Your driver may be doing this because they want to hurry through an intersection before the traffic light turns red or they’ve been waiting at a traffic light and hit the pedal so they could get a head start and continue driving as quickly as possible.īeing in a hurry is not an excuse for such behavior, especially considering the risks. In those moments, they will feel a strong G-force pulling them toward the vehicle’s dashboard. When the driver applies more pressure than necessary to the vehicle’s gas pedal to accelerate its speed, we’re talking about another aggressive driving habit – rapid or harsh acceleration. This will inevitably lead to more work for you, as you’ll need to schedule maintenance more often, allocate more resources from the fleet budget for replacement parts (and maintenance), and deal with vehicle downtime and missed deliveries whenever it has to be taken off the road for repairs. In addition to being dangerous, just imagine how much damage happens to the poor vehicle’s tires (ever heard of the expression ‘burning rubber’?) and brakes (due to overheating) each time the driver aggressively hits the brake pedal. You never know if whoever is behind you is keeping their distance, paying close attention to what you’re doing, has fast enough reflexes to avoid you, or good enough brakes and tires to suddenly stop. Harsh braking by your driver may also cause them to be rear-ended by a driver behind them. In fact, it may take several seconds and a distance of a few hundred feet for it to stop (depending on the speed of the vehicle) and a lot can happen in that time and over such a distance. Such a mammoth can’t be unexpectedly stopped without endangering the driver and everyone else around. Such behavior is especially dangerous when massive cargo trucks are involved as this means the driver may be operating a vehicle weighing up to 40 metric tons or 80,000 pounds. However, harsh braking most frequently happens when the driver isn’t paying attention to the traffic ahead of them and has to suddenly brake to avoid other traffic participants. Sometimes this action may happen due to unforeseen circumstances, like when they’re trying to prevent a collision or get out of the way of a collision that has just happened. Stopping the vehicle this way involves a significant amount of G-force and the driver will feel it pushing them into their seat. Harsh or hard braking happens when your driver uses more force than required to halt the vehicle. Typically, this refers to actions taken by the driver that make the vehicle suddenly change its speed, including: While you certainly don’t need to know the definition by heart, you should understand the role of G-force in driving and monitoring your drivers’ aggressive habits while operating your company’s vehicles. Now, for the million dollar question: Why should a fleet manager care about gravitational force? The larger the mass of the object, the more G-force is involved in its acceleration and braking, which is especially noticeable when operating large commercial motor vehicles (CMVs).
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