{"id":3185,"date":"2019-08-07T16:19:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T14:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/?p=3185"},"modified":"2019-08-07T16:19:33","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T14:19:33","slug":"fleet-crashes-flat-year-over-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2019\/08\/07\/fleet-crashes-flat-year-over-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Fleet Crashes Flat Year Over Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo courtesy of iStockphoto.com via Creativaimage.<\/b><\/p>\n

Fleet Crashes Flat Year Over Year<\/h2>\n

Curbing driver crashes remains a major focus for fleets, despite \u00a0recent data showing that these incidents in 2017 have been flat year-over-year.<\/p>\n

Further still, preliminary data for 2018 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has observed a 3.6% drop in \u00a0traffic fatalities. So while things may have evened out, crashes remain a persistent problem for fleets, and the reduction of preventable accidents such as distracted driving is one way to reduce the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreventable accidents are always going to be the most crucial accident type to address, since it is the accident type drivers have the most control over,\u201d said Chris Villella, VP, strategic relationship management for The CEI Group. \u201cThat style of training is usually followed by defensive driving techniques that can help drivers prevent accidents, even when the type of accident that would have occurred would not be deemed preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry Veres, certified director of safety for Fleet Response, observed one of the largest reasons for preventable accidents is distracted driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s hitting a stationary object or backing into something, most of it can be avoided when a driver removes all distractions,\u201d said Veres. \u201cHowever, the one other piece that drivers can be taught is how to avoid situations that increase their chances for an accident. For example, parking away from other cars, or in a spot that avoids backing when you leave, can help to avoid the rear-end accidents in busy parking lots.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Data courtesy of The CEI Group<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Data this year found that two of the top five incident descriptions listed for the survey were the result of crashes involving stationary objects and within parking lots.<\/p>\n

Beyond distracted driving, an increase in drivers on the road in recent years has contributed to the rising number of accidents over the last few years, despite it being flat as of late.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty flat, but if you would compare the data over a three or four-year period, accidents have gone up and that is due to the lowering of prices for gas,\u201d said Veres. \u201cWhen you have lower gas prices you have more people on the road, which means opportunity for accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the increasing ubiquity of in-vehicle safety technology is one such solution designed to reduce this issue, but has not necessarily been the case. Proper training may improve the effectiveness of the technology.<\/p>\n

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Data courtesy of Fleet Response<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNew vehicle technology is making drivers complacent. As back-up cameras have become more prevalent, more and more backing accidents have been cropping up, which seems surprising until you realize the cause \u2013 drivers are using just the camera and not turning around to check all the angles,\u201d said Villella. \u201cNow we have cars with adaptive cruise control and emergency braking systems becoming more commonplace, so we remind fleets that drivers need training on new vehicle systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at the Data<\/h4>\n

Other tangential fleet safety data reported for calendar-year 2017 showed fluctuations compared with what was reported the previous year. For example, there has been a small rise in accidents of drivers between the ages of 46 to 54, though the numbers reported don\u2019t tell the entire story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to point out that we are giving percentage of accidents by age, but we aren\u2019t sharing the percentage of drivers in each age group on the road,\u201d said Veres. \u201cWith the working population getting older as employees are delaying retirement, distribution of accident percentages can seem higher in certain age ranges.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Data courtesy of Fleet Response<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This, and other data in this study, creates a niche window that fleets can analyze to benchmark against their operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharting the data helps us look for trends in data and changes year-to-year to help companies be proactive in areas where they can train employees relative to incidents based on age and time of day,\u201d said Veres. \u201cCompanies can utilize this data as benchmarking percentages and compare our provided information relative to their fleets.\u201d<\/p>\n

After further benchmarking and analysis, fleets can work with safety professionals in order to implement the appropriate safety policies in an effort to eliminate problem areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working with our customers to ensure that all safety policies have a very thorough and clearly stated no tolerance policy on distracted driving, and we support those who are implementing in-vehicle solutions such as cell service blockers and phone apps that ensure limited phone interaction and blocks all incoming calls while driving,\u201d said Villella.<\/p>\n

by Andy Lundin<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.automotive-fleet.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n

Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n

Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n

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Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n

The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n