Running a freight business can be highly stressful. Logistics are never easy to manage, and unforeseen events can increase the pressure and make meeting deadlines even more difficult. However, despite being busy, there is one thing that should always be your priority, and that is safety. Ensuring employee and public safety is crucial when running a freight company. Haulage can be a high-risk business with the challenges of driving vast vehicles and loading freight on and off the trucks. The high-risk nature of the haulage business means that heightening your procedures to keep everyone safe is essential. Here are some of the ways that you can ensure that your haulage business runs efficiently and safely:
Continual Training for Employees
Ensuring that your employees have all the training that they need to perform their role safely is vital. Human error is a common cause of accidents in the workplace across all industries, so playing your part in reducing the likelihood of accidents caused by human error is essential to keep everyone safe.
Health and safety training is essential for employees, not just your drivers. Whether your team members work in the yard or the site office, they each need to be aware of how to keep themselves and others safe. Continual training is the best way to keep safety at the forefront of every employee’s mind and to keep everyone up to date with the latest safety advice.
Schedule Regular Vehicle Maintenance
Undetected faults are a leading cause of accidents, so doing everything that you can to detect faults early is vital. Scheduling in regular maintenance checks is the best way to spot potential problems. Compiling a maintenance timetable will help you to keep track of when each vehicle needs checking.
Using the best quality parts is especially important from a maintenance viewpoint, especially when it comes to the brakes. Make sure that your mechanics are using genuine parts such as the 0486205022N50 Knorr-Bremse EBS Trailer Control Module covered by a warranty. Quality should always be a priority when choosing truck parts, so ensuring that these are genuine is vital.
Encourage Drivers to Report Issues
Even with regular maintenance checks, there may be times when mechanical issues arise with your fleet of trucks. As well as using scheduled maintenance as an opportunity to detect issues, it is also useful to encourage drivers to report issues they notice when driving the trucks. This will ensure that any problems are resolved immediately rather than waiting until they become a significant issue. Introducing a procedure that enables drivers to report problems that they notice when driving will help to keep your vehicles on the road and safe to drive.
Enhanced Safety Features
Along with ensuring that your employees are health and safety trained and that your vehicles are safe to drive, you may also want to consider getting enhanced safety features added to your trucks. Enhanced safety features can help to improve visibility for the driver as well as alert other vehicles and pedestrians.
