The Occupational Health and Safety Administration and other organizations have categorized truck driving as a dangerous job for a long time. The reasons vary. Drivers face long hours and nocturnal periods of activity, prolonged periods of time without movement, dangerous road conditions and more. But new equipment and software are focusing on how to keep them safer, not just make routes more efficient. Look into your company’s history of health issues, workers compensation claims, and insurance concerns to see where new capital investments can do the most good.
Do your employees have a lot of repetitive motion injuries?
Carpal tunnel syndrome doesn’t just impact typists. Hours of driving with minute adjustments and quick response times can put stress on your employees’ hands and wrists. Arthritis and other inflammatory health problems can also impact both health and driving quality, especially in the cold or at different altitudes. Manually cranking landing gear is also a large component of repetitive motion injuries. While falling is the primary recorded cause of direct injuries, operating manual landing gear isn’t far behind. Investing in pressure tools and better bracket systems can reduce strain on your drivers and your insurance budget.
Do you worry about driver fatigue and delayed response time?
If your company specializes in long, cross-country routes, your drivers are alone on the road for hours every day without interruption. This can cause a lot of highway hypnosis and driver fatigue, which means your drivers are less able to respond quickly to sudden obstructions or other drivers. If you can’t change your routes or integrate more breaks into the drive, invest in sensors. Smarter and smarter sensors can detect veering, proximity to other vehicles or guardrails, and changes in the speed limit based on location. These sensors can alert the driver to changes they may not have noticed.
If you can make your trucks smarter and safer, then you have inbuilt redundancies to curb accidents and injuries. These investments don’t just reduce claims, they show your insurance company you are invested in safety. Go to J.E.B. Insurance Services, LLC. to see what these changes and safe driving can do for your insurance rates. We provide commercial truck insurance in the states of Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska.
