Road Evaluations (truck driver road test): Beyond the Basics

The Importance of Documenting Road Evaluations | CVOR/NSC Podcast

In this episode of the CVOR and National Safety Code podcast, Chris Harris, also known as Safety Dawg, emphasizes the critical need for documented road evaluations. 

He discusses the importance of insurance requirements, thorough vehicle inspections, route planning, and in-depth driver testing to ensure commercial vehicles are operated safely. 

Key points include backing maneuvers, serpentine exercises, city and highway driving skills, and the necessity of proper lane management. Ensure your drivers are adequately prepared and documented to improve safety scores and reduce the risk of accidents.

00:00 Welcome to the CVOR and National Safety Code Podcast
00:12 The Importance of Road Evaluations
00:20 Documenting Your Road Evaluations
02:00 Preparing for the Road Test
04:00 City Driving Skills
06:06 Highway Driving Skills
08:39 Final Thoughts and Documentation
09:35 Conclusion and Subscribe

Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
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Transcript

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1: 0:23

And welcome back to another episode of the CVOR and National Safety Code podcast where we really try to help you manage your safety scores. All right, this week on the podcast we are talking about road evaluations and why in the hell they are so damned important. Okay, so road evaluations, you really got to start off with documenting your road evaluations. And that's the first thing that I want you to know. Let me get to the intro. Chris Harris, Safety Dawg, and I'm here to help you. All right. So road evaluations, you need a form that looks like this. And for those of you who are listening to this, uh, on the podcast, check out the video, put the link in the show notes down below, uh, you do really need to document. Your road evaluations. Why? Your insurance company pretty much demands that you give a road evaluation. Whether you are giving your employee or your driver a, um, 50, 000 pickup truck to drive all the way up to a tractor trailer that are, those are worth today, you know, three, four, 500, 000 when you include the load on those things. So Your insurance company has a lot to lose and they really want you to be responsible and only give the commercial vehicle to somebody who knows how to operate it. And just because the government gave them their damn license doesn't mean they know how to operate a commercial vehicle. So you've got to take them on a road test and make sure they do. It should be at least 50 kilometers long on a planned route. You really want to think about the route because you want to include an awful lot of things. But before you get out on the road, I'm hoping that you'll start in your parking lot and get the applicant or the new hire to do a vehicle inspection. And if they don't do a good vehicle inspection, teach them. Some of the schools out there, you may have a great candidate who just went to a terrible school, because some schools only teach what they teach. Is necessary to get past the government road test. There are good schools out there who teach a proper vehicle inspection. So, maybe this is a great person, you just need to teach them how to do it properly. That vehicle inspection, so Now we're starting with the off road. Which is probably the parking lot. And get the new person to do a hookup. Make sure they know how to do the hook. We're going to get them to drop at the end of the road test, but we want them to do a hook and drop, um, or a drop and hook. And of course, backing. Let's, before you take your life in your hands with this new driver that you don't know Let's get them to do some exercises in the yard. And the first one would be backing after they've hooked up, if you're doing a tractor trailer road test. And then maybe a serpentine. Now for those of you who aren't familiar with that term, serpentine, a serpent is a snake. So I want you to have them take the tractor trailer, if it is a tractor trailer, or your straight truck, forward like a snake. And then back it up, like a snake. Let's see what kind of control they have. So do a serpentine. Do some other load speed maneuvers where it's safe in your yard. Get them to drive around cones and things like that. And then once you're satisfied that you're likely not going to die Because that's pretty important. Uh, take them out onto the city streets. So, you want to get some city experience. Hopefully in light traffic. And then, before the end of the road test, in heavier traffic. Um, make sure you include a lot of the intersections. And what you're watching for on a road test is the driver's reaction to the things ahead. So, for example Um, you see that the light is going to turn red while we're driving. Well, does the driver notice it? You would see that if they started to take their foot off the fuel right away. They've started to react to something they've seen. Is there a parked car in their lane up ahead? When does a driver plan to change lanes? So the earlier they are spotting these things, the better. That means they're looking far down the road. And that's one of the things I want you to watch for. Signs that the driver is looking far down the road so they have as much reaction time. as possible. So get them going through the intersections. How do they pass stop vehicles and slow moving vehicles? Things like that. Make sure you include a roll, railroad intersection. How do they go over the rail, rail tracks and turns? Lots of turns, lots of right hand turns, lots of left hand turns. Watch on the right hand turns how far away the trailer is, the trailer tandems are from the curb. More than 18 inches from the curb, and they're allowing bicycles and motorized scooters and motorbikes to get up on the inside. Sometimes they're leaving enough room for cars to get up on the inside. That's not a safe habit. So, generally speaking, in the city, do you think they're operating the vehicle safely? So, Make sure you're watching for safety. And of course, following distance is always hugely important, because speed and following distance are what make safe drivers. Then, let's get out onto the highway. Well, how did they merge? Did they take the ramp at a speed that is either lean? Should be lower than the posted speed limit. Because when you're loaded, especially in the very beginning, they don't know if the trailer's top heavy. So you want them to take that ramp speed at a much slower speed than the posted limit. And then how did they merge? Did they get up to speed as quickly as possible? Did they use the whole lane? And then did they merge over? Did they move to the left? smoothly without cutting people off. So again, we want to hopefully get them out into some light traffic and then some heavier traffic. Uh, there's no intersections, I hope, on the highway. Although some highways in your area, there may be, you may be calling a highway an 80 kilometer speed road or a 90 kilometer speed road. There's lots of intersections on those types of highways. How do they manage passing? If they had to pass, uh, did they allow other vehicles to pass them? All right. And again, if you're on a 90k road, try to include a railroad track. See how that driver maneuvers over the railroad tracks and again, turns. How are they taking the ramps? How are they taking the highways turns and safety and following distance? My god, the big dollar crashes. happen out there all the time. The more time we have to react to a, to a situation, the better. So make sure we've got safety on the mind at all times. Following distance has to be huge. And then the last thing I like to talk about on the highway driving is lane management. What lane is the driver in? If it's a three lane road, The driver should still be in the right hand lane because generally speaking that right hand lane has an escape route, has a shoulder. I know, uh, I live here in the City of Toronto and the 401 has a lots and lots of activity in that right hand lane. So I understand it when drivers say I don't want to be in that right hand lane. I Don't agree with that. I think that is the safer lane. Yes, you might have to go a little bit slower in that lane. Okay, that's good for a safety guy. So again, make sure you are documenting your road test. Document, document, document. Sign it off. Make sure that every road test looks different. There's a spot on road test for comments. Make sure you write your comments and have the driver sign off. And it's perfectly okay to say, Hey driver, you did this wrong in your comments. Uh, you can say something like driver did this wrong. We spoke about it during the road test and the driver corrected. Beautiful. You just made that driver a better driver because of your comments. You coached that driver and that's largely what I want you to do out there because After all, if you're hiring a driver with experience. Then all they need is a little coaching in most cases, and you can make them a better driver for you. So, I hope you click like and subscribe to the podcast. Give it a thumbs up if you're finding this useful. Uh, again, this is Chris Harris, Safety Dawg. I'm helping you manage the CVOR and your National Safety Code, your safety scores. So, that's it for this week. Have a great day.