Reward employees for courteous driving

On my way home from work at the League one Thursday afternoon, I found myself in a long line of traffic snaking its way past a sand and gravel truck laying on its side in an intersection. Judging from the position of the truck, it was apparent that the driver was going too fast when making a left-hand turn. I didn't hear or read about any serious injuries, but I wondered how much lost time and productivity would have been saved, if one driver had been willing to spend 30 seconds at a red light. How much anxiety could have been avoided?

Three days later, on May 30, the big news was about a truck driver hauling a crane who smashed into a bridge on I-96, resulting in closure of a portion of an entire interstate highway for more than two days. A mother was seriously injured. Thousands of people lost hours of their time over the next few days while sitting in traffic or looking for alternate routes. How much lost time and productivity would have been saved, I thought, if one driver had practiced a bit more caution? How much anxiety could have been avoided?

The safety features designed into today's cars and trucks are a marvel. Dual air bags, reinforced side door panels, anit-lock brakes, wider wheel bases, comfortable, effective restraint systems and protected placement of gas tanks are just several of the features that reduce our risk of sustaining serious bodily injury during a collision. But injuries still occur, and the economic loss caused by property damage and lost productivity can't be designed away.

Tens of thousands of vehicles are owned by Michigan municipalities and operated by their employees and officials. Vehicle collisions consistently rank in the top two or three causes of loss for members of the Michigan Municipal League Liability and Property Pool. I'm not privy to the statistics of other municipal insurers, but I'm sure the experience is not unique to our program.

Municipalities and commercial enterprises share an important similarity in that both operate fleets of vehicles. Our employees rely on us to provide safe, well-maintained vehicles for their use. We also have a responsibility to make sure that safe, well-maintained vehicles are operated by safety-conscious, even-tempered, cautious employees who understand that one of their primary job duties is to drive safely.

The insurance or risk management professionals on whom you rely can provide you with certain tools to help fulfill this responsibility. We can give you fleet maintenance guidelines. We can recommend that you pull motor vehicle records every year or two on all municipal employees who are allowed to drive your vehicles. We can help you set up guidelines that will flag an employee's driving record for either disciplinary action or even suspension of driving privileges. None of these activities, however, will be as effective as providing a positive incentive for your employees to be leaders in courteous driving practices.

If an employee regularly drives as part of his or her job duties, it makes sense to include courteous, safe driving as a required activity in that employee's job description. Employees should be aware that their driving habits will be monitored and that good driving habits will be a factor in their annual performance appraisal and when considering their merit pay increases.

Visually monitoring your employees' driving habits is much more effective than simply ordering an annual motor vehicle record. MVRs only tell you how many times, if any, poor driving was performed in sight of a police officer. This is a tiny percentage of our time behind the wheel.

Simple, inexpensive rewards for courteous driving can be strong incentives to change behavior. A quarterly recognition lunch with the mayor or recognition at a council meeting are examples of rewards that take little time and expense, and which many employees will highly value.

Tailgating, excessive speeding and aggressive driving result in far too many collisions that can easily be avoided. Municipalities should take a lead role in promoting courteous driving. Over time, the result will be fewer injuries, gains in productivity, lower operating costs and reduced anxiety. That's quite a payback for the small investment required in time and expense!