{"id":3708,"date":"2019-11-17T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T10:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/?p=3708"},"modified":"2019-11-17T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T10:51:00","slug":"five-sources-of-aggressive-driving-and-what-you-can-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2019\/11\/17\/five-sources-of-aggressive-driving-and-what-you-can-do-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Sources of Aggressive Driving and What You Can Do About It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five Sources of Aggressive Driving and What You Can Do About It<\/h3>\n

One of the trickiest behaviours to uproot is aggressive driving. It doesn\u2019t have to be full-blown road rage to be risky. Tailgating, speeding, and cutting off other vehicles all can also boost the chances of collisions.<\/i><\/p>\n

But what drives aggressive behaviour? And what can fleet managers do about it? To help answer those questions, we turned to Steve Albrecht, a former officer with the San Diego Police Department and now an expert on workplace safety.<\/p>\n

Albrecht, who has written about road rage for Psychology Today magazine, points to five sources of aggressive driving:<\/p>\n

Territoriality <\/strong><\/h5>\n

When people are in their vehicles, they feel they own the territory around them, Albrecht said. That creates a series of behaviours where people use their vehicles as blocking devices. \u201cThey\u2019re saying, \u2018You have to respect my space.\u2019 And when they feel you are not respecting their space, they tailgate you, cut you off, or block you,\u201d said Albrecht, who witnessed many of these instances, and their deadly consequences, during his 15 years on the force. \u201cThat\u2019s all territoriality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entitlement <\/strong><\/h5>\n

Related to territoriality is a sense of entitlement. Drivers who regard the area around their vehicles as personal space can sometimes feel entitled to exact their revenge if they feel their space has been violated. \u201cIt\u2019s the same mentality of people who think that they get to throw a bottle at the umpire for a bad call because they paid \u00a350 for their game ticket,\u201d Albrecht said.<\/p>\n

Anger<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The anger people experience while driving is distinctly different than anger felt in other circumstances. \u201cIt\u2019s a more primitive anger,\u201d Albrecht said. \u201cYou talk to people afterwards, and they say something like, \u2018I just saw red.\u2019 They completely miss the opportunity to control their anger.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Sense of Consequence<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Now we\u2019ve got a volatile cocktail of territoriality, entitlement, and primitive anger. But whereas people find ways to rein in their rage in other situations where they feel slighted, there\u2019s a greater tendency for people to let loose when they\u2019re behind the wheel and feeling a false sense of security from the \u201carmour\u201d of their vehicles. \u201cPeople don\u2019t seem to get that there could be consequences to their actions when they\u2019re in the middle of road rage,\u201d Albrecht said. \u201cWhen they\u2019re in jail, they feel bad then. But when they\u2019re in the middle of it, they don\u2019t seem to have a sense of future consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Habit<\/strong><\/h5>\n

For professional drivers, the most likely reason for aggressive driving is a habit, Albrecht. \u201cThey\u2019ll justify it by saying, \u2018I\u2019ve done these shortcuts so often, and nothing bad has happened.\u2019 They start to shorten the space between themselves and the vehicle in front of them. They drive a little faster. They cut corners to get the job done more quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no sense of impending consequence, because they\u2019ve driven this way for months or years without a major accident, so it doesn\u2019t seem like a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on these five behavioural factors, Albrecht recommends the following remedies to deal with aggressive driving:<\/p>\n

Have checklists.<\/strong> The tendency to slide and cut corners is why pilots have checklists, Albrecht said. As with commercial drivers, pilot error can have disastrous consequences. A checklist helps to ensure all the necessary safety checks, no matter how mundane, are performed. For aggressive driving, creating a simple procedure, with steps to build a buffer when another vehicle cuts your driver off, can help prevent a tit-for-tat escalation, for example.<\/p>\n

Reward good behaviour.<\/strong> Reinforce good behaviour by giving safe drivers bonuses or other compensation on a regular basis, linking the reward with the specific driving behaviour you want to encourage, such as following distance.<\/p>\n

Develop accountability.<\/strong> Albrecht talks about an experience he had while he was in the police force. For several years, \u201cif you got in an accident in a police vehicle, it was a big deal,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAs a result, officers didn\u2019t take risks. But when the department \u2026 gave only verbal warnings, accident rates went up.\u201d The conclusion: Without a way to hold employees accountable, change is much more difficult, Albrecht said.<\/p>\n

Create a safety culture.<\/strong> Supervisors can\u2019t be everywhere at once. A safety culture helps to motivate employees to do the right thing for its own sake. \u201cWith a safety culture, it becomes an \u2018us\u2019 issue, rather than a \u2018me\u2019 issue,\u201d Albrecht said. \u201cEveryone is an ambassador. That\u2019s a different mindset. When we take time to create a culture, there\u2019s a collective desire to do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SteveSteve Albrecht<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.lytx.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\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

\"fleet<\/p>\n

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