Driver Behavior Monitoring - monitoring and improving driver behavior with GPS tracking

As a fleet manager, driver behavior monitoring is essential in ensuring your drivers are driving safely, taking efficient routes, minimizing fuel wastage, and deterring the unauthorized use of the company's vehicles. Likewise, driver behavior monitoring helps you detect and address bad driving behavior quickly before it results in incidents such as accidents, vehicle damage, injuries and fatalities, and traffic violations, among others. 

One of the best ways to monitor driver behavior today is by utilizing GPS tracking devices. With these driver behavior monitoring systems, you can keep track of your employees' driving habits and see where they are performing well or falling short. In this post, we discussed what bad driving practices are and how they can affect your company. Additionally, we explained how you can use vehicle tracking devices to address these bad habits and improve your fleet's driver scorecards. 

What is bad driving behavior?

A bad driving habit can be defined as an unsafe driving practice. They include actions such as overspeeding, aggressive driving, distracted driving, traffic violations, drowsy driving, ignoring traffic lights, harsh braking and tailgating. When not addressed quickly, these bad driving practices can result in accidents, endangering the life of the driver and other road users. 

In July 2024, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reported that 29% of all fatalities that occurred on the roadways were speeding-related. Similarly, according to the Insurance Information Institute, careless driving resulted in 4,601 fatalities in 2021. In addition, the average cost of a commercial fleet crash can run into hundreds of thousands if someone is injured and into millions of dollars if it results in fatalities. Thus, it is essential that companies enforce safe driving behaviour to prevent its numerous consequences. 

Using GPS trackers for driver behavior monitoring

Several fleet management tracking systems have been developed to help managers monitor drivers' driving styles, ensure fleet safety, identify dangerous driving practices, prevent vehicle abuse, and more. These driver monitoring systems work by collecting driver behavior data that managers can utilize to gain insights into their driver's driving styles. 

With the right behavior monitoring tools, you can enjoy the following benefits:

• Prevent overspeeding with monitoring systems

Not only is excessive acceleration or overspeeding unsafe, but it can also increase your fleet's fuel usage. With driver monitoring devices, you can set up real-time alerts to know when your drivers are going beyond the approved speed limit. Further, you can use this tracking software to generate reports on employee performance and identify which ones are regularly overspeeding. With these reports, you can quickly address the problem before it results in accidents or other issues.

• Reduce fleet fuel consumption

Aside from improving driver safety, tracking devices can reduce fuel usage across your fleet. With vehicle trackers, you can know when your drivers are driving too fast, leaving your vehicles to idle unnecessarily or taking longer routes, and take appropriate steps to prevent this fuel-wasting habit. 

• Generate driver scorecards

Managers using comprehensive fleet management solutions, such as advanced GPS trackers, can generate driver scorecards to gain real-time insights into driver behavior. With these reports, they can identify the best drivers as well as the low-performing drivers in their fleet. Additionally, you can use these to identify unsafe driving patterns. You will know whether the problem is speed, harsh cornering, traffic violations, careless driving, or harsh braking. 

• Optimize fleet routes

By implementing tracking and telematics solutions, managers can monitor the routes their truck drivers are taking. These devices let you see driver activities, replay their movements, and determine whether your drivers are using the most efficient routes. What's more, you can use GPS devices to set geofence around your route to ensure your drivers are not moving outside the area. 

• Get real-time alerts with driver tracking systems

Perhaps one of the primary benefits of using trackers to monitor your fleet operation is the ability to immediately receive alerts when your drivers are driving in an unsafe manner. With these alerts, you can track drivers with bad behaviour and let them know they are being monitored. Managers can use this solution to enforce better driving across their entire fleet. 

• Reduce personal use

Driver monitoring systems help you ensure that your fleet drivers only use your vehicles for company purposes. When your vehicles are used for personal purposes, it will result in higher fuel and vehicle maintenance costs for your business. With tracking devices, you can set up alerts to know when your vehicles are used outside of work hours or driven out of designated areas. 

Ready to minimize your drivers' bad behavior with GPS telematics solutions?

Contact us today. Our experts will be happy to walk you through our numerous fleet tracking and telematics solutions and how you can leverage them to track your drivers, ensure safety, and optimize your fleet management operations.