If your business relies on a fleet of drivers to deliver goods and services, ensuring driver safety and efficiency is critical. Driver scorecards can help your business hold employees accountable for their behavior on the road, develop a reproducible standard for drivers, and improve your bottom line.
Why are driver scorecards important?
Driver scorecards are an evaluation tool commonly used by businesses with driver fleets. These scorecards track key driver metrics like speeding, idling, and hard acceleration, helping identify — and reduce — risky or inefficient behaviors.
"Driver scorecards provide insights into driving behaviors, encouraging safer and more efficient practices," explained Marcus Newbury, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Driver Technologies.
Using scorecards across a vehicle fleet helps to standardize desired driver behavior and foster a company culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
What metrics should you track on a driver scorecard?
Fleet management presents organizational challenges — namely, the inability to directly supervise drivers while they're on the road — that driver scorecards are uniquely positioned to meet. Here are some key driver scorecard metrics to track.
Safety
Overall safety is one of the most important areas covered by scorecard tracking. Speeding, whether exceeding posted limits, over company guidelines, or both, is crucial to flag and address to reduce the likelihood of accidents. Excessive acceleration, hard braking, after-hours driving (depending on your drivers' schedules), and seatbelt use should also be monitored.
[Read more: How to Manage Company Vehicle Usage and Maintenance]
Productivity
Following safety, productivity is an important metric to stay on top of. Driving time versus customer time, engine-on time, and late starts all affect a fleet's efficiency in providing goods or services to customers.
Fleet optimization
Fleet optimization pertains to maintenance measures that ensure both drivers and vehicles are safe and effective. These measures include engine abuse and faults, drivers continuing on the road when their engine lights are on, the degree to which drivers are idling, and overall fuel consumption.
When designed thoughtfully, driver scorecards motivate positive habits rather than serving as punitive measures and can improve the driver experience.
Sherry Calkins, Senior Vice President of Global Strategic Accounts at Geotab
How to implement driver scorecards
Like any other organizational tool, driver scorecards must be used in a way that is intelligible both to management and employees to be effective. Here are a few tips for ensuring a smooth rollout and adoption.
Define and communicate your metrics and standards
For scorecards to perform their needed role in a business, the standards fleet employees and their vehicles are held to must be clear and reasonable.
"For scorecards to be effective and fair, businesses must use accurate, real-time data and provide transparency about how metrics are used," explained Jeffery Benore, CEO of Benore Logistics Systems Inc.
Newbury added that businesses can further ensure fairness "by factoring in external conditions (e.g., weather, traffic) and using consistent, transparent data."
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Provide ongoing training and incentives
Scorecards don't just allow you to see a snapshot of individual behavior and overall fleet performance; the data they contain also allows management to enhance driver teams by implementing training and incentives to boost performance over time.
"When designed thoughtfully, driver scorecards motivate positive habits rather than serving as punitive measures and can improve the driver experience," said Sherry Calkins, Senior Vice President of Global Strategic Accounts at Geotab.
Training should be conducted regularly, with individual coaching to best support your fleet team.
"Consistent feedback and coaching ensures drivers see the value in these tools and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement," added Benore.
Use driver scorecards as part of a comprehensive fleet management program
While valuable on their own, driver scorecards are one key part of an overall fleet management strategy. Telematics systems, or combined GPS and sensor measuring technologies to track driver data, can provide further insight into fleet performance. You might consider comprehensive fleet tracking solutions that include built-in driver scorecard tools, alongside advanced telematics and other fleet management tools.
Review and adjust your processes as needed
Driver scorecards and other fleet management tools should be an iterative process that evolves alongside your business and the needs and skills of your drivers. Analyze your drivers' scorecards regularly and track changes over time, both on the individual and organizational level, to determine how well the initiative is working. Seek feedback from both drivers and fleet managers, and make adjustments as necessary to ensure the system is straightforward, fair, and effective.
[Read more: How to Track Company Vehicle Use as a Small Business]
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