Pro Tip: Six Key Steps When You Are Required to Pull Driving Privileges

Pulling driving privileges from fleet drivers is not one of the more exciting duties of a fleet manager, but it is an absolute necessity at times. When operators are not driving safely or have bad driving habits, it puts your employees, other drivers on the road, and your company or organization at extreme risk, according to Kathy Wellik, CAFM^®, Director at Iowa State University.

When evaluating if you should suspend driving privileges from an employee, it is important that you collaborate with other departments in your organization or institution including Risk Management, Human Resources, and Legal, she added.

Here are Wellik's six steps to follow if you need to suspend a driver’s driving privileges:

• Standard operating procedures (SOPs) MUST be in place, vetted, and approved by all departments of concern.
• Next is educating and sharing the SOPs with all members that will be operating fleet vehicles, as well as with the supervisors responsible for those drivers.
• Keep accurate records on drivers. Running motor vehicle record (MVR) checks before granting privileges and routinely once a year is important to determine your drivers’ driving habits. When driving complaints are received, document, document, document any information you have on the complaint, actions taken, and the driver’s response.
• Have facts, not fiction or assumptions, about your driver and/or the situation. Depending on the situation, this is where telematics can be a huge assistance to management in unsafe driving situations. Depending on the telematics product your fleet uses, you can gather valuable information such as location, speed, and hard braking, just to name a few.
• Notify the driver’s supervisor, or other responsible people, of the situation to make him or her aware. This allows proper oversight personnel to be made aware that there could be something more to the situation, such as other unsafe behaviors in other aspects of the drivers’ job.
• Collaborate with Human Resources and the driver’s supervisor to determine if it is mandatory for the operator in question to drive, or if the driver can be reassigned to other duties to stay employed. Once any court cases or situations are investigated, such as in the case of an Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) charge, then the driver may potentially be reinstated.

These six steps can reduce the liability to both you and your organization, and collaborating with other departments through the process will provide you with support. Safe drivers hold the "keys" to your success.

NAFA welcomes your tips for improving fleet processes, solving problems, growing results, and promoting your role in your organization’s success. Submit your Pro Tips to editorial@nafa.org.