10 Company Vehicle Safe Driving Points

To help companies develop polices to address appropriate use of vehicles by their employees, SMB Now has come up with the following 10 Points to consider when writing company policies regarding the safe use of company vehicles:

1. Safe Driving is the Goal
The company should make it clear that it expects its employees to drive safely at all times for their own benefit and that of others. Employees who violate company safety goals are subject to penalties up to and including termination.

2. Keep Within the Speed Limits
The company policy must make it clear that it expects all its employees to never drive faster than posted speed limits nor faster than road conditions safely allow. This is especially true in winter and heavy weather conditions.

3. Company Management Must Lead by Example
As in other areas of company policy, all business owners and managers should lead by example, both in the way they drive themselves and in encouraging employees to drive safely.

4. Plan for Safe Travel
The company should also make it clear that all travel must be planned with safety in mind, allowing sufficient time  to travel at safe speeds. Take into consideration weather, road traffic conditions and rest breaks to avoid fatigue.

5. Avoid Incentives to Speed
The company should avoid having in place goals or performance related pay which may lead its employees to use speed inappropriately and travel at speeds which are likely to be unsafe or in excess of set speed limits.

6. Vehicle Repair and Maintenance
It should ensure that the vehicles are in good working order to avoid breakdowns or accidents. Vehicles should be scheduled for routine maintenance including oil, lube, tires check, brakes and other fluid levels.

7. Monitor Moving Violations
The company should put in place appropriate monitoring arrangements to assess the extent of employee moving violations . This should include monitoring licenses for points and recording all moving violations issued to company car drivers.

8. Investigate Accidents
All accidents should be investigated by the company to determine if poor employee driving skill was a contributory factor.

9. Monitoring Insurance Premiums
The company should monitor insurance premiums. Often times insurance companies know about employee moving violations that occur before the company does. An increase in premiums may indicate that your company has moved into a high risk category.

10. Raising Awareness
The company should ensure that its policy on safe use of speed is clearly communicated to all employees and is posted in the employee handbook. Also that awareness of the policy and issues involved is maintained through regular communications and feed-back on high standards of compliance as well as on cases where employees have failed to comply.