Responding is Eric Frey, director of global product management, connected vehicles and IoT, Powerfleet, Woodcliff Lake, NJ.

From busy warehouses to jam-packed roads, fleet managers must always keep safety top of mind. Ensuring the safety of your fleet has major benefits besides avoiding incidents and injury: reducing costs and liability, prolonging vehicle longevity, protecting your brand’s reputation, and increasing employee retention.

To achieve this, managers must implement changes based on developing standards and lessons learned. These changes may significantly alter day-to-day operations, and the reasoning might not be as obvious to drivers as it is to management. However, with a clear, strategic plan that outlines the safety benefits, operators of mobile assets will move forward confidently with new protocols, creating a culture of safety within your fleet.

When implementing a safety management change, forward planning is of the utmost importance. Using a single pane of glass to unify data and results from your mixed fleet will improve visibility, efficiency and help inform data-driven decisions. To get their team onboard, fleet managers must clearly identify problem areas based on data; set specific goals; and create a timeline that’s easily attainable, digestible and measurable.

The why

When implementing necessary safety changes that aren’t popular at first, workers must understand the reasoning. Even when safety is the top priority, incidents can still happen. To ensure safety on the road, a change – such as a rollout of dash cameras – may be implemented. Here, the technology allows management to have drivers’ backs with footage that could catch safety risks before they become a problem, improve training for new drivers or clear them of wrongdoing. In the warehouse or facility, you may introduce artificial intelligence-led software for pedestrian and equipment detection, preventing incidents and damage within those fast-paced environments. Whether in the warehouse or on the road, ensuring operators understand why a change has been made will establish overall improved safety and efficiency.

The how

When demonstrating how this safety change will roll out, it’s best to show rather than tell – clearly showing the driver how it’ll work. For the dash cam and pedestrian safety examples, drivers may only see a camera pointed at them or worry about the reliability of automated technology. With demonstrations, they’ll get a sense of what triggers safety alerts and how the technology works. With more clarity comes more trust and understanding, and when a big change is being made for safety, it’s a best practice to be transparent with your drivers. Once rolled out, keep the line of communication open with ongoing meetings and surveys to address constructive concerns after everyone has had a chance to digest and adopt the change.

Streamline the process

To enhance the safety of your fleet, ensure management has the support and knowledge to implement critical changes. Using a device-agnostic platform and a technology partner as a trusted advisor will streamline the process of data-driven decision-making and ensure tangible results.

With the right tools and guidance, fleet managers can ensure drivers, pedestrians, assets and vehicles are safe from incidents and damage. Fleets make our modern world go round, and with everyone on board, they can create a true culture of safety in the warehouse and on the road.

Editor's note: This article represents the independent views of the author and should not be considered a National Safety Council endorsement.