Fleet Managers should Prioritise Mental Health and Wellbeing
While it should be a priority for all businesses, mental health and wellbeing is particularly relevant to those who drive as part of their job.
It is estimated that 30% of illnesses in the transport and logistics industry are mental-health related.
Lorry drivers are especially prone to having mental health issues due to the nature of their work.
Being away from home for extended periods of time, long or unsociable working hours, operating in a stressful environment and working in isolation can make lorry drivers vulnerable and have considerable affects on their performance.
Many trade bodies and safety organizations are calling for better awareness and a proactive approach to help manage the issue of poor mental health within businesses.
How does it manifest within your business?
Mental health problems could impact your business in several ways.
These include:
- Poor driving
- Poor Customer service
- Day off either from sickness or absenteeism
The resulting effects are:
- Degraded public perception
- Higher Fuel Costs
- Damage to Vehicles
- Higher Training Costs
- Higher Staff Turnover
How to spot the warning signs in your staff
- Warning signs of an emerging issue can become apparent in many ways, such as:
- Poor timekeeping skills
- Frequent Sickness
- Sudden changes in behaviour
- Irritability
- Unelicited aggression
- Aberrations in driving performance picked up by telematics devices
How to improve driver wellbeing
There are many ways that you can improve the working environment to improve driver wellbeing and reduce the chance of any future incidents.
This may include:
- Improve work/life balance
- Organise better schedules for your drivers
- Explicit role definitions
- Offer support for external issues
- Encourage physical activities in breaks
- Encourage employees to take breaks as needed
- Offer ways to deal with traffic issues
- Reconsider pay rates
What to do as an organization
It is better to take a holistic view of the situation at an organizational level.
- Re-align company values
- Training for managers
- Improving soft skills for managers
- Normalising discussion around Mental Health
- Create a safe workplace environment
- Host talking events
- Educate staff
- Offer confidential counselling services
Useful Statistics
A recent survey showed that among respondents:
- 75% of people will say that they’re fine when they are not
- 58% felt that having a mental health problem was a stigma
- 28% of managers said that they’d had a conversation with an employee about mental health issues
- 38% felt that talking about it would affect their career negatively
According to government figures:
- 45% make excuses when they take time off for mental health reasons
- 40% of men under 45 have thought about suicide
- Men aged between 20-49 are more likely to die from suicide than cancer, road traffic accidents or heart disease
- £100 billion per year is lost because of unaddressed mental health issues which affect – or are made worse by – the workplace environment
One way that you can help to look after the wellbeing of your fleet involves the use of telematics.
Using cutting-edge technology, you can track your fleet’s location in real time.
The software ranks your drivers performance based on their speed, braking, acceleration, idling time and general driving behaviour.
It can pick up on any changes in driving behaviour and help a fleet manager to address any issues proactively.
Fuel cards can also help to reduce stress by reducing the need for your drivers to keep receipts or large amounts of cash on them to pay for fuel.
All of these services, which we offer, can help to relieve the stress and anxiety of your drivers and improve their wellbeing.
We believe that a happy driver is a safer driver.
Useful links:
To find out more about our fuel cards click here – https://www.cambriancards.com/fuel-cards
To learn more about our telematics devices click here – https://www.cambriancards.com/telematics
