What would you do with $90 million? Comedian Tracy Morgan would know. Walmart paid him $90 million in a crash lawsuit settlement back in 2015 following a truck accident which left Morgan seriously injured and his friend James McNair dead. The Walmart employee at fault had fallen asleep at the wheel after more than twenty-four hours awake and collided with Morgan’s limousine while going 65 mph.
In a time when driver tracking software is so accessible and affordable, tragic accidents resulting from drowsy driving are more senseless than ever. For less than the cost of a lunch per month, your mobile employee company could have the preventative security you need in place to avoid such deadly situations.
RoadChek provides a simple, low-cost solution that addresses this issue, enabling employers and fleet managers to take a more proactive approach to driver safety.
Here’s how to take action on drowsy driving in your mobile employee company.
Know The Cues Of Driving Drowsy
With the right driver tracking software, you can monitor your employees on the road in real-time and quickly gauge their driving performance in the following areas:
- Turning
- Swerving
- Jerking
- Acceleration
- Hard braking
- Hard cornering
These are all behaviours which can reveal when a driver is not fully alert.
The administrative interface for RoadChek GPS driver tracking technology includes easy to view colour-coded statuses on each indicator in the behaviour score. This allows for summary evaluation of driver conduct which could indicate drowsiness or other influences that could impact the safety of the driver and others on the road.
The more you know about what drowsy driving looks like, the more efficiently you and your administrators can put a stop to it in real-time.
Put A Stop To Hours-of-Service Violations
Real-time tracking with RoadChek provides your administrators with the most up to date information about the time your employees spend driving. This allows for an at-a-glance indication of work time overages.
And when you need to alert your employee to pull over as soon as possible, RoadChek makes it easy with built-in chat messaging. Contact your employees directly to their smart phones and receive an indication of when they read their messages. It’s a fast and reliable way to cover your bases in protecting your staff and the people around them.
According to a Trucker News report, Walmart truck driver Kevin Roper had been awake for twenty-four hours prior to the crash.
Morgan and his plaintiffs claim Walmart “knew or should have known Mr. Roper was awake for more than twenty-four consecutive hours immediately before the subject accident.”
If Walmart had an effective system in place to monitor its mobile employees’ working hours and send an alert to the employee directly, it is possible this deadly accident could have been avoided.
Introduce Driver Tracking With Privacy Benefit
Perhaps you’ve considered implementing a driver tracking app for your employees but anticipated a negative reaction from your team. Invasion of privacy is a real concern and should be taken seriously by management.
Harness driver tracking software as the opportunity it is to reinforce employee respect with a tracking solution that allows you to schedule ‘on duty’ and ‘off duty’ tracking.
There’s no need to track employees when they are not working. Assure them of your intentions as a figure of safety and accountability by being transparent about the privacy features built in to your tracking solution.
Don’t let a tragedy be your wake up call for taking action on reducing drowsy drivers in your organization. Get accurate information on how your drivers move about when on company business, then uses that information to help each individual driver improve.
References
Jaillet, James. “Walmart Settles Lawsuit with Tracy Morgan over 2014 Crash.”28 May 2015, Trucker News
“Tracy Morgan received $90 million to settle crash lawsuit: Reports.” 5 September 2015 Toronto Sun.
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