4 Winter Fleet Driving Safety Tips

Fleet drivers face a lot of hazards with winter driving. Ice, snow, slush, and fog can make road navigation hard and this can result in costly accidents. Over 5.8 million accidents occur each year, according to a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) report. Twenty-one percent of these accidents are related to the weather. To avoid possible fleet vehicle crashes and other potential road mishaps, it’s essential you prepare your fleet drivers. Below are four winter fleet driving safety tips to help ensure your drivers’ safety this winter.

1. Reinforce Common Wintertime Safety Habits

Implement training and a policy to reinforce common wintertime safety habits. Because winter driving poses safety hazards, just looking at data from the past isn’t enough. You need to be proactive with enforcing your fleet safety policy and training. A whole training program should focus on your drivers being able to navigate different scenarios like icy routes, thick fog and vehicle breakdown.

Place emphasis on:

• Distracted driving
• Speeding
• Intoxication while driving
• Aggressive and defensive driving
• Safe following distances

You’ll also want to touch on common events like making quick stops, skidding, encountering ice on the road and taking corners.

2. Keep Up With Fleet Winter Maintenance

Winter is very hard on vehicles, no matter what type and particularly on heavy use fleet vehicles. Without a clear plan of action for not just winterization, but also for vehicle operation and maintenance in the winter, fleets might suffer an unexpected high rate of failure in cold weather. Some things you can do to keep your fleet vehicles at peak performance even in harsh climates are:

• Stay fueled. Fuel levels shouldn’t drop below a half a tank of gas and your drivers should know this. Water vapor collecting in the bottom of the tank could be drawn back into the fuel line and become frozen, which will keep the engine from starting.
• Check tire pressure. Winter’s temperature drops can cause dangerous changes in tire pressure. Ensure your drivers are checking tire pressure a few times each month. Improperly inflated tires could decrease the gripping action.
• Maintain vehicle wipers. Be sure the wipers in each fleet vehicle are in good condition. Fleet drivers will want to switch to heavy-duty blades if they frequently drive in areas with frequent storms and heavy snow.
• Use GPS fleet maintenance. This is an excellent and modern way to keep track and monitor fleet maintenance tasks.

3. Get and Stay Prepared

You should have a winter driver policy in place outlining how your vehicles should be prepared for the wintertime, the equipment drivers should carry around with them in case of a breakdown or unexpected situation and the procedure they need to follow if there’s an emergency like a breakdown, an accident or getting caught in bad weather.

4. Gather Route Data

Tracing your drivers routes traveled the following winter and identifying any challenges that came up can help you plan more efficient and safer routes for this coming winter. You can use a GPS fleet tracking tool to optimize routes. You’ll want to preferably map out routes with no history of severe conditions, like thick fog, snow and ice, if at all possible. You can check for weather-related accidents not related to your drivers to highlight potential problematic routes.

Being prepared for the winter is important and should be a regular part of your overall fleet strategy. You can follow these tips above to start. Winter-related accidents happen all the time and you’ll want to ensure your fleet drivers stay safe.

Contact us here at LiveViewGPS to learn more about how GPS fleet tracking can benefit and modernize your fleet this winter. 1-888-544-0494

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