Top safety tips for your company car fleet

Managing a fleet of commercial vehicles is a challenging job. Fleet management involves a wide range of tasks, from sourcing the best deals when acquiring vehicles, through to ensuring that they are cost-effective to run.

Although it is vital to ensure that the financial side of managing a fleet is cost-effective, safety is an even higher priority. Employers have a duty of care towards their staff, and this needs to be kept in mind when supplying your team with company vehicles.

Keeping your employees safe while they are using company vehicles requires a thorough plan of action to help minimize the chances of an accident occurring. Here are some points to consider when managing a fleet of commercial vehicles to ensure that you are doing everything possible to keep your employees safe:

Vehicle maintenance

Maintenance is essential for every vehicle, but even more so for commercial vehicles. Company cars are likely to travel many more miles than your average vehicle, which means that they are subjected to increased wear and tear.

As commercial vehicles are in constant use, it is essential to perform maintenance checks far more regularly than you usually would. Tires and brakes are likely to become worn pretty quickly, so these should be checked frequently.

It is crucial to encourage your employees to report any problems with vehicles that they notice while they are driving. Introducing a method of reporting issues, such as a form, to record any concerns that have been made, will ensure that they can be resolved quickly.

Essential equipment

To stay safe on the road, it is vital to ensure that each of your commercial vehicles is well-equipped. If an employee was to break down or be involved in a collision, they need to have the right equipment to help them in this situation. Here are some useful items to keep in your company vehicles:

• A basic first aid kit
• Contact details for a vehicle recovery service and roadside assistance service
• The fleet management office number so that employees can contact you with any issues relating to the vehicle
• Torch
• Ice scraper

Another essential piece of equipment is a dashcam. In the unfortunate event that a member of staff was involved in a road traffic incident while driving a company vehicle, a dashcam will come in really handy.

The footage recorded on the camera will provide crucial evidence if an insurance claim needs to be made. This essential piece of equipment needs to be of high quality to be useful, so make sure that you pick the best fleet dash camera to ensure that it is up to the job.

Training

Although staff will have the relevant licenses and documentation to drive a commercial vehicle, it is essential to remind them of how they can keep themselves safe on the road.

Distractions and driving when tired are leading causes of road traffic incidents, so be sure to remind your staff to prioritize their safety and that of other road users at all times.

** This is a collaborative post