Effective fleet management is difficult to achieve. It not only involves effective management of vehicles, but more importantly effective management of people while driving.
Too often, we lose sight of the importance of managing behaviors associated with safe driving and safe vehicle maintenance. In many cases, this results from a lack of knowledge and process to manage behaviors associated with the operation and vehicle fleets or because of competing demands within organizations that are more easily understood and more clearly managed.
The variability in fleet management is most clearly understood within the commercial vehicle industry. Whether because of size of operation or lack of effective management skills, effective fleet management varies from poor to excellent, even though these are numerous regulatory requirements which must be met. With growing attention on non-commercial fleets because of cell phone use, operation of vehicles while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and other such reasons, effective fleet management has a growing importance in organizations with non-commercial vehicle fleets as well.
In 2001, the American Society of Safety Engineers became the Secretariat of the newly formed ANSI Z15 Committee on Safety Requirements for Motor Vehicle Fleet Operations. This committee was charged with developing standards for safety requirements for motor vehicle fleet operations.
This standard is intended to set forth safety requirements for the operation of motor vehicle fleets including but not limited to nomenclature, definition, data gathering, statistical analysis, inspection, maintenance, training, and other related functions of motor vehicle fleet operations.
The purpose of the standard is to establish safety requirements that mitigate injury and property losses by enhancing safety performances of those implementing motor vehicle fleet programs. The standard is being developed for voluntary use in occupational settings where personnel may be exposed to hazards associated with motor vehicle fleet operations.
The ANSI Z15 standard succeeds the D15 standard developed by the National Safety Counsel in 1976. This standard set forth terminology and procedures for identifying accidents; developing frequency based upon fleet miles; and determining preventability. An extensive glossary of terminology was part of this standard. This standard has been reviewed and modified, and will be incorporated as part of the new ANSI Z15 standard.
The ANSI Z15 standard committee is composed of public and private organizations that are stakeholders in effective fleet management. Committee members include the National Safety Counsel, American Association of Fleet Administrators, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, American Public Transit Association, American Trucking Association, and the United State Marine Corp. to name a few. Currently, 34 organizations are part of the committee. As previously mentioned, ASSE is the Secretariat of this committee.
The committee has met four times since its inception. As a result of these meetings, the key elements of the standard have been developed and are in "Draft" status. These elements are:
¿ Terminology
¿ Data Collection and Measurement
¿ Driver Hiring and Training
¿ Vehicle Maintenance
¿ Operational Best Practices
