Tips for creating a more successful driver coaching program with SpeedGauge

You’ve likely already taken important strides toward putting an effective driver coaching program in place. However, by incorporating the following tips, you can help your drivers understand and appreciate the value of SpeedGauge, and thereby achieve even greater results:

• Remember: SpeedGauge is about identifying broad trends in your fleet’s speeding behavior - not hammering drivers for individual incidents. A driver who has had a few bad incidents may still be a safe driver in general. Use the summary report to see how your drivers compare to each other overall - as a percentage of their driving - not just who had the most incidents.
• Use the carrot, not the stick. We have seen that fleets are much more successful when they attempt to control speeding by rewarding top performers than when they focus only on punishing the speeders. It will be much easier to get drivers on board when you focus on positively reinforcing safe behaviors.

• Remember: SpeedGauge can protect drivers, too. SpeedGauge is at its most powerful when it is presented as a tool to protect drivers when their performance is questioned. With a good SpeedGauge record, a driver can show supervisors, or even a jury, that he is not a habitual speeder. Top drivers will welcome SpeedGauge for protecting their reputations with a solid record of their safe driving habits.

• Coach the drivers who need it. We believe that every driver deserves to have access to the tools they need to succeed. When you identify a driver who speeds more than the rest, try to find out why. Speeding is a bad habit, and bad habits can always be turned into good ones if we learn what causes them. “How can I help you to stop speeding?” tends to work much better than “Stop speeding or else!”

• Communicate with your drivers. Make sure that everyone knows what the rules are - if your drivers don’t know that the company has a max speed policy, how can you expect them to follow it? If drivers know exactly what their responsibilities are, they’ll have an easier time living up to them. At the same time, be sure to listen to your drivers - their feedback can help smooth the transition in a way that works for everyone.

• The technology is not always 100% perfect. No technology is. Listen to your drivers if they say “I wasn’t driving there,” “I wasn’t driving that fast,” or “that’s not the speed limit there!” Small GPS errors can cause the wrong speed or location to be sent to SpeedGauge, and limits in our system may occasionally be incorrect. If you believe that the limit is incorrect, please send a speed limit update request.

• Don’t use SpeedGauge (or any telematics data!) to make decisions you can’t take back. We stand by the quality of our data and the analytic tools of the Safety Center, but we also believe that hiring and firing decisions should only be made by qualified professionals. Please do not use SpeedGauge data by itself as grounds for terminating or seriously disciplining a driver without a thorough investigation. Our mission is to help drivers stay safe on the road - not to see them punished for small infractions.

Putting these tips into practice can help you train and retain good drivers, and take your coaching program to the next level!