Foreign Policy have published a fascinating commentary on trucking, driver care and national security. ‘Trucking is the Security Crisis You Never Noticed’ by Elizabeth Braw highlights the link between underpaid and overworked drivers, our growing demand for cheap (if not free) next day deliveries, and the burden this is putting on the transport sector and the impact on national security.
“If drivers decided to go on strike, or retire en masse, countries would quickly run out of food and gasoline—causing social and economic crisis and leaving them dangerously vulnerable.”
We agree. Truck drivers are not getting the care they deserve –from rest stops to personal security to conditions of work. Good fleet safety management can’t solve the whole problem but it can certainly help. Creating a safety culture within your organisation often also means creating a better place to work.
Better wages are a start. But better planning of delivery routes, better scheduling and shift patterns, better vehicles, and better training–all of which are in the control of a fleet manager – can significantly reduce the stressful and unsafe work environment so often associated with truck driving and attract more people to the job.
Effective driver management is a core module of our EASST Academy Road Safety at Work: Online Course for Managers led by Dr Lisa Dorn, Associate Professor of Driver Behaviour at Cranfield University. The module discusses the value of drivers in an organisation and how you can create a happier and safer working culture for drivers. For a sneak peak you can read Dr Lisa Dorn’s EASST Academy blog post ‘10 habits of the most successful fleet safety managers’.
In terms of managing risk from a personal security perspective, EASST Academy also hosts a training course for drivers ‘Protect yourself and your cargo’ delivered by the IRU Academy and the Transported Asset Protection Association (TAPA) – the leading global supply chain security association. Find out more here.
