The Costs Of Driver Fatigue & Tips For Driver Safety

Fatigue is recognised as a major risk factor for all drivers and a known contributing factor to road crashes, rivalling the effects of speed and alcohol. Estimates suggest fatigue is a factor in up to 30 percent of fatal crashes and 15 percent of serious injury crashes. The Federal Government has committed to $14.5 million towards a new Co-operative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity, in the hope of reducing the number of fatigue related truck crashes.

While the safety aspects of rectifying the driver fatigue issue within the trucking industry are obvious, what are the implications for businesses involving fleets? Employee fatigue across all sectors is a major factor behind on-the-job accidents, absenteeism and lowered productivity. Whether you are behind the wheel, fueling, loading, unloading or just climbing in and out of your truck, fatigue can affect your ability to perform any of these tasks safely and efficiently. A split second mental lapse can cause an accident which can injure or even kill someone so the standard of accountability simply must leave no room for error of judgment.

Work, Health and Safety laws

The Model Work Health and Safety Bill introduced on 1st January 2012 extended the scope of business liability for employee welfare. The 2012 bill implemented a national WH&S standard across Australia whereby a fleet managed vehicle is defined as a 'workplace' and imposing a duty of care upon you to ensure the health and safety of your mobile employees within their vehicles. As such, asleep-deprived employee driving under the influence of fatigue isn't benefitting from a 'safe' workplace and it is your responsibility to ensure compliance with safety regulations. Businesses that fail to uphold this duty will have to pay fines of up to $600,000 or face a term of up to five years imprisonment if found guilty for non-compliance.

Higher costs and increased downtime

Accidents in the workplace - especially where injury or death is involved - represent a liability for any business, both in terms of costs and downtime, but also staff morale and reputation. The multi-dimensional impact means the goods lost in an incident are just a small part of the overall concern.

A crash represents a significant cost to your fleet and your business in the short and long term. Some of the possible costs you might have to incur are worker compensations, lawsuit legal costs and payouts, workers taking time off work to recover from injury, lowered worker morale affecting productivity levels, insurance excesses, unwanted negative publicity affecting your brand and increased insurance premiums.
Companies like Navman Wireless provide solutions that help improve fatigue management policies in businesses by offering clear visibility across fleet as well as into driver behaviour. Using this technology allows you to take proactive steps to remediate non-compliance with legislation and company policies, keep track of employees 'Standard Hours' and also issue alerts to your drivers urging them to take regular breaks. Violation notices can also be issued to both the driver and the fleet manager, should the driver fail to stop for a rest break.
On top of implementing the right technology, it is vital for any business in the fleet industry to educate drivers and raise awareness about the risks involved in drowsy driving. Below are a few recommendations on how you can help your drivers stay safe while at the same time help your company keep costs down and productivity running high for a healthier bottom line.

• Raise awareness ? It's important to create a work environment where all staff are familiar with the dangers of driving tired and provide some practical tips on what they can do about it or how they can pick up on the first clues of fatigue.
• Regular rest breaks ? Many drivers think of rest breaks as wasted time. Educating your employees about the importance of taking regular rest breaks is of utmost importance in order to change their perception. It is recommended that drivers should take a 15 minute break at least every two hours.
• Be reasonable ? Expectations and deadlines set upon drivers should be reasonable and achievable. Setting unrealistic deadlines will make your drivers more likely to skip rest breaks and practice dangerous driving.
• Accurately record Hours of Service (HOS) ?Past experiences have clearly shown that logbooks are not always accurate, are open to misinterpretations and can be easily falsified by drivers. An automated electronic logbook is far more effective and efficient at recording driving hours, distance travelled, and is less likely to be tampered with. Electronic logbooks offer clearer visibility across your fleets' operations.
• Monitor safe driving ? Driving hours will only tell part of the story. If your employees start driving tired, it doesn't matter if they've only driven a few hours, they're still a danger to themselves and other drivers and are more likely to cause your company a costly accident. With a comprehensive fleet management solution like Navman Wireless, you can set up alerts for, and monitor unsafe driving such as overspeeding, swerving or hard braking which could all be signs of delayed-reaction driving.

By taking appropriate measures to minimise or eliminate tired driving in your fleet, you will significantly reduce the business' expenses, the injuries and the deaths that result from drowsy driving. Furthermore, your drivers will be working more efficiently and will be more productive as they'll have more energy to do their job properly.