Driver Safety & Convenience
STEVE STURGESS
SENIOR EDITOR
Driver safety has to be a prime concern when specifying the medium-duty truck. But safety must also be a priority in maintenance scheduling and activity. And, of course, drivers must protect their own safety by the way they drive. Specifying a truck for the convenience of the driver adds to the overall performance of any operation, saving OSHA-related claims — and lawsuits — in addition to fender-benders.
Here we look at the operational and driver responsibilities for running a safe business that utilizes medium-duty trucks, often not as transportation, but as a necessary tool in support service.
Operations
In a business where the mainstream activity may not be trucking, but where trucks are used as support, it can be easy for dispatch to lose sight of safety.
The demands of getting a service vehicle to the site of a problem may easily overrule — unconsciously — the need to run first and foremost a safe operation for employees.
When a call comes in for anything from a line repair truck to the delivery of urgent medical supplies, whoever is dispatching the truck must take into account factors facing the person behind the wheel. Often, service promises are made that bear no relationship to the driving conditions facing the driver.
Dispatchers need to understand how different factors impact schedules. These include the prevailing traffic conditions and how they vary with the time of day, weather, construction, holidays or a host of other external circumstances. The end result of a missed appointment or a promised delivery that cannot be met is pressure on the driver/operator that compromises safety.
And while it is rare for a medium-duty driver to have to keep logs, dispatchers have to understand how rest and hours on duty impact the safe performance of the driver toward the end of a shift. Not for nothing do interstate driving hours limit driving to 10 hours.
Most medium trucks operate locally where they are exempt from any driving record keeping. However, such operations often rely on good communications in real time for efficient and timely service. Drivers and service technicians can keep in touch with the dispatcher via a cell phone, but this is acknowledged as potentially hazardous when driving. There is a growing awareness that use of a phone involves cognitive failure when dealing with complex tasks. Failure to recognize a driving situation that has accident potential is one of the consequences of this, and is quite apart from the difficulty of operating a vehicle with one hand holding a phone to the ear and the other hand on the wheel.
The same applies to traditional radio dispatch: If a driver is concentrating on instructions or directions coming over the two-way, he's not paying attention to driving. The driver is less likely to be affording the necessary concentration to be safe and competent behind the wheel. In an accident, the consequences might be cause for litigation.
Companies that dispatch drivers via any kind of interactive messaging should have a firm and written policy about how such communications are used. Even familiar names in the cell phone industry do this. One of the fundamentals is that detailed messages are only exchanged when a driver has had the opportunity to park. This is especially the case if there is any chance the driver might need to make a note.
Service providers can do their customers and their technicians and drivers a huge service by dispatching in real time. Currently, delivery companies and utilities will often give customers a window of a morning, or an afternoon for deliveries or service. That is unacceptable given modern communications. It upsets the customer — which is a bad thing — and if the customer takes it out on the technician or driver, it certainly doesn't make the truck operator's day go any better. Stressed drivers are not safe drivers.
Real-time communications make the process go so much more easily, taking the load off the driver. Inputs about traffic conditions, weather, pick-up and delivery delays — communicated to the customer and relayed to the driver — take the pressure off. There's no need to speed and there's a satisfied customer at the other end of the trip, waiting for professional help or an urgent package to arrive on the revised schedule.
Equipment
Anything that can lessen the chance of the driver damaging your vehicle, another vehicle or worse — hurting someone in an accident — should be considered. Backing accidents can be addressed by equipping urban vehicles with back-up alarms and even rear-facing radar or video cameras. These technologies are now quite affordable.
Additional pedestrian safety can be gained by using wide-angle convex mirrors, similar to those on school buses. Overnight package delivery services and the Post Office use them front and rear with a great deal of success. With blind-spots eliminated, the driver has a much less stressful time in busy traffic, narrow alleys or family neighborhoods.
In the shop, this attention to visibility should include regularly changing windshield wiper blades and filling windshield washer containers with the proper solution. To ensure other drivers know what's going on with your vehicles, make sure turn signals are in full working order, and that they cancel when they are supposed to.
Vehicles working in urban areas should have especially close attention paid to brakes and steering as well as thorough tire maintenance. Timely tire replacement ensures good wet weather grip and braking. For happy and effective drivers, heaters and air conditioners should be fully functional. Any missing or broken steps or handles that are aids to climbing aboard the truck should be repaired as soon as possible.
Seat belts should deploy properly to encourage their use.
For maximum driver productivity as well as ensuring alertness through the working day, it's a good idea to provide convenient materials-handling equipment. This could mean rollers set in the body floor and logistical track in the body sides to restrain cargo in the truck. Racking that will make it easier to organize tools and equipment should be provided when necessary.
Translucent roof panels make it easier to find stuff in a truck. Overhead roof lights are also handy for evenings.
If a driver needs to climb in and out of the back of a Class 5 through 7 size truck, there should be some sort of step arrangement to make the task convenient. Grab handles are a good idea, too.
Liftgates are a special case. They make loading and unloading a much simpler task, especially for big and bulky stuff like appliances. However, they can be dangerous to be around and a little instruction is required to ensure they are operated safely. Drivers should be especially careful they don't catch their feet either when lowering the gate to the ground or when riding up — it's all too easy to pinch toes as the gate reaches the top.
Driver Safety & Convenience continued...
