"X" the "Text"
Written by Marlo .
Texting while driving. For fleet owners, a zero-tolerance policy is the best way to educate company drivers on the dangers of this activity.
How dangerous is texting while driving?
An article out of Salt Lake’s Deseret News last Friday follows a test conducted by Allstate last Thursday at the company’s sponsored Family Driving Challenge. An instructor from Allstate would ask questions to drivers over a cell phone. Simple math questions, for example. Within three seconds the drivers were hitting cones on an obstacle course.
Allstate is also sponsoring the “X” the “Text” social initiative in conjunction with the Jonas Brothers aimed at teen drivers. According to Allstate, a driver is 23 times more likely to crash while texting, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports driver distraction contributes to 25 percent of all police-reported traffic crashes. Information on the tour can be found at www.facebook.com/XtheTXT.
If you are a fleet owner or manager, while a zero-tolerance texting policy is the best option, you should be aware of the laws in your state and a great summary of those laws is provided by the insurance institute of highway safety on its website. Keep in mind that local jurisdictions can pass their own laws and so fleet drivers must be aware of each municipality’s laws. And this is a great reason for your company to pass a no cell phone/texting zero-tolerance policy as the driver then would only need worry about one rule – yours!