A proactive approach to fleet safety will always be the most effective one. Looking for a systematic way to review your fleet’s safety practices? Regular fleet audits can be a big support. They help you identify potential risks, revealing ways to improve your fleet’s overall safety.  

In carrying out regular safety audits, you’ll be able to answer the following questions: 

• Does anything in our safety policy need adjusting? 
• Do we have a good handle on mitigating/controlling risks? 
• How effective are our onboarding and training programs? 
• Could we improve our success with compliance? 

If you’ve never conducted a fleet safety audit before, you may be wondering where to start. We recommend creating a fleet audit checklist, to help you cover all the important safety areas in your audits. This post should give you a head start on developing an audit checklist that suits your fleet’s safety goals.

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What to include in your fleet audit checklist

A comprehensive checklist will ensure that you cover all the key safety areas for your fleet: vehicle maintenance, driver training, compliance and emergency preparedness. 

Vehicle maintenance:

Well-maintained vehicles are the foundation to road safety. Keeping your vehicles in roadworthy condition greatly reduces the likelihood of breakdowns and accidents. By regularly monitoring tyre pressure, brakes, lights and engine fluids, you can proactively address issues so they don’t turn into safety hazards. Daily walkaround checks are a simple way to stay on top of vehicle wear and tear. Preventative maintenance not only helps you increase fleet safety; it helps you reduce unexpected downtime, boosting your fleet productivity. 

Driver training and driver input:

When it comes to road safety, your drivers are the frontline. Have they successfully completed any required trainings? Are they up to speed on the latest safety regulations and company policies? Do your new-driver onboarding materials around safety need beefing up? Since drivers are your eyes and ears on the road, it’s a good idea to ask for their input on fleet safety—their feedback can be invaluable.  

Compliance:

As we’ve said before, fatigue plays a major role in driver safety. One in 10 people who drive a vehicle for work say they’ve fallen asleep behind the wheel. And 40% of sleep-related accidents involve commercial vehicles. With these statistics in mind, it’s not surprising that the European Union will launch new rules around driver wellbeing later this year. As of August, drivers won’t be allowed to spend their 45-minute breaks in their cabs. Plus, transport companies must create schedules that make it easy for international drivers to go home regularly. There’s no time like the present to incorporate driver rest periods and overall wellbeing into your fleet audit.

Emergency preparedness:

While your fleet audit should be designed to prevent safety issues, you nevertheless need a response plan for events on and off the road. Should a breakdown or accident occur, what’s your company’s protocol—and how familiar are your drivers with carrying it out? It’s important to expand your fleet’s safety practices beyond the road. Loading and unloading can be a dangerous part of a driver’s job. Transport companies that fail to recognise and address safety risks endanger their staff, opening themselves up to hefty fines and reputational damage. 

Make follow-ups a part of your fleet safety audits 

An audit is only useful if identified issues are resolved in a timely manner. Fleet managers should prioritise the most critical safety issues and develop action plans to tackle them. Build follow-ups into your auditing process to make sure that any issues have been properly addressed. 

Conducting regular audits is an invaluable aspect of your fleet safety. They can help you reduce safety risks while increasing overall efficiency. Keeping track of your vehicle maintenance and driver hours is challenging enough. When you add safety audits and follow-ups into the mix, your task list may seem daunting. But with the help of telematics technology, you can automate much of the data gathering that supports a safety auditing process. 

A telematics system will provide you with real-time data on driver behaviour and vehicle performance, making it easier to identify potential safety issues. With apps like Webfleet Vehicle Check, you can digitise your daily vehicle inspections, making it easy for drivers to complete their checks before hitting the road. A telematics system will also simplify your tachograph compliance, especially when it comes to the accessibility and reliability of your data. 

In conclusion: Fleet audits can help you address and mitigate safety issues head on. A comprehensive fleet audit checklist, along with follow-ups and digital tools, is invaluable in your mission to improve fleet safety.