In yesterday’s Advisor, we provided resources to help you train employees on the dangers of distracted driving. Today, we provide 10 tips to help you train your employees to stop distracted driving.
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To recap: April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which makes it a good time to join with other organizations across the nation, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Safety Council, and www.handsfreeinfo.com, to train employees not to drive while distracted.
Here are 10 tips for helping employees stop distracted driving:
1. Define “distracted driving” for employees and give examples.
2. Emphasize the hazards of distracted driving—especially using cell phones and smartphones while driving.
3. Familiarize employees with state and local distracted driving laws and your organization’s policy, including the consequences of violating the laws or your policy.
4. Establish work procedures and rules that do not make it necessary for workers to text, talk on the phone, or use smartphones for other activities while driving in order to carry out their duties.
5. Set up clear procedures, times, and places for drivers’ safe use of texting and other technologies for communicating with managers, customers, and others.
6. Incorporate safe communications practices into worker orientation and training.
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7. Require employees to turn off phones or switch them to silent mode before entering a company vehicle.
8. Instruct employees to pull over to a safe area first if they need to make a cell phone call while in their vehicle or ask a helper or another passenger to make a return call for the driver.
9. Have drivers refrain from any activities that divert their attention from driving, including eating, grooming, reading, inputting information into navigation systems, etc.
10. Recommend that callers who know they are talking to someone who is driving, hang up and call later.
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The information in today’s Advisor is adapted from a session in BLR’s popular 10-Minute HR Trainer, “Helping Employees Stop Distracted Driving.”