A little healthy competition in the workplace is commonplace. Whether it’s a football or pool table in the break room or family-fun days on a summer’s weekend with a bucking bronco. When you’re in the fleet business, though, it can be difficult to create this environment for peers – a driver’s lunch break is not especially conventional when they’re out on the road. However, that’s not to say it’s impossible to get a little competition going.
How it can help
Encouraging a competitive spirit among your workforce can have all-round benefits. Not only can it help make your team work harder and be more productive, but it can encourage teamwork among them. Also, by adding incentives it can boost morale and create an exciting working environment.
Telematics
Telematics has so many benefits for a business, but have you ever thought that creating a healthy competition could be one? Telematics can monitor a driver’s behaviour making it the perfect way to encourage a little competition among them.
Harsh braking and accelerating are two factors monitored by telematics. So while telematics can highlight potential bad drivers, it can also establish a good one. One way to the competitive spirit flowing would be to use the data to monitor the best driving scores each week or month.
While you want to encourage safe driving every day, doing this (maybe with a little prize each month) could help to encourage everyone to pay more attention to their driving habits.
Most thorough walk-round check
Walk-around checks are essential in all fleet businesses. They can help find vehicle faults and ultimately help prevent an accident occurring. As well as carrying out basic checks, you can encourage healthy competition in establishing who does the most thorough checks.
These should be a requirement every day, so you’ll want to reward the person who does the most thorough and goes above and beyond in ensuring their vehicle is up to the best standard. This competition will help to ensure nothing is missed.
Keeping the vehicle clean
Speaking of standards, who keeps their vehicle the cleanest? Are some of your drivers guilty of leaving rubbish and chocolate bar wrappers in the footwell? Discovering who can keep their vehicles the cleanest and tidiest (inside and out) is a great challenge.
A clean vehicle with clear livery can give a good impression to potential customers, and an overall clean vehicle can improve driving standards and safety – so it pays to have it done properly.
Go further
If you don’t feel like you can do a competition among your employees, you can contact other fleet managers and compete with other depots. This will help bring your team closer as they will work together.
Depot-wide coverage can reward drivers and teams who have travelled the most miles/covered the most distance in a certain amount of time.
Healthy competition can have benefits. And as long as it’s promoted in an encouraging way which can have a positive impact on everyone involved, creating this environment can bring something exciting to your business and help reduce staff turnover.
