Aggressive driving is defined as intentional driving behavior that places the driver’s safety and wellbeing at risk. The key factor is that aggressive driving is a pattern of on-going driving behavior which should and could be discouraged to ensure the driver’s safety.
As aggressive driving is a pattern and not the result of a one-time misstep, the identification of aggressive driving behavior also needs to be the result of analysis over time. A one-time case of over speeding or a one-time lane violation will not indicate aggressive driving. Fleet and operation managers need to review driving behavior patterns over longer periods of time to identify drivers that exhibit multiple occurrences of aggressive driving.
Aggressive driving behavior can be the result of several factors:
- Can indicate severe stress, anger or fatigue. Often as a result of long driving hours or tardiness
- Can indicate distractions such as using a cellphone or chatting with other passengers
- Can indicate a “this won’t happen to me” attitude where the driver feels they need to exhibit superiority in the road. Often this behavior can be attributed to experienced drivers who have accumulated long hours on the road.
- Can indicate road conditions which force the driver to maneuver in a matter like aggressive driving patterns
Each of the factors above need to be addressed and dealt with before they cause a major accident or loss of lives.
There are several methods fleet managers can use to enable this:
- Analysis of unsafe driving events over time – As mentioned, aggressive driving is a pattern and often this pattern can be detected over specific time periods such as certain days of the week. For example, a driver has a specific delivery route on Mondays which requires him to arrive to the customers at a certain time. The driver will be stressed to maintain the appointment and will exhibit aggressive driving. Identifying this pattern can be easily resolved by adjusting the driver’s route or schedule to allow for him to arrive to the customer without the added stress.
- Use of scoring – Aggregated safety scores provides a comparison of drivers within the same fleet to help detect and indicate drivers exhibiting unsafe driving patterns. As aggressive driving is defined as an ongoing behavior, the driver’s score will be consistently low and point to a pattern and not a one-time misstep. Scores are effective as a competitive tool amongst drivers in the same fleet to provide motivation for drivers to improve.
- Detecting unsafe road conditions – Aggressive driving can be a result of road conditions and not the actual driver. This can be easily detected by identifying locations with a high amount of safety related events triggered by different vehicles. A quick inspection of the location can help provide unsafe conditions such as intersections with low visibility or roads with hidden speed limit indication. Fleet managers can then issue warnings to their drivers to process with more caution when traveling such areas.
- Identifying drivers more susceptible to aggressive driving behavior and setting up training sessions geared towards safety. For example, detecting drivers with high amount of driving hours and setting up mandatory safety seminars after a driver has accumulated a set amount of hours.
Aggressive driving behavior is something we can detect, analyze and resolve. Often times it doesn’t have to be resolved using disciplinary measures. By identifying the reasons behind the aggressive patterns, we can help our employees drive safely and efficiently and minimize risk to themselves and others.