenance will cost thousands of dollars over a vehicle’s useful lifetime — your company is always financially vulnerable.

• Legal risks. Accidents with harmful or deadly outcomes can leave your company legally responsible. Extreme costs can result from fines, legal fees, and loss of revenue due to reputational damage.

Could outsourcing your fleet risk management save you money? Click here to find out.

How can you identify the specific risks that exist within your fleet? A key resource is each employee’s personal driving history, obtainable from the Motor Vehicle Register (MVR). MVR reports reveal how drivers typically conduct themselves behind the wheel and can provide insight into their current fitness to operate company vehicles.  

Here’s how you can use this report to build your driver assessment programme:

Step 1: Assess driver safety

The risks that show up in driver histories can range from equipment violations, such as broken headlight bulbs or malfunctioning turn signals, to moving violations that present a higher risk, such as failure to yield or disregarding traffic signs. The most serious risks include driving recklessly or under the influence.

Appropriate consequences for these violations might include probationary vehicle use, suspension, or having drivers use personal vehicles. 

Step 2: Identify liability risks

Legal risks presented by fleet drivers can be huge, even if they use personal vehicles for work. Companies can be found liable in three major areas:

• Negligent entrustment, occurring when a company provides a vehicle to an individual who causes damage or harm. In this case, the company knows or fails to determine that the person is likely to cause danger.

• Negligent hiring, which makes a company responsible for the actions of an employee of the company, with or without a fleet vehicle.

• Vicarious liability, which means a company is responsible for a fleet driver’s actions, even when the company has checked driving records and determined that the employee presents a low risk.

Step 3: Develop risk assessment and driver training programmes

Given the importance of driver assessment to overall fleet management, it should never be ignored. Consistent driver reviews are important, as they can mitigate the largest risks and liabilities. To ensure compliance, human resources and legal divisions should always be involved when requesting MVR records of prospective and current employees.

Driver training can also effectively lower risk. SurePlan’s driver training programmes offer online, measurable, and easily-accessible driver education that increases awareness of road risks and safe driving skills. 

Our eLearning tool Driving Safer teaches good driver behaviour and safer choices, while the online driver coaching FleetCoach comes with video simulations covering hazard perception and other skills crucial to defensive driving. 

When handing your drivers the keys to fleet vehicles, peace of mind is essential. By assessing your company’s biggest risks, using MVR records to understand driver fitness, and implementing risk assessment and driver training, you’ll reduce costs, incidents, and admin work — while improving your company’s outlook.