For employers to keep their truck drivers safe, they require their truckers to be alert, experienced, buckled-up, drive a reliable company vehicle, and practice safe driving habits. They also need to implement strong employer safety programs.

There are over 2.5 million truck drivers that drive large trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about 65 percent of US truck driver on-the-job deaths were due to vehicle accidents in 2012. During their career, more than one in three employee truck drivers experience a severe truck accident and one in eight has experienced a couple or more.

Having your drivers buckle their seat belts is not only required by federal regulations, it is effective. However, it was found in 2013 that one in six truck drivers do not wear their seat belts and as much as 40 percent of truck driver deaths could have been prevented simply by buckling up.

According to a NIOSH survey, unrealistic deadlines could lead to risky behaviors and put truck drivers at a high risk of injury. The 2010 survey was conducted at 32 truck stops in the US and there were over 1200 participating long-haul truck drivers. Out of these drivers, almost 75 percent thought they had too tight delivery schedules which were thought by NIOSH to lead them to be unsafe.

How Employers Can Encourage Truck Driver Safety

It is not only up to the truck drivers to ensure their own safety. Employers have a responsibility too. Some ways employers can keep their truck drivers safe while driving include:

• Making the commitment to driver safety programs.
• Establishing policies for driver safety and enforcing them.
• Requiring truck drivers to buckle up.
• Putting seat belt programs in place and involving the drivers in decisions.
• Promoting the use of seat belts in safety meetings and trainings.
• Going over factors that lead to crashes like distracted driving and drowsiness in their driver safety programs.
• Monitoring the driver’s speed, rapid acceleration, hard braking and other driving behaviors through GPS fleet tracking.

The NIOSH survey highlights various essential safety issues for further interventions and research (i.e. injury underreporting, high occurrence of truck crashes, noncompliance with hours-of-service rules, unrealistically tight delivery schedules and inadequate entry-level training).

Employers are recommended by the NIOSH to make sure that their expectations for on-time deliveries don’t result in hours-of-service violations, ensure the training that entry-level drivers get meets their needs and educate drivers on safe driving behavior.

Spanning a distance of more than 2,000 miles, the National Guard Iron Dog race, which is hailed the longest and toughest snowmachine race in the world, took place on Alaska’s ice-covered Big Lake in February, 2016. The total trip is likened in size of that of a trip between Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

In the past, fans of the race were only able to keep track of the event by watching coverage on the television and by observing from the sidelines. However, this year, fans were given the opportunity to experience the race in a whole new way. Thanks to technology and GPS tracking, fans were able to virtually “ride along” and keep track of the riders’ progress.

Riders’ that participated in the race were outfitted with GPS tracking devices, which provided real-time updates on the irondog.org website. Fans of the race were also able to download an official race guide and find out more about the event on this website. Read the rest of this entry »

As a parent to a teen driver, you want nothing more than to make sure that your child is a safe as possible while behind the wheel. You also want to make sure that his passengers, other drivers, and pedestrians are safe, as well.

While you may not be able to be able to be in the car with your teen all the time, you can help to ensure that he is driving safely. Thanks to the modern technology, cars that have been manufactured in the past few years are outfitted with some pretty impressive – and life-saving – safety features.

If your teen has the following safety features in his car, you can rest a lot easier when he is behind the wheel.

• Electronic stability control (ESC). This feature, which is also referred to as an electronic stability program (ESP) or dynamic stability control (DSC) consists of a computer, which works by improving a vehicle’s stability when it determines that there is reduced traction.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mid way through 2015, Uber, the mobile ride sharing company, began to track its China drivers through the use of GPS tracking. During this time, the GPS tracking devices were used to track if the drivers were attending protests in the Eastern China city of Hangzhou. Even though the protests were thought to be an isolated occurrence, Uber started up a new pilot program to monitor some of its drivers quietly.

Uber has said that if any of their drivers disobeyed their commands, they would cancel their contracts, according to The Wall Street Journal. The GPS coordinates would help the company find out if indeed any drivers were being part of the protests. The program was put in place to maintain social order, the company stated.

The program is also going to help the company out with customer complaints about its drivers braking too hard or speeding. Small movements can be measured through phone gyrometers while accelerometers and GPS tracking can indicate the overall speed of its vehicles as well as how often they start and stop, says Uber’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan. If a complaint comes in that a driver braked too hard or was speeding, the company can use data to review that particular trip. Read the rest of this entry »

Through the unseasonably frigid temperatures of Florida and gusty winds, the ULA Atlas V carried a GPS tracking device IIF-12 navigation satellite into space. This completed the sequence of next generation GPS IIF satellites, which are vital on a 24/7 basis to both civilian and military users.

A number of improvements were incorporated into these GPS IIF satellites over the first GPS satellite series, including their ability to offer increased signals, greater accuracy, and enhanced performance for users.

GPS tracking and navigation technology is still thought to be the ‘Gold Standard’, which offers precise navigation, timing, tracking, and positioning services worldwide to users, according to director of the GPS Directorate of Space and Missile Systems Center, Col. Steve Whitney.

Commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space and 14th Air Force commander, Lt. Gen. David J. Buck said the launch of the last Block IIF GPS satellites marked a huge milestone for the program and this program continues with unheard-of support from the general public and our military forces. Read the rest of this entry »