Putting the Brakes on Aggressive Driving

Self-awareness and discipline are big parts of preventing undesirable driving behaviours. Start by periodically checking in with yourself. Every 15 minutes or so, do an honest self-assessment.

Are you starting to feel frustrated or grumpy? Are you muttering to yourself or complaining aloud about the traffic, weather, or someone else’s driving? If you can identify those subtle cues before your mood changes, you can do things to reduce your stress:

Stay focused and calm

Keep up your active scanning cycle. Pay more attention to the positive elements of your environment. Make sure you have a comfortable driving position. Listen to soothing music. Do a few arm or leg stretches at a stoplight. If you’re feeling edgy, consciously coach yourself to maintain solid driving behaviours.

Take yourself out of the situation

Pull over in a safe place and take a break. Get out. Enjoy the fresh air. Check your messages. Have some water or a coffee. Can you adjust your driving schedule so you’re on the road when it’s less busy?

Talk to your supervisor

Driving is demanding and you need the right knowledge, skills and behaviours to stay safe. If you find driving stressful or overwhelming, talk to your supervisor about training that can help you feel more at ease with your driving responsibilities.

Remind them that professional drivers don’t drive aggressively. Driving is their profession. They’ve received more training than other drivers. They have more experience. They are the experts out on the road. Every road user expects them to do things right, to always err on the side of caution, and take measures to ensure they aren’t the cause of a crash.

Tell drivers that it’s not just the law, it’s what the organization requires and pays them to do. “Aggressive driving simply isn’t a part of how we do things here.”

Remind them that aggressive driving increases their heart rate, generates fatigue, and makes their workday even more difficult.

The dictionary definition of assertive includes words like confident and decided. Aggressive’s definition includes forceful and demanding. Behind the wheel, assertive driving becomes aggressive when driving maneuvers put others at avoidable risk.

An assertive driver knows the rules of the road and how to apply them. They’re in control of their vehicle and consistently do things right. When it’s their turn to go at the 4-way stop sign, they go. They don’t try to be over-polite and wave another driver through.

When you’re explaining this to your drivers, it may be better to explain the goal as being a driver who is confident and in control. Use terms like competent, confident, and defensive.

The best way to accomplish that goal might depend on a few factors, including:

• Your role in the organization. Are you their supervisor or a co-worker?
• The nature of the poor driving behaviour. Is it an egregious behaviour that puts you or someone else at significant risk or is it a complacent behaviour that just needs improvement?
• The sort of backlash you anticipate, and why.

One of the best ways to encourage positive change is to stick to the facts. Explain what’s in it for them, noting how improved driving behaviours will benefit the driver. Explain that the driving behaviour is contrary to the organization’s safe driving procedures and/or the law.

Appeal to that driver’s moral and ethical responsibilities. Explain how aggressive driving behaviours put them, their passengers, and other road users at risk. All of these people are someone’s family or friend and they deserve to get home safe. Every driver has an ethical duty to cause no harm.

Most drivers think they’re good drivers, so they might be blind to their driving deficiencies. And each of us has some resistance to change. Have a constructive conversation rather taking a punitive tone. Think of the poor driving behaviour as being the result of a lack of knowledge or skill rather than a bad attitude.

Finally, if you think you might get backlash and you’re not comfortable dealing with it, relay your concerns to your supervisor or manager.

Different people hear different things in a conversation, are motivated by different stimuli, and respond to different rationale. So here are a few ideas:

Appeal to their need to comply with their legal duties.

Employers have a duty to ensure the safety of their employees, including while they are driving for work. Aggressive or risky driving behaviours cause and contribute to crashes that harm workers — and owners and supervisors. Employers really can’t satisfy legal expectations if their employees are driving in ways that compromise their safety. If that’s the case, employers have a duty to address it.

Appeal to their sense of moral duties/ethical obligations to others.

Under the unwritten employer-employee social contract, employers have a greater moral responsibility to see that no harm comes to the people who work for them.

Also remind your employer that crashes impact more than the immediate victims. Their families, co-workers, and others suffer preventable collateral damage. Employers have a duty to help prevent those far-reaching consequences.

Promote safe driving behaviours as smart business.

Aggressive drivers cause crashes. Crashes are expensive: property damage repair costs, replacement costs, finding/hiring temporary help while an injured employee heals, lost productivity, lost reputation, lost clients and customers, and so on. It just makes good business sense to make sure employees don’t engage in aggressive driving.

On the flipside, employers who help their employees deal with aggressive driving behaviours soon gain a reputation as a safer, preferred employer able to attract the best employees.