Most haulage firms would probably equip their drivers with a CUG telephone line. Most would probably expect each driver to have it fully charged and open to receive calls at any point in time in the course of making deliveries. Most drivers will likely receive a minimum of 5-10 calls or more in a single trip depending on the distance. The sources of the calls will vary from the back-office IT officer wanting to know why tracking isn’t updating on the truck for a brief moment, to Fleet Manager wanting to know the real-time status of the delivery and the receiving depot manager or direct distributor interested in giving specific description of his exact location to avert possible delay in delivery. All these are legal and permissible responsibilities in the line of duty. But it is instructive to note however that all these seemingly ‘legal and permissible’ activities are probably the reason why we are having so much carnage and fatalities on our roads.
Texting while driving (and driving a massive piece of equipment like a truck for that matter) is one of the latest forms of driver distraction constituting a significant accident risk and several companies are helping with this growing problem through the use of mobile applications.
A number of studies have revealed that 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involve some form of driver distraction occurring within 3-5 seconds before the vehicle crash. The principal distractions that usually lead to vehicle crashes include:
- Cell phone use.
- Reaching for moving objects inside the vehicle.
- Looking at an object or event outside of the vehicle.
- Reading while driving.
- Applying makeup (for women).
Cell phones with text-messaging capabilities further increase the risk of driver distraction.
Increasingly, fleet managers rank driver safety among their top two challenges (after the cost of fuel). One reason for heightened concern, fleet managers report, is an increase in preventable accidents, with the root cause of driver distraction. A contributing factor to these preventable accidents is the increased workload of company drivers.
Drivers multitasking and juggling between calls while operating their company trucks has become a common practice and is a major factor in driver distraction. Use of text messaging while driving is a dangerous habit. Drivers who engage in mobile texting spend about 400-percent more time taking their eyes off the road and are 70-percent less likely to stay in their lane, according to an Australian study.
It is not uncommon to see drivers resting a BlackBerry on top of the steering wheel while using their thumbs to tap in a text message. A driver talking on a cell phone can watch the road, but someone responding to a text message must stare at his or her hands.
Cell phones are the number one cause of distracted driving accidents in major highways. And accidents by drivers using handheld cell phones outnumber those driving hands-free by a ratio of something like 15 to one. The difference between hand-held and hands-free is the difference between life and death.
On the strength of the aforesaid, it is therefore inexcusable that a company will invest in cell phone for its drivers without complimenting same with hands-free devices in addition to standard regulations and enlightenment guiding usage while driving.
Final take on Texting & Cell Phone Distractions
Text messaging is fine when you’re sitting at an airport or at home, but not while driving a truck or any mobile vehicle. Fleets need to get ahead of the curve and proactively prohibit this activity. Drivers need to be placed on notice that there is zero tolerance to use these devices while driving a company vehicle. This is not only to safeguard the company and its assets, but also to protect the employee, a company’s greatest asset.
