The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) jointly launched the CVSA Operation Safe Driver Week in 2007, with support from industry and transportation safety organizations. The goal of the annual event has been to minimize high-risk driving behaviors, including speeding, through traffic enforcement strategies.
The CVSA has now announced the new dates for this year’s CVSA Operation Safe Driver Week. Originally scheduled for May, it was postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The latest date of inspections will be July 12 to 18.
Law enforcement personnel will be looking out for unsafe drivers on the roadways throughout North America, and drivers caught violating road rules will be issued a citation or warning. Just like last year, the emphasis will be on speeding by commercial and passenger vehicle drivers.
The inspectors will also be eying out for driving behaviors such as the following:
- Seat-belt usage
- Distracted driving
- Reckless or aggressive driving
- Improper lane changes
- Driving under the influence
- Not obeying traffic control devices
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Why Does CVSA Plan to Focus Primarily on Speeding?
Speeding has always been a major concern for both field service businesses and law enforcement departments. Sadly, the situation has not changed, even during the lockdown when traffic has decreased significantly.
In fact, America’s roads were more lethal despite the stay-at-home orders, according to the National Safety Council. Also, according to a statement by the Governors Highway Safety Association, the average speed on expressways, state highways, and interstate highways increased by around 75% compared to January and February.
As per another study by Samsara, speeding increased by 40% in New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco in April, while the nationwide increase was 20%. Thus it’s no surprise that many states have reported alarming speed increases, with some noting significant increases in vehicles clocked at 100 mph or more!
To address this alarming trend of speeding, CVSA selected speeding as the focus area for the upcoming CVSA Operation Safe Driver Week.
If you want to find out about the Safe Driver Week 2020 enforcement events happening in your area, contact the agency or department accountable for overseeing the commercial motor vehicle safety in your jurisdiction.
Last Year’s Results
Last year, 87,624 warnings and 46,752 citations were issued for traffic violations. Of all those warnings and citations, about 1,454 commercial motor vehicle drivers were cited for driving too fast and 2,126 were issued warnings. Also, 21,000 passenger vehicles were issued warnings and over 16,000 received speeding tickets.
Failure to wear a seat belt was the second-highest violation by both passenger vehicle drivers and truckers. Over 1,794 passenger vehicle drivers and 954 truck drivers were booked during last year’s week-long safety blitz for failure to wear a seat belt.
What Can You Do?
Below are some steps you can take to keep a check on dangerous driver behaviors and ensure your drivers do not get caught due to violations.
- Use a route planner to optimize routes so that your drivers get accurate routes and always show up on time.
- Adopt a GPS tracker that comes with a speed alert feature so you can track your drivers for violating the speed limit. In this way, you can communicate with any driver speeding and take corrective actions immediately.
- Provide training on defensive driving techniques, such as maintaining a safe distance from other vehicles, expecting other drivers to make mistakes while staying conscious enough to react appropriately, pulling over when feeling unsafe, and avoiding overtaking and tailgating.
- Ask your drivers to avoid multitasking while driving.
- Don’t allow any grooming activities while driving.
- Only allow the use of voice command or Bluetooth when necessary.
- Drivers should consume food before or after a trip, never during.
- Regularly give your drivers feedback on their on-road behaviors.
- Incentivize your drivers for safe driving.
So are you ready for the Safe Driver Week? How are you going to ensure driver safety? Do you have any questions? Please feel free to leave your comments below.
