How Trucking Companies Can Evaluate Employee Safety

Trucking Companies employee safety

It’s not easy for trucking companies to evaluate the performance and safety practices of their employees. It’s quite usual for trucking companies to attribute any problems on external factors like the weather and other drivers on the roads. However, unless a trucking company wants to be facing a personal injury lawsuit, it’s vital that they do as much as possible to evaluate their employees’ safety. Not only will this help to improve the safety level of their staff, but it will help to minimize problems on the road as well.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at three different ways that trucking companies can evaluate employee safety.

Monitor Driver Fatigue and Hours on the Road

Trucking Companies employee safety

Driver fatigue is a huge problem in the trucking industry, but it’s one that can be prevented with driver training and the proper scheduling. Every year, around 3300 truck crashes are attributed to driver fatigue, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The current legal limit for the amount of time a truck driver can spend on the road is 11 consecutive hours. After this, they need to take a minimum of a 10 hour break. Trucking companies must make sure to ensure this happens. They can do this by minimizing loading and unloading times, deploying nod alerts in the cabin, and checking up on their drivers to ensure they are receiving the amount of rest they need.

Regular Training

Trucking Companies employee safety

Training isn’t just for new truckers, it’s important for veterans as well. In the United States, the average amount of training a trucker receives is just three weeks. This isn’t nearly long enough, and it’s the main reason a lot of drivers struggle in adverse weather conditions. In some cases, a driver could be pulling a heavy load after just two and a half hours of training! In order to ensure employee safety, and evaluate it, trucking companies need to ensure that their employees are receiving regular training. Employees should be encouraged to take additional trucking qualifications, and training programs should be provided for all staff, no matter how long they have been driving.

Perform Effective Inspection and Licensing

Trucking Companies employee safety

Effective programs of licensing and inspection are key to driver safety. Unfortunately, the government hasn’t been able to help much with this so far. They currently only have the manpower to check licensing for companies with less than 20 drivers, so it falls on employers to ensure that their drivers are meeting the regulated requirements. Any employer who doesn’t do this is putting their drivers’ safety at risk, and risking a lawsuit as well. Luckily there are preventative measures such as enlisting DOT compliance services that can help minimize risks.

While the vice president of the American Trucking Association believes that it is the other vehicles on the road that are the cause of most trucking accidents, the figures show that more accidents are happening on US roads now than at any time in the last decade. It is vital that employers think about the safety of their employees and do as much as possible to guarantee it. Failure to do so will only lead to more catastrophic accidents that could have been avoided.

Article Submitted By Community Writer

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