“I just froze, I had no idea of what to do. In my panic I scanned my thoughts for any piece of advice I had ever received about dealing with a car crash, but I couldn’t think of anything”. Those are the words of a shaken Adelaide resident who was involved in a minor vehicle collision earlier this year. The unfortunate fact is that very few people are in fact prepared for the worst and even fewer have a fool proof company procedure for dealing with collisions or car accidents. With all of this in mind and Christmas around the corner, we decided that this week we would focus on accident management and related driver advice.
In addition to this checklist, you as the fleet manager will need to supplement these tips with company specific information.
While many things can be done to train drivers in ways which avoid accidents it is still important to teach them what to do when an accident actually happens. Promoting the company’s procedure on post accident management should be done consistently and the core of the message should be delivered long before the employee uses a company car. In addition, the car should have a leaflet with the above bullet points stored either under one of the seats or in the glove compartment. Like all other employee information it is of paramount importance that the information be repeated at regular intervals (message boards, refresher meetings etc.).
Sitting down with drivers and fleet professionals and planning for the worst can be difficult as the process feels counterintuitive and some of the finer planning points may involve some decisions on things people aren’t happy thinking about. Despite this, planning for these eventualities can bring some very serious and tangible rewards and a well considered plan can save lives, stress, property and time. In the end, those are some of the most valuable assets we have.
