One of the responsibilities of a great business owner is prioritizing employees' safety and welfare. Especially if they travel a lot for the company. Find out if your current employee travel policy properly supports your employees' wellbeing now...
Are you certain your company's employee travel policy properly serves your employees?
If your employees do a lot of driving as part of their job, you need to be sure they’re staying safe on the road. Commercial drivers are involved in thousands of road accidents every year. They can result in injuries and even fatalities.
This article will explore a few measures that you can take to protect your employees on the road. Here are five factors of a good employee travel policy.
Encourage Regular Health Checks
Some illnesses could make your employees a danger on the road if left unchecked. It’s in your best interest to provide all the tools for staff to get regular health checkups and promote a healthy lifestyle.
Paying for your employee' eye exams is smart. You could also infrequently test cognitive and motor skills to ensure that drivers haven’t developed health problems that could affect coordination or memory. Finally, consider doing random drug tests throughout the year to ensure that employees aren’t driving while intoxicated.
Set Reasonable Goals
Be wary of asking too much from your employees. Scheduling too much work per day or setting impossibly tight deadlines could lead your employees to drive dangerously just to keep up.
Be reasonable about what any fleet drivers can achieve. Allow some leeway for traffic jams, road closures and other unexpected problems on the road.
Enforce Breaks And Limit Hours
There are laws that mandate your drivers aren’t on the road for too long. This is especially important to consider when driving at night.
Driving for long periods without enough breaks could cause fatigue and lack of concentration, increasing the chance of an accident. Enforce regular breaks and limit the hours that drivers can spend on the road per day (make sure that drivers have also had enough time to sleep between shifts).
Provide Health Insurance And Legal Support
What would you do when an accident occurs and one of your drivers is injured? Think about how you can compensate drivers so that they can afford treatment and time off.
Providing health insurance on top of worker’s compensation can help your drivers get access to the treatment they need. Offering legal support could also be important for accidents that are not the fault of your employee.
For instance, if an accident occurred with a semi-truck and it was the truck driver’s fault, it could be beneficial to hire a truck accident lawyer to claim compensation. The money won from this legal claim could go towards helping your driver get treatment. In addition, you can use this to offer financial help while they recover.
Prioritize Company Vehicle Safety In Your Employee Travel Policy
If you provide company vehicles to your drivers, make sure these vehicles are safe and roadworthy. That is why you must consider updating your vehicles every few years so that they contain the latest safety features. Leasing may be an affordable way of doing this.
Regularly vehicle inspections with documentation assures everything is in good condition. This could include checking tire pressure, fluid levels and making sure that headlights and turn signals are working properly.
