5 Tips to Introduce Eco-safe Driving into Your Fleet

Running a fleet of vehicles can be an expensive business, one that can be made all the more costly by the behavior of individual drivers.

From the seemingly ever-increasing cost of fuel to time lost due to vehicles and drivers being sidelined thanks to crashes, fleet costs can very quickly blow out considerably.

That’s where eco-safe driving comes in.

By embedding a culture of ‘economical, safe’ driving – driving in a safe manner that at the same time reduces costs and is friendly to the environment by reducing emissions – into a company, the business can manage fleet risks more effectively.

Here are 5 tips to help businesses begin their journey towards eco-safe driving.

1. Break down the silos

Traditionally, businesses manage workforce mobility in one of three ways – efficiency, sustainability, or safety. Having a siloed approach doesn’t help realize the potential overall benefits of eco-safe driving – for example, focusing on safety and treating just crashes may result in missing something important.

Instead of a siloed approach, take a ‘systems-based’ approach to managing your motor fleet operations instead. By this, we mean looking business-wide at efficiency, sustainability and safety, as well as other factors, including reputation and well-being. 

Consider using the Zurich Resilience Solutions Motor Fleet Grading as a framework to assist with this.

2. Focus on driver behavior

Ninety-four percent of vehicle incidents are caused by driver action or inaction ^{1, 2}, and how vehicles are driven can significantly impact cost. Away from accidents, smooth driving can result in a potential fuel saving of 33%³, while reducing excessive speed can save up to 23% in fuel costs³. Training, coaching, and reinforcing what good driving looks like is key here.

3. But don’t make it just about the drivers

However, it’s important to make eco-safe driving an organizational issue, not just one for the drivers. Drivers aren’t going to change their behavior just because they’re asked to – it’s got to be part of a long-term, company-wide approach to your motor fleet operations, starting with new employee/driver onboarding and being led from the top.

This needs to include three levels of eco-safe driving decision-making:

• Strategic decisions, such as vehicle selection and maintenance schedules;
• Tactical decisions, such as route selection and vehicle loading, and;
• Operational decisions, such as driving style.

4. Explore technology

There’s a whole host of technology out there today that can help when it comes to eco-safe driving, for example, telematics (including smart-phone based, plug-in and hardwired ‘black box’) to monitor eco-safe driving performance and basic data from engine management systems. Driver and road safety cameras can enhance safety and help modify driver behavior, too. 

5. Your own style

There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution for this, and the cultural fit of any new initiative in mobility/transport is paramount. What works for one organization may not work for another. Develop your ‘own style’ that leverages the excellent information provided in the NRSPP Q&A paper on eco-safe driving to better align your operations with your organization’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

The unseen benefits of eco-safe driving

As well as saving on fuel costs and reducing accidents, eco-safe driving can also significantly impact the reputation of a business. As well as improved on-road behavior and a reduction in incidents, eco-safe driving can lead to more consistent, reliable deliveries too.

Another major benefit is the impact it can have on insurance. Of the 26 risk factors identified by Zurich Resilience Solutions motor grading touchpoints for a truck and the 25 for a sedan/LCV, 17 are influenced by eco-safe driving.

These touchpoints enable brokers and business leaders to understand the areas of potential exposure and can provide a framework to develop an eco-safe driving culture that spans company-wide.

And with increased safety, enhanced reputations, and reduced costs at stake, it’s certainly a project worth undertaking.