(photo: Chis Hayes, Assistant Vice President of Auto and Workers Compensation Risk Control for Travelers)
By Fleet Management Weekly Staff
February 12, 2025
Of all the challenges a fleet manager has to deal with–maintenance, fueling, electrification–nothing is more important than driver safety. Several factors can imperil a driver’s safety, from distracted driving to poor weather conditions. For example, winter often leads to a massive uptick in car accidents, as drivers are forced to navigate reduced visibility and road traction.
Fleet managers have several options for ensuring their drivers’ safety, such as training programs or telematics. Many insurance companies, such as Travelers, offer risk management services designed to educate drivers and reduce collisions in hazardous weather. These services often include safety training, compliance support, and GPS tracking to help monitor driver behavior.
To keep their drivers safe, fleet managers need to be proactive. We spoke with Chris Hayes, Assistant Vice President of Auto and Workers Compensation Risk Control for Travelers, to learn more about how drivers can stay safe in winter weather. Here’s what we learned:
What can be done to proactively minimize risk for trucks once they get on the road?
This question reminds me of a proverb: when’s the best time to plant a fruit tree? The best time was 20 years ago. The next best time is right now.
When you think about getting ready for winter driving in the trucking community, most things are done well ahead of time. Do you have a preventive maintenance program you’re sticking to? Are you planning your drivers’ routes based on who’s got experience driving in this kind of weather? If you have people who have experienced that weather, it’s easy to let those lessons slip over time. I think we’re rarely in a position where we need to train people to drive in the winter. Instead, we need to remind them what it’s like to refresh what they’ve already learned.
It’s also important to know where your vehicles are driving in poor weather so you can communicate that to your fleet. In this era, fleets have instant access to weather updates throughout the entire route they’ll be driving. The fleet manager and the driver need to know the weather along the way and what to look out for. Then, there should be open communication with shippers or receivers to inform them of potential delays before storms occur. It’s all about safety; the driver and product should arrive safely.
How do all of these things help reduce the number of weather-related accidents?
They help you get ahead of any issues. One of the worst things you can do is have your driver by themselves on the road worrying about whether they’re going to make their delivery or if they’re going to run out of hours. The more you can take the burden off of the driver and put it on the folks in the office, the easier it will be for them to focus on the most critical thing, which is getting there safely; as much burden as you can take off the driver–talking to the shipper, tracking locations, calling the consignee–the better.
When I started doing this around 25 years ago, telematics was not a thing. People would call their drivers on their brand-new cell phones and ask, “Where are you?” That’s not the world we live in today. Now you know precisely where every truck is by looking at a screen. You know when they’ll get there and what the weather will be like, so you can make that call for them. You can let the drivers know that their safety is the most important thing, and if you need to adjust timelines, you can adjust timelines.
Can you provide an example of when a vehicle or fleet could stay safe in hazardous weather?
Ironically, there are times when a cell phone can keep someone safe. It’s about constant communication and updates about where people are going and what the weather will be like. Whether the driver is parked, taking a break, or in the sleeper, they can check the weather and communicate with the dispatcher about where they are, which gives them a lot of information to make decisions. The people who succeed don’t figure out how to maneuver carefully through that ice storm or drive safely in the snow. They’re the ones who think ahead and avoid being on the road in that timeframe.
Remember, it’s not just your driving. We can teach people to drive safely in the snow all day, but it’s not just about knowing how to drive a tractor through the ice–it’s about everyone else around you. The person in the SUV next to you may have a tenth of the miles and the experience you do. So it’s about avoiding the other people who might be spinning out around you.
Studies done by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute many years ago examined collisions between light vehicles and trucks to determine who was generally at fault. Around 70% of these collisions involved the lighter vehicle, not the truck. So, your safety is essential, but you’re also key to keeping other people safe on the road, especially during winter weather.
In what ways can distracted driving and dangerous weather conditions work in tandem to create hazardous situations? What can be done to minimize these dangers?
The combination of distracted driving and hazardous weather is certainly something we don’t look forward to in the insurance community. If you think about all the conversations around distracted driving, they’re about your ability to react to sudden changes around you. That may be the brake lights in front of you, someone pulling out in front of you, a lane change, construction, or a work zone you weren’t anticipating.
We focus so much on distracted driving so you can respond to things differently from the last time you looked up. Now amplify that with poor weather conditions, low visibility, and a slippery road. The risk of things happening unexpectedly around you increases dramatically during these weather events. That’s why it’s so important to keep yourself focused.
As someone who manages drivers, I know the best way to help a driver stay focused is to keep communicating that fact. After all, there are very few things about driving that we don’t already know. They’re just easy to let slip over time. Drivers know they need to use their turn signal, but we must keep reminding them because it’s easy to let slip.
I’m not a big proponent of driver training as the solution to safety concerns. I prefer doing driving reminders to help drivers remember why these things are essential. Let’s refocus on why you should focus on the road and not on a secondary task. And a secondary task isn’t just using your phone. It can be anything that takes your eyes off the road, like changing the radio station or checking something else inside the vehicle. As a manager, you must do whatever you can to help your drivers stay focused.
Do you have any other safe driving tips for driving in winter weather?
A few things come to mind when I think about winter driving. The first is that winter brings more than just snow and ice–there are holiday parties, family obligations, and things you must do when you’re not driving or trying to get adequate rest. You also have to take into consideration what happens in different climates. If you’re further north, it gets dark much earlier. That change in light impacts fatigue and mood, both of which play a role in one’s ability to focus.
Then, you add in the last component, which is illness. There tends to be a higher rate of flu and viruses during winter. All of these combine to make the road more hazardous and even your health a little more challenged. So, it’s essential to keep that in mind.
My final tip is a saying I heard from my first trucking mentor: Better late than in the ditch. This is a great idea to take into any winter driving event.
