Employers: Apply the Brakes to Road-Raging Employees

Road rage: You know it when you see it.

Road rage today is an all-too-common occurrence. One study showed that 90 percent of 500 surveyed drivers reported that they were either victims of road rage or had seen it happen to others.

As an employer, you have to ask yourself the following question. Could it be possible that one of my employees might be road-raging on company time? If so, he or she could be hurting your reputation and putting your company at great risk.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive driving (or road rage) as when, "an individual commits a combination of moving traffic offenses so as to endanger other persons or property." NHTSA works to reduce aggressive driving incidences.

The first week in October marks National Drive Safely Work Week, sponsored by the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS). No doubt, employers and families of employees will want this mantra observed all year long.

In a related message published at the NETS Web site, Karen Harned, the Executive Director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and its small business legal center, cautioned employers, "You must understand your legal obligations when you entrust vehicles to your employees."

Harned further added, "According to a survey conducted by the NFIB Research Foundation, more than a third of small-business owners see traffic crashes as the greatest on-the-job hazard."

Employers should realize that ‘driver employees’ include those not only with commercial driving licenses, but also those employees who drive while on company business.

For instance, Harned said that principles of ‘negligence entrustment’ can be applied when employees:

• drive to meet a client for lunch;
• drive to pick up office supplies;
• drive to make a bank deposit;
• allow a family member to drive a company vehicle; and
• so on and so forth.

While employers cannot control or prevent all road-raging incidences, they should strive to minimize risk and protect their economic stability and their reputation.

Employers should be proactive and provide driver safety training to employees. And, employees should be constantly reminded of what can happen should they engage in aggressive driving behaviors and the consequences of traffic mishaps.

Finally, we all need to remind ourselves that driving is neither a game nor a sport. Reserve the competition for riding bumper cars at the amusement park or playing monster-truck video games.

At minimum, employees should be reminded to ignore and avoid reacting to other road-raging drivers. Driving is not the time to try and get even with someone.

For more information and resources:

• Motor Vehicle Safety at the OSHA Web site
• Traffic Safety and Aggressive Driving at the NTSHA Web site
• Aggressive Driving Resources at the NETS Web site

Related note: Since employers are responsible for the safety and welfare of their employees, I’ve been covering a number of risk-related topics on HRTools.com. Among them:

• Texting and driving employees
• Workplace violence
• Workplace bullying
• Cyberbullying
• Cyberattacks
• Employee embezzlement

Can a simple misunderstanding turn a rational employee into a road-raging maniac and put an employer at great risk?