According to a survey by Aegis Mobility, employers continue to be concerned about the risk and liability posed by employee use of mobile devices while driving on the job. Seven in ten companies have adopted written policies designed to curb employee distracted driving, but only 32 percent are confident that current enforcement methods are effective at achieving compliance.
These are among the new findings from Aegis’ third-annual survey of 547 fleet safety and risk management professionals. Other key findings include:
“Hands-Free” and “Zero Tolerance” are most popular policies. Forty-five percent of existing employer policies prohibit all use, except hands-free; 41 percent prohibit all use, no exceptions; and 12 percent prohibit texting emailing and browsing.
Efforts to enforce distracted driving policies remain steady. Eighty six percent of companies report taking some steps to enforce distracted driving policies.
Confidence is lacking in current policy enforcement. Confidence in current enforcement efforts is limited. Only 32 percent report they are “very confident” that current methods are effective. Sixty percent are “somewhat confident”, while 8 percent are “not confident.”
Interest in policy technology continues to grow. Twenty-two percent of companies plan to evaluate either device-based software, device analytics or in-vehicle cameras within the next twelve months to better enforce compliance with distracted driving policies.
Android and iPhone smartphones are fast growing, while Blackberry and Push-to-Talk (PTT) phones are hanging in. Android and iPhone continue to grow rapidly and now represent 61 percent of corporate-liable smartphone devices. BlackBerrys have decreased, but remain prominent with 30 percent market share and appear to have good prospects to maintain share based on customer interest in the new BlackBerry 10 devices.
The tablet wave is coming to commercial fleet vehicles. A full 27 percent of respondents currently equip employee drivers with some form of tablet computer. Of those, 73 percent are iPads and 27 percent are Android. Prospects for continued growth appear strong as 8 percent of total respondents indicate plans to deploy tablets to employee drivers within the next 12 months.
“The year-over-year results of our survey show that fleet operators continue to recognize the serious risks associated with employee use of mobile phones while driving,” said Aegis Mobility CEO Paul Zimmerman. “Further, the survey results show that employers lack confidence in current enforcement methods and seek technology solutions to automate compliance with mobile device use policies.”
Aegis Mobility is a provider of software for mobile devices to prevent workplace distracted driving.
