Putting a Spotlight on Driver Behavior
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DRIVER BEHAVIOR HAS never been under closer watch than it is today as technology provides insights into drivers’ actions behind the wheel. The result is that fleets can understand the performance of every driver in new, more meaningful ways, giving them a crucial perspective on which drivers are excelling and which need closer attention and additional instruction.
Monitoring driver behavior – and incorporating behavior into the hiring process – helps fleets do their best to support their drivers and help them succeed and stay safe, while also offering an invaluable tool against possible litigation from incidents that might occur.
“In today’s environment, it is imperative that driver behavior be monitored and that drivers are rewarded for doing a job well and coached for improvement when there is evidence of behavior that could potentially affect the driver’s safety as well as the motoring public,” said Marty Blackston, senior manager, risk management transportation, Tyson Foods. “With liability concerns and the cost of litigation, monitoring driver behavior will help in reducing risk to the carrier if utilized properly.”
MONITORING, COACHING AND THE TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE
In general, Blackston said fleets should monitor any behavior that could potentially impact driver safety. That can include a range of behaviors, such as speed, safe following distance, harsh braking, harsh cornering, harsh acceleration, use of handheld mobile devices, fatigue and aggressive driving.
Blackston said carriers should monitor driver behavior and develop a baseline of what is acceptable and at what point behavior requires timely attention.
“The key to making a monitoring program successful is making sure that corrective action is addressed, in a timely manner, with relevant coaching practices,” Blackston said. “Also having a sound training platform with topics that again are relevant and effective to the opportunities that are identified during monitoring are vital in the success of the program. One other point is tracking progress and having meaningful follow-up with the driver to go over progress.”
Mike Chupp, director of safety, Collins Trucking, said monitoring driver behavior closely makes drivers more aware of their driving and less likely to take risks or drive unsafely.
“By far, the best tool we’ve got working for us right now is the technology, the data we’ve got coming in off the trucks,” Chupp said. “The technology that is giving us events such as harsh brakes, harsh turns, heavy acceleration – that’s a ton of information to go by. When we see the video and what the driver was actually doing at the time of the harsh brake or the harsh turn, we get a little bit more information that we can use to help coach not just that driver, but all drivers on what we’re seeing and how we can use this to move forward and make ourselves better drivers.”
Tech tools are essential and widespread. For instance, Hayden Cardiff, founder and chief innovation officer of Idelic, said Idelic works to integrate a fleet’s disparate systems into a single place – tools and data such as ELDs, cameras, the FMCSA portal, accidents and incidents, claims, dispatch data, learning management systems, etc. – “allowing fleets to get better visibility and actually do something with that insight.
“What we’ve done is created predictive and machine learning driven analytics to be able to identify and highlight which drivers are most at risk to get into a crash in the next 90 days,” Cardiff said. “And so we surface that information, focusing on the behavioral piece of that and then allowing fleets to take action. And we have task-based professional development plans or coaching plans that are more than just the oneoff individual coaching a driver for every specific telematic event that comes across, but really a holistic behavioral-based plan. The system allows for automated task management, data visibility, talking points and coaching plans. All of that is templated and automated to make it much easier for fleets to ultimately go in and identify the drivers who are at risk and coach them in a way that actually changes behavior.”
As Cardiff noted, plaintiffs attorneys are using technology against carriers in court, making it essential that carriers are closely monitoring the data they can access and using it to proactively address any behavior issues. Most importantly, though, Cardiff said, drivers should have all the support that fleets can give them.
“Drivers deserve your attention and your ability to help them come home safely each night,” Cardiff said. “When you can monitor behaviors and track those trends, piece things together and see the overall behavior that needs coaching, you can work with a driver in a very professional and supportive way. Drivers not only want that, they need that.”
The abundance of data can prove overwhelming for carriers, and Idelic is among those solutions designed to help make sense of the data. Cardiff said it helps carriers go beyond their own data to incorporate historical data from the industry at large to be “predictive and proactive” with their drivers.
Chupp said the drivers he encounters are accustomed to the high degree of monitoring that they will receive via technology and understand its role in safety.
“I think this is just going to be another piece of the truck that will be normal to most people as time goes on,” Chupp said.
IDENTIFYING BEHAVIOR IN HIRING
Mark Tinney, president of JOBehaviors, said the trucking industry has long focused its efforts on trying to modify and improve behavior in drivers after they are hired and, on the road, rather than putting more resources into identifying those individuals who are a strong behavioral match from the outset during the hiring process.
During hiring, employers tend to focus on candidates meeting the technical requirements for the job rather than investigating the behaviors that impact their ability to succeed in the position, Tinney said. JOBehaviors offers behavioral assessments for Class A CDL truck drivers and delivery drivers, among many other tests, and Tinney said JOBehaviors has more than 325,000 drivers in its database for the current version of the Class A CDL Truck Driver assessment.
For each job category, JOBehaviors evaluates about 500 behaviors relevant to a position. Based on interviews with top performers, JOBehaviors uses a statistical analysis to rank the behaviors most important for the position. Tinney notes that there is “a massive difference” in performance between top performers and their below-average counterparts in any industry.
“The fact is that someone can be a fantastic behavioral match for the job and come out of school and be a fantastic hire, and there’s someone who may have 10 years of experience that you don’t want anywhere near your truck,” Tinney said. “So, we have a way of identifying those folks early on in the process, so that you know that the investment in time and resources and energy of the organization is going toward those who have a really high probability for success.”
According to Tinney, some behaviors that most predict success for drivers are:
- Acts as an effective representative for the employer;
- Maintains self-control in difficult or stressful situations;
- Stays patient at all times;
- Comes to work well rested;
- Works well under pressure;
- Takes responsibility for tractor trailer and cargo;
- Stays safety oriented at all times;
- Maintains a clean and neat appearance;
- Makes every effort to improve the image of the truck driver;
- Shows courtesy toward all drivers at all times; and
- Looks ahead and anticipates problems and hazards.Tinney said he sees a growing emphasis on behavior in driver evaluation in recent years. When new drivers come with the right behaviors, the technical skills can be taught, he said.”I do think that behavior is increasingly seen as the defining factor as to whether or not an individual is going to be a long-term asset to the company,” Tinney said. “And the reason that we’ve confirmed technical skill so far is just because that’s what we could confirm.
Getting buy-in from drivers for monitoring efforts is critical, said Chupp, who noted that he emphasizes to drivers that monitoring them is not about punishment, but safety.
“They seem to understand that from a safety standpoint, in order to keep insurance costs under control, in order to keep the company basically in business, here’s what we have to do,” Chupp said.
Chupp said the technology and the abundance of information about driver behavior has made someone in his position not just a safety director, but a coach equipped with data to help make drivers better.
Key for coaching to work, however, is that drivers feel as though “you are watching after them as opposed to watching over them,” Cardiff said. Cardiff said carriers have to be sure that they are not creating a feeling of being called to the principal’s office when they are coached on their behavior.
Drivers need to feel monitoring is being done with sincerity, he said.
“You drive sincerity when you come to a driver and highlight a behavior they can change, versus hit them over the head or slap them on the wrist with an event that they have to defend,” Cardiff said.
Cardiff said it helps to make the process of coaching collaborative, allowing it to be a conversation rather than something more onesided. Cardiff said the most effective way to coach drivers is not to coach “each and every telematic event” because it puts drivers on the defensive and makes them rigid against change. Instead of a driver being inclined to go tit-for-tat and explain exceeding the speed limit in a specific case, Cardiff said it is much more effective to point to patterns that develop over time and point to the need to address underlying behaviors that are leading to individual events.
“You can sit down with a driver and be on the same side of the table with them and say, ‘Look, we want you to be here for the long term. We want you to come home safely to your family. Let’s work on this together,’” Cardiff said.
“It is very important that driver monitoring be used to reward drivers for doing the job right and not be a ‘gotcha’ program,” Blackston said. “These drivers are very important, and to let their excellent behavior go unnoticed is doing them an injustice.”
Cardiff said companies that provide financial incentives for excellent driving behavior should be “incredibly clear” what the criteria is for rewards. However, he notes that recognition such as plaques or hats or patches that highlight excellent driving goes a long way. Monitoring behavior should strike a balance and carve out a prominent place for providing accolades to drivers who are “doing it right – and most drivers are doing it right,” Cardiff said.
“Drivers want recognition,” he said. “They are consummate professionals. They are really proud to be a professional truck driver and to show among their peers that they are successful and safe and that doing everything right is a great thing.”
