On-the-Road Safety: Delivery Driver Tips and Tricks

According to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, U.S. crashes cost employers over $72.2 billion in expenses like medical care, liability, property damage, and lost productivity.

Being a professional delivery business owner, you should ensure that your drivers have the safest driving ecosystem, vehicles, and knowledge to deliver the desired results with finesse.

Integrate different driving safety training programs or guide your on-ground delivery drivers to follow precautions to avoid mishaps or getting stuck in traffic congestion, causing delivery delays or failures.

Our team has filtered the best delivery driver safety tips you can provide your drivers to enhance driver safety and ensure that you can minimize your business losses because of crashes.

1. Hire Professional Drivers

You should ensure that your driver hiring process is smooth and professional to ensure that you have the best and safest drivers for your delivery business.

You should check their license because your business could be liable for mishaps caused by your on-ground drivers. A safe driving record and a valid driver’s license should be a must for your delivery drivers.

Your hiring team should validate the information with the concerned motor vehicle department to remain on the safer side. Also, you should look for experienced drivers who can minimize the chances of accidents and know the importance of safe driving.

Sometimes, it’s great if you take a road test of the drivers that can help you analyze the technical driving skills of the candidate. Analyze factors like seat belt precaution, speeding limits, and the approach driving of the truck drivers to filter the best fit for your delivery business.

2. Teach Defensive Driving Techniques

You should enroll your delivery drivers in professional defensive driving courses that can help you improve the driving safety of the employees and ensure a smooth and hassle-free delivery process.

The training can address different aspects of delivery drivers, like distracted driving, aggressive driving, and fatigue, and helps improve the driver’s skill set for defensive driving.

The defensive driving techniques can: 

• Minimize the risk of traffic violations and collisions.
• Decrease the vehicle’s repair bills.
• Lower the insurance company’s premiums and workers’ and accident compensation claims.

3. Integrate Company Policy that Promotes Safety

You must ensure that you set safety driving protocols that can help you improve the quality of deliveries and minimize the hassles.

You should not penalize employees when they fall behind schedule to avoid the risk of accidents and catastrophic losses. Don’t put strict delivery deadlines for your drivers. Plan your day delivery day accordingly to ensure your safe and secure delivery process.

Focus on strategies that can help you minimize reckless driving or speeding to avoid the chances of accidents.

Add a code of conduct to highlight different rules and regulations that the drivers must follow for working for your delivery business. They should not text, bypass the speed limits, or drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

4. Delivery Vehicle Maintenance

Mechanical issues are a major cause of accidents in the United States, so you must integrate regular vehicle checkups to ensure the proper safety of your drivers and the delivery of material.

Regular maintenance can increase the drivers’ safety and reduce costs. The delivery vehicles can be used for the long run to deliver safe deliveries for your customers. 

Don’t allow the drivers to operate even if there are minor issues to avoid the number one cause of accidents in the country. Keep your delivery drivers safe and minimize the risk of potential hazards.

5. Smooth Communication

Ensure that you have smooth communication between your delivery driver and management team that can help them avoid real-life issues and increase the security of the delivery process.

Communication can help the delivery drivers get the best schedule for their operations, minimizing the pressure and strict delivery deadlines. 

It can also help the delivery drivers tackle situations of bad weather conditions and reschedule their work with powerful collaboration with the expert team.

6. Ensure Minimal Distractions for Drivers

Train your drivers to avoid distractions during driving. This can reduce driver fatigue and promote better focus.

With increased focus, the drivers can deliver on-time deliveries to increase delivery customer satisfaction and strengthen the impact of your brand.

Your delivery fleet should avoid using a phone, have more control over the wheel, and be aware of the on-ground real-time dynamics.

7. Incentivize Safe Driving

Create a list of delivery customers and assign your delivery drivers to ensure that your delivery tasks are managed with finesse. Incentivize your delivery drivers who can deliver safe and secure weekly, monthly, or yearly deliveries that can encourage drivers to deliver quality delivery results.

Assign the bonus or increments before the drivers start the delivery operations that can help them stay on track with the delivery process, thinking about rewards back in their minds.

8. Encourage Proper Breaks and Rests

Based on the scale and type of delivery operations, you should include regular breaks and rests that can help to avoid drain-outs and increase the overall efficiency of the delivery drivers.

Don’t force a tight schedule on your delivery drivers that can increase the chances of accidents and injuries. 

9. Create Emergency Protocols

In case of an emergency, your delivery drivers should be drilled to follow a specific emergency protocol that can save them from undesirable situations.

In case of brake failures, tire punctures, road rage, minor accidents, or other situations that may arise during the delivery process, your delivery drivers should know what steps they should take to get out of the situation.

You can drill them by putting them into similar situations during their training period that can avoid the impact of damage on your delivery business and assist the delivery drivers in getting back on the driving seats quickly.

10. Use Route Optimization Software 

Using route optimization software is the most significant way to keep things in good working order and minimize the risk of delivery accidents or operational inefficiencies..

You can create optimized and shortest routes for your delivery operations and dispatch the routes to different delivery drivers within a few clicks.

The route analysis uses a powerful algorithm that analyzes the real-time traffic, weather, and ETA updates and delivers a tailored planned route for better results.

You get centralized control over the delivery operations and stay updated with the real-time location of the delivery drivers to keep track of their safety and deliver quality instructions.

A delivery route planner and optimization software can reduce your delivery expense and increase the quality of your delivery operations.

But choosing one for your delivery operations can be overwhelming because multiple delivery route planners are available in the $4-5 billion industry.

Our team has filtered the best delivery route planner for your business to enhance its efficiency and scale the business operations.

How Does the Upper Route Planner Help Delivery Drivers? 

Upper Route Planner is an excellent route planning and optimization software that can help streamline your delivery operations and minimize human errors and inefficiencies. 

You can create multiple routes within a few clicks and dispatch them to your delivery fleet for quick and safe delivery results.

You can deliver a quality delivery experience to your customers that can increase efficiency and ensure that you stand out.

You can manage multiple-stop routing with finesse and remove the complexities from your delivery operations.

Try the 7 days trial to ensure that your delivery drivers follow the safest and most secure delivery paths.

Summing It Up

Increasing the safety of your delivery driver is essential; your drivers should follow different precautionary tips for secure and safe deliveries.

Choose a professional route planner like Upper to simplify your delivery process and boost the security of your delivery drivers.

Get the best-optimized delivery routes for multiple delivery addresses and ensure you deliver a quality experience to your customers.