4 Tips to Identify Safer Drivers for Your Company Vehicles

Multiple factors may affect your commercial car insurance costs in Los Angeles. Generally, a high claims frequency, multiple accidents, or traffic infringements can raise your auto insurance premiums. All these factors have one thing in common—a direct relationship with your drivers' competencies and behavior on the road.

To maximize the safety of your commercial fleet and potentially reduce your insurance costs, consider hiring and keeping only safe drivers. Here are four ways to identify and keep safer drivers for your company vehicles.

1. Check Each Driver's History on the Motor Vehicle Record (MVR)

   Anybody's driving history is a reliable pointer to their future driving behavior. The MVR keeps this information for all drivers, so be sure to check it when vetting each driver. It is important that you have a strict safety criterion that each driver must meet to work for you.

Some of the red flags to watch out for include:

• Recent suspension or revocation of a driver's license
• Multiple at-fault accidents
• Regular citations for moving violations

You can use this MVR information as part of your pre-hire driver vetting process. However, you shouldn't stop there. Keep reviewing MVRs to ensure that the people driving your company vehicles are well-behaved on the road. Also, enforce your MVR standards consistently for all your drivers.

2. Constantly Monitor Driver Performance

   All your driving employees need constant monitoring on the job to ensure they're complying with your safety standards. You don't always have to accompany them to work to track their performance. Try these tips instead:

• Review each on-the-road incident, including crashes.
• Deploy supervisors with concrete driving competencies to conduct ride-along evaluations. It's a cost-effective way to observe and rate your employees' driving skills and behavior.
• Monitor motorist call-in reports for any infractions, such as reckless driving.
• Incorporate telematics to capture each vehicle's performance data. This digital technology, along with engine analytics, encourages drivers to be extra careful as it can detect and transmit data on speeding, hard braking, aggressive acceleration, and other misbehavior on the road.
• Scrutinize roadside inspection reports from the Department of Transportation.

3. Avoid Driver Fatigue

   Fatigued drivers lack the concentration levels necessary to drive safely. It is important that your company drivers get enough rest before getting behind the wheels. Here are some measures you can implement in your organization to prevent driver fatigue:

• Incorporate fatigue management principles in your safe driving program/policy.
• Cover the topic of fatigue-driving risks in your safety training program.
• Ensure your drivers don't overwork, including those deployed to remote locations. Work schedule management and monitoring of work hours can help with this.
• If your fleet includes regulated commercial vehicles, ensure all drivers follow relevant rules.
• Allow your employees to take a rest in a hotel after driving a certain number of hours.
• Train your drivers to recognize signs of fatigue, such as sleep, and get medical help for any sleep disorder.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), non-performance driver mistakes, like sleep, cause 7% of car accidents each year.

4. Promote Driver Health

   Besides obtaining and maintaining the DOT's certified medical status, ensure your drivers consistently do the following:

• Meet the minimum health standards stipulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
• Are aware of the dangerous effects of smoking, intoxication, mental health, and illness on driving.
• Eat healthy foods, including when driving long distances.

You can easily identify safer drivers to protect life on the road by taking these key steps. If you need help finding the right car insurance in Los Angeles, contact our experts at Fuller Insurance Agency today. We're happy to help create customized coverage for your commercial fleet.