4 safety tips to avoid trucking accidents

There are always risks when you drive a vehicle, even if it is as big as a long haul truck. Though driving becomes much more of a muscle memory with every year of experience you gain, you should never forget that is dangerous. While driving depends mostly on your skills and awareness, sometimes accident happen in spite of them. Because you are responsible for driving your vehicle, but you can’t help all the hazards and reckless drivers that share the road with you. So, safety on the road is one of main things you need to take care of, even if you are not in the trucking business. Safety can help your company stay competitive and can even help you save money on your truck insurance, no joke.

So, in order to help you with improving safety, we have a comprehensive list of 4 safety tips, which will help you avoid accidents.

1. Be very careful when hiring drivers

   If you are an owner-operator and you are expanding your business – adding new vehicles and hiring drivers – congratulations, you are doing a good job! However, things get more difficult now. Especially when it comes to hiring new drivers for your company. Always, and we can’t stress this enough, always make a thorough background checks on your candidates. You need people with pristine safety records, remember this. So, do what you need to do to find such people. Proper and legal drug and alcohol tests are a good idea, for starters.

2. Have a zero tolerance to distracted driving

   You should create a strict and clear policy concerning distracted driving. And you should be crystal clear that you don’t tolerate such driving. Using the phone while driving is the worst offence – both texting and talking. When driving a giant truck with 50 miles per hour, a person can travel a distance as long as a football field in the time it takes to read a short text. Furthermore, in 2015 more than 3400 lives were lost on the roads over distracted driving.
   Do the right thing.

3. Have a set of written safety guidelines

   A written safety policy sets the ground rules and can help you and your staff (if you have staff) comply with them. Be sure to include all the topics – distracted driving, speeding, drugs and alcohol, driving in bad weather, truck safety, seatbelts etc. Everything should be properly explained and everyone should receive a copy of the safety guide. You can ask people to sign their copies off to make sure they’ve reviewed it.
   Having a set of rules will help you keep your company on the safe side of things.

4. Pre-trip truck inspections

   As we’ve mentioned, sometimes accident happen not because of the driver’s bad driving skills or lack of experience. Sometimes the problem is in the vehicle. Having a mechanically sound vehicle is top priority for every truck driver so it should be for you and your drivers too. Always inspect your truck before going on a trip. Make sure you report even the smallest problems and have everything repaired and checked before heading out.
   Take your vehicles to the mechanic for check-ups and maintenance on a regular basis. Such inspections can prevent a lot of headaches.

There you have it – a list of 4 safety tips to help you prevent accidents on the road. Always be careful and always check your vehicles. Remember, if you need help with your truck insurance, we from Bobtail.insure have all the right resources to consult you and help you make the best for your business. You can start with our FREE INSURANCE QUOTE.