Driver Safety and Cargo TheftOne effective way to increase fleet safety is to focus on your younger drivers. Why? Because statistically, young drivers are more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle fatality than their older associates. How much more likely? Let’s look at two groups of drivers.

The first is made up of male drivers below age 30. The second includes male drivers 30 – 69 years of age. The drivers in group one are 379 percent more likely to be involved in a fatality-related collision than their older counterparts.

If you look at female drivers in the same age categories we find that the younger females are 240 percent more likely to be involved in a fatality-related collision.

This information is compiled from a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The data includes miles driven by age and gender, plus the number of fatality-related collisions in each, expressed as the number of fatalities per 100 million miles.

Drivers < 30 Years Old

Gender

Miles Driven  x 100 Million

Total Crashes Crashes per 100 Million Miles
Males 1916 10155 5.3
Females 1722 4107 2.4

Drivers 30 – 60 Years Old

Males 10433 14465 1.4
Females 6624 6688 1

These statistics reinforce what other studies have shown: younger drivers, for a variety of reasons, are more likely to be involved in collisions than older drivers. Since many companies employ drivers under 30 years of age, how can you reduce your risk of collisions?

1. Make driver training a required part of the orientation for any new driver hired. Targeted online training is a cost-effective and efficient way of training (and retraining) drivers.

2. Employ some type of How’s My Driving program, and, where possible, back it up with in-cab telematics that give immediate alerts when necessary.

3. Make sure you counsel employees who receive How’s My Driving and telematics alerts. Driver counseling is a key to reducing at-risk behaviors and increasing your level of safety.

For more information about any of the solutions mentioned above, contact DriverCheck. You may also be interested in viewing DriverCheck’s free video, How to Counsel At-Risk Drivers.