For organisations that operate within the logistics sector, one of their primary roles is ensuring the safe, responsible, and efficient transportation of goods from one location to another. However, due to the nature of the role, the fatal injury rate in the transportation/storage sectors is twice as higher as that of all the industry rates.
From falling from a height to being struck by a loose piece of equipment, there are many ways that workers can fatally or non-fatally injure themselves, with road traffic accidents being one of the most common. While any accident is unpreventable, the aftermath can cause significant reputational and financial damage to logistics companies, so the risk must be prevented or at least reduced. So, is there anything that logistics companies can do?
Fortunately, there are many preventative measures logistic companies can take to reduce the risk of accidents while on the road. In this article, we list several steps logistics companies can take to minimise the risk of road traffic accidents, from using smart technology like a remote tachograph download to regularly maintaining vehicles to keep their staff, reputation, and goods safe.
Ensure Your Drivers are Alert When they Hit the Road
Although driving isn’t physically demanding, the hours can be long and unsociable, making staying alert extremely challenging. Since one of the leading causes of road traffic accidents is being drowsy at the wheel, your logistics business must have adequate fatigue control measures in place to ensure the safety of your drivers.
No matter how brilliant a team of drivers your logistics business has, drowsiness can affect the best of your team. Thankfully, there are several preventive methods your workplace (and drivers!) can implement to ensure safety and well-being, such as putting drivers on rotational shifts, not letting people turn up for work sick, avoiding caffeine, taking regular breaks, and much more.
These fatigue control methods ensure your drivers hit the road in the best condition possible. Ensuring your drivers are in an excellent physical and mental state means they are more likely to perform at maximum efficiency, meaning that the likelihood of road accidents is considerably lessened.
Regularly Upgrade Your Vehicles/Equipment
While everyone in the logistics sector should know that regularly maintaining your fleet is essential for minimising the risk of incidents, ensuring that your equipment/vehicles undergo timely upgrades is equally crucial. In our digital age, updating your equipment/vehicles with the latest transportation technology is essential for ensuring your goods, drivers, and vehicles are more protected than ever.
From transportation management systems and time slot management to self-driving trucks and anti-theft GPS, there are hundreds of new pieces of transportation technology to help logistic businesses improve the quality of their services and stay ahead of their competitors.
One of the recently immerging trends in the HGV transportation tech world is the use of tachograph data, which has several goals: to determine the route an HGV has travelled, the time it travelled said route, how it was driven, the rate of braking, and at what speeds.
Although remote tachograph download and other tachograph solutions are unsuitable for light-vehicle-only fleets, if your logistics business specialises in using HGV, tachograph solutions like the ones from FleetGO, make it much easier to monitor the above and protect your goods, drivers, and fleet.
Whether you’d like to install a new cloud-based platform or keep track of your equipment, consider visiting their website to discover how their products could help you download your tachograph files and upgrade your HGV vehicles/equipment to be safer today.
Invest in Fleet Vehicle Maintenance
The maintenance of your fleet will undoubtedly be one of your most costly outgoings when running/managing a logistics business. Yet, it is essential that you don’t view it as an expense but as an investment instead, and one that will save you much value (and hassle!) in the long run, so long as you keep on top of it.
Aside from drowsiness, mechanical problems are another leading cause of road accidents which can easily be prevented by investing in regular maintenance. Not only does it improve the safety of your drivers, vehicles, and goods, but it also provides various other benefits, such as lower operating costs, increased lifespan of your fleet, increased sustainability, improved productivity, and more.
Fortunately, staying on top of vehicle maintenance is relatively easy, from optimising your driving routes and training your drivers to recognise potential issues to setting/enforcing clear policies and checking all vehicles before they leave the depo. There are many ways that your logistics business can keep on top of vehicle maintenance and, in turn, minimise accidents while out on the road.
Hire a Legal Team (Just in Case!)
No matter how well your logistics business tries to prevent accidents. At the same time, out on the road at one point or another, you are bound to encounter a claim because accidents are – well – accidents and are unpredictable.
Therefore, it’s best to be proactive and hire a reputable legal team to handle any problems. Enlisting the services of law professionals is always best since they’ll be able to take everything off your hands and know the ins and outs of the law, therefore, protecting your company against road accidents further.
