Driving style: why it matters for your business and how to motivate your drivers

Is your company car using an unusually large amount of fuel? Does it often need topping up with engine oil? Does it need frequent servicing because of wear and tear? All of these are signs of a poor driving style on the part of whoever drives the company car. Up to 40% of employees admit to treating company cars carelessly.

Why the driving style of company car drivers matters

Why does it matter how an employee drives a company car? First and foremost, because of safety – not only the safety of your employees, but also that of other drivers and pedestrians. A road accident caused by a vehicle plastered with your company logo on every side is not just a misfortune; it also damages your company's good name.

Your reputation can suffer even without an accident. All it takes is an aggressive driver who doesn't hesitate to run red lights and is anything but sparing with the horn. Even that is enough to create negative associations with your company in the minds of passers-by.

A poor driving style can also push your company's costs up by tens of per cent. Constantly alternating between the brake and the accelerator dramatically increases fuel consumption and vehicle wear. Careless driving therefore drives up your fuel and servicing costs. At the same time, it speeds up the overall wear and tear on your vehicles, which means you will have to renew your fleet more often.

Higher fuel consumption also goes hand in hand with higher emissions from your company vehicles. Even if the environment doesn't mean much to you, it certainly does to your stakeholders.

Corporate social responsibility, which includes environmental issues, is now a standard that both customers and investors expect.

How to motivate drivers to improve their driving style

One way to motivate company drivers to treat company cars with care is to reward low fuel consumption. The idea is to spark competition among employees over who achieves the best driving results. In practice, this might mean setting a fuel consumption standard for a given period and then comparing it with each driver's actual consumption. If a driver's consumption is below the standard you have set, they are rewarded. If, on the other hand, it exceeds a certain limit – say, 110% of the standard – the driver is penalised for their driving style and has to improve over the following months.

Another way to motivate drivers is to build economical driving directly into your key performance indicators. You can then set the required level of fuel efficiency either for the organisation as a whole or for individual drivers. A good driving style thus becomes a direct part of your company strategy and cannot be sidestepped.

As part of your motivation efforts, also take the time to train your employees. Every driver surely knows that constantly switching between the brake and the accelerator is not kind to the vehicle. But they may not know other principles and tips for economical driving. Training should familiarise them with these principles and teach them how to handle the specific type of vehicle they drive. Better vehicle handling and an economical driving style will then automatically reduce fuel consumption and the rate at which the car wears out.

Monitoring drivers' driving style

You can also encourage drivers to treat company vehicles responsibly with monitoring that lets you track and evaluate your drivers' driving style. This reveals undesirable treatment of company vehicles, such as harsh acceleration, jerky driving or taking corners aggressively. And thanks to clear driver identification, you can then penalise drivers for such behaviour and put an end to careless driving of your vehicles.

Ecofleet can provide you with a complete solution for monitoring your drivers. We take care of monitoring your drivers' driving style as well as tracking their location in real time or keeping an electronic trip journal, for example. With us, you can keep a close eye on your drivers.