SELLING SAFETY:
7 KEYS TO CREATING A
SUSTAINABLE DRIVER
SAFETY PROGRAM
Implementing video telematics as part of a
broader driver safety push can be a challenging
endeavor. This guide offers seven best practices
to help ensure that your driver safety program
continues to get the attention, support, and
funding required to make it successful.
The best practices fall into two general
categories: maintaining executive-level program
support and driver engagement and support.
INTRO
It’s important to focus on what makes a safety program truly
compelling to the executive team at most organizations: its ability
to create measurable business value, rather than just being
considered another cost to maintain.
The following best practices tackle that challenge by:
•
Offering ways to help ensure that a safety program creates
value for the business
•
Giving as many groups as possible a stake in that value
•
Establishing that you can continue to measure those
contributions long after program implementation
SELLING SAFETY TO YOUR
ORGANIZATION’S C-SUITE
HAVE AN ONGOING
PLAN TO MEASURE AND
ASSESS THE BUSINESS
VALUE OF YOUR SAFETY
PROGRAM INVESTMENTS
It’s true that video telematics solutions are capable of
“instant ROI”—for example, cases where video footage
of an accident exonerates a driver and spares a
business from potentially ruinous litigation.
Such anecdotes are compelling, but they can’t replace a
comprehensive and carefully structured business case.
The goal is to demonstrate that a video telematics
solution will yield specific and quantifiable benefits,
on a predictable schedule, that amount to a reliable
and compelling return on your company’s
safety investments.
LEARN MORE
“Making a Case for Video”
Once an organization kicks off a new safety initiative, the emphasis shifts
from assessing ROI to implementing and operating the program. That can
leave a program potentially exposed to cost-cutting pressures—especially
for safety technology investments that may involve subscription-based
services that will have to be renewed, and justified, on a regular basis.
When you create a business case for a safety program, include a
repeatable process to measure and assess the program’s actual
benefits on a regular basis. This is an area where partnering with the
right technology provider can be extremely important. Look for a
provider with experience applying advanced analytics to your
organization’s vehicle and driver monitoring data, and one with proven
experience helping organizations to measure and quantify the business
value of their safety technology investments.
LEARN HOW TO PROCESS
YOUR SAFETY DATA
Modern video telematics, fleet tracking, fuel
management, and other technology offerings
generate an immense amount of data with a
tremendous amount of value locked inside of it. The
questions you ask hold the key to unlocking it.
Consider an example: When a vehicle is involved in a
near-collision, looking at the data from your own
monitoring technology (rate of speed, location, time
of day, driver seat belt use, etc.) and from third-
party sources (road congestion, weather, road
hazards, etc.) can reveal patterns in the data that
suggest new ways to identify and reduce the risk
factors that lead near-collisions or collisions.
Discovering a correlation between hard braking and days with fog or rain
could indicate a need to coach drivers on maintaining a safe following
distance when visibility is low. That’s a fairly specific behavior to target,
and correcting poor behavior could pay off with a measurable drop in
collisions and claims.
Learning how to mine your data in this way can generate significant, and
often unexpected ROI from your safety initiative. That’s a powerful tool
for managing strong support for a safety program at a time when other
executives might begin to shift their attention to other priorities. This is
also an area where a vendor with strong data and analytics experience can
help you to develop your data interrogation skills, which include asking the
right questions and where to look for answers in your own safety data.
LEARN MORE
“Using Data to Prioritize Your Fleet’s Safety Issues”
GIVE BUSINESS
STAKEHOLDERS A PIECE
OF THE ACTION (AND
SOMETHING TO LOSE)
A key selling point for an innovative driver safety
strategy is its ability to benefit a business in other
ways. Detailed vehicle tracking data, for example, can
help a logistics team to optimize its delivery routes,
while customer service can use the same data to offer
real-time tracking and delivery service updates.
Many organizations consider the potential added value
when making the initial business case for investments
in video telematics and other technology solutions. But
they can play an even more important role when the
time comes to assess the actual ROI from a safety
program and to ask for continued leadership support.
Essentially, the more an organization “spreads the
wealth” with its safety investments, the more likely
other stakeholders will serve as allies and advocates
for maintaining those investments.
Lytx employs easy-to-use Google Maps and Google
Traffic shows you real-time location of your vehicles.
Your drivers’ willingness to stay engaged and
enthusiastic about a safety program is often key to
its success.
One approach, of course, is simply to impose a
program and penalize drivers that fail to comply. It
can be a tempting solution for organizations under
pressure to get fast results from a safety program,
but it can also promote resentment and resistance,
contribute to higher driver turnover, and, in the long
run, greatly reduce a program’s expected ROI.
Organizations with successful safety programs often
take a different approach: They equate safety with
performance and with professional excellence, and
they align an organization’s safety goals with a
driver’s own self-interest.
SELLING SELF-INTEREST:
KEEP YOUR DRIVERS ALIGNED
WITH A SAFETY PROGRAM
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GIVE DRIVERS A VOICE IN
SETTING SAFETY POLICY
It’s important to acknowledge that drivers are important
partners in any safety initiative. They’re the people
behind the wheel and a valuable resource for ensuring
that a safety program is practical, appropriate, and
effective. Some organizations get guidance from drivers’
councils or other formal programs, or they seek driver
input to solve specific safety-related problems. Such
efforts, in turn, give drivers a sense of ownership and
accountability that they are less likely to have with a
safety program imposed by management that focuses
on punitive measures.
LEARN MORE
“Driver Incentive Programs: Do They Work?”
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ESTABLISH MEANINGFUL
SAFETY INCENTIVE AND
RECOGNITION PROGRAMS
Successful driver safety programs typically
include incentives to keep drivers motivated and
focused. They can be designed to recognize a
driver’s achievement and to reinforce the
connection between safety and elite performance.
Safety incentives don’t have to involve just cash
awards. In fact, many drivers suggest non-cash
incentives, such as company jackets, which identify
a driver as an elite performer. Many organizations
combine material incentives—reinforcing the
business value of a strong safety performance—
with handwritten thank-you notes from the CEO, a
mention during an all-hands meeting, or other more
personal tokens of appreciation.
LEARN MORE
“Seven Steps to Incentivizing Your
Fleet to Drive Safely”
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DERIVE VALUE FROM
SAFETY TECHNOLOGY
WITH COACHING
Any safety program that involves the use of video
monitoring can create concerns over micro-
management, and other issues. It’s essential for an
organization to use monitoring technology as a tool
for driver coaching, constructive feedback, and
performance improvement.
This is a critical issue for driver recruitment and
retention. With annualized turnover rates among
large fleet operators approaching 100%1, and per-
driver turnover costs that can run into five figures2,
organizations simply can’t afford to waste their
safety technology investments by using tactics that
breed mistrust and hurt driver retention.
1 https://www.ttnews.com/articles/driver-turnover-puts-pressure-large-carriers-0
2 https://www.lytx.com/en-us/blog/driver-retention-ideas
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BUILD TRUST WITH
TECHNOLOGY
An organization’s use of video telematics technology as
primarily a coaching tool may be the most important
best practice when it comes to setting up your safety
program for long-term success. But technology can
also play a role in another important trust-building
area: Setting standards for driver incentive programs
and other areas where it’s important to maintain a
transparent and completely objective approach.
Many organizations, for example, use safe driving data
generated from their video telematics system to
establish incentive program goals and to measure
driver achievements in a fair and impartial manner.
Similarly, organizations can use safety data to help
establish clear and consistent standards to refer
drivers for coaching and remedial training. This helps
avoid the damage that can result from even the
appearance of favoring some drivers over others.
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Equipped with the right technology, strong best practices, and an
experienced implementation partner, you’ll be in a much better
position to set up your safety program for long-term success.
For more information, go to lytx.com.
Video telematics and other safety-related technology offerings
play a critical role in a modern driver safety strategy. While it’s
important to choose a vendor with the right technology for your
needs, it’s just as important to work with a vendor that views
success the same way you do: a long-term process with a strong
focus on creating and measuring value for your business.
When you are evaluating a vendor, ask the following questions
about its capabilities:
Can you supply the analytics and data science expertise
to help my organization build its own capabilities in
these areas?
Can you help my organization create an effective and
sustainable process to measure the ROI from my
safety program?
Can you show my organization how others in my industry
have handled similar challenges as they built successful
safety programs?
THE FINAL KEY: FINDING A
PARTNER WITH A PLAN
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ABOUT
LYTX
At Lytx®, we harness the power of
data to change human behavior
and help good companies become
even better.
3,000+ CLIENTS WORLDWIDE INCLUDING:
for-hire, less-than-truckload and
truckload carriers
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