Hit Your Safety Mark
Days are shorter and nights are longer in December, and on occasion, rain will turn to sleet or snow in parts of Texas. Inclement weather can impact driver and transportation safety. One way to reduce the risk of crash incidents and injuries involving your fleet drivers is to implement a journey management plan or update an existing plan.
How can you use your journey management plan to ensure efficient transportation of goods and services while also keeping everyone on your team safe? Here are our top five answers to that question:
- Manage time and costs: Calculate the shortest delivery routes to save on fuel consumption. Here, the adage applies: Time is money.
- Identify hazards: Conduct travel risk assessments. Check weather, traffic and road conditions before embarking on a trip. Can you avoid construction zone delays?
- Create alternate plans: When possible, mitigate risks by driving during daylight hours and postponing trips to avoid inclement weather.
- Maintain and inspect vehicles: Be sure to check tires for tread wear and proper inflation, and keep a log of regular vehicle maintenance (oil changes, windshield wipers, transmission fluid, brake pads, rotors). Use a checklist to ensure items like headlights, tail lights and blinkers are working properly.
- Communicate with drivers: Develop communication procedures for drivers and be sure they know how to reach out during an emergency. Do you have someone available 24/7?
Effective journey management planning can increase productivity, help employers understand and manage employee expectations and take corrective actions when necessary. Journey management planning can be used to keep employees and their family members safe off the job, too.
We offer a free online course that can help you introduce journey management principles or serve as a refresher to reinforce your safety program goals. The 20-minute course presents several driving scenarios that contrast poor planning with best practices. Get started here:
When you incorporate driver training and fatigue management strategies into your safety plan, you can reduce the likelihood of crashes and improve driver behavior. You’ll end 2024 on high note. You’ll begin 2025 with your journey toward improved transportation safety mapped out.
Bring Questions
In the workplace, it is common to test for alcohol and other drugs. This is done to foster a safe and healthy work environment for employees and customers and to protect employers from potential liability exposure. What substances are employers testing for? The list could include some or all of the following:
- Alcohol
- Marijuana
- Cocaine
- Opioids
- Amphetamines and methamphetamines (stimulants)
The ability of managers and supervisors to recognize changes in job performance is critical to the safety of employees and an employer’s ability to hit production goals. Reasonable suspicion training is an important part of your drug-free workplace program. Let us help ensure you’re on the right track. Make plans now to join us on Thursday, Jan. 16, for a free online webinar:
John Counts, a retired Texas Department of Public Safety senior trooper, will discuss the top mistakes employers make when conducting workplace testing for alcohol and other drugs. John also will discuss the DOT Clearinghouse, a database you can use to track job candidates and help workers receive proper evaluation and treatment before operating a commercial vehicle.
If you have attended one of John’s presentations in the past, you’ll want to listen in again because he has lots of new information to share. Bring your questions so he can help guide you in making your work environment safe for everyone!