Accidents are exactly that – an accident. They come unexpected and are not welcomed when they do happen. The case is no different with your pickup truck rental. Considering that transportation-related accidents were up 41% in work related deaths, it’s understandable why we want your pickup truck rental experience to be beneficial for you as well as safe. Here are a few of the things we’ve noticed when it comes to common fleet accidents.
Age Matters
Whether you’re driving a pickup truck rental or an owned vehicle, age matters when it comes to drivers. Drivers ages 18-45 saw a decline to drivers involved in crashes. However, with drivers ages 46-55 there has been an increase in crashes. The percentage of accidents reported by this group went from 17.92% in 2015 to 21.91% for 2016. This percentage in 2016 was also over 6% higher than the average for this age group in the previous 5 years. Jerry Veres, the certified director of safety of Fleet Response said, “While we don’t have any data to prove the actual reason for change, a likely assumption is that in today’s workforce we continue to have a large population of the oldest age range continuing to work.”
Distracted Driving
Smart phone, tablets and radios, oh my!
Technology is at our fingertips all the time in today’s world. It’s very easy to get distracted when your eyes should be on the road. Joe Kinniry, manager of data analytics at the CEI group said,
“Your mental capacity goes down, in terms of what you’re going to take in from the road when you’re having a conversation with someone on the phone or in the car. We at The CEI Group recommend that when you have to do anything with your phone, pull over and take care of it then.”
This simple task can save your life. You might think “I’ll use a hands-free device.” Unfortunately, hands-free devices are not much safer. It is just about as dangerous as having a handheld cell phone. Attention is the key in preventing most accidents. Your calls can wait until you’re safe.
Other Common Cases
Distracted driving wasn’t the only culprit in fleet accidents last year. As reported in a 2016 survey, 11.41% of vehicle crashes occur when the vehicle is parked, 10.54% were cars hitting the rear of another vehicle, and 9.65% of accidents were caused by parking and backing up. These are also instances that can be prevented by paying closer attention while on the road, in a pickup truck rental or not.
At Summit Fleet, we care about the safety of our pickup truck rental drivers. If you have any questions on how we handle accidents, please contact us at 888-664-9570. Be safe out there!
Sources:
https://www.automotive-fleet.com/channel/safety-accident-management/article/story/2017/08/annual-accident-survey.aspx
