Distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions endanger driver, passenger, and bystander safety.
There are three main types of distractions:
Distracted driving is dangerous because it increases the risk of crashing. When drivers take their eyes off the road, their hands off the wheel, or their mind off of driving, they are more likely to get into a crash.
Whenever driver is driving, he should be focusing on the road at all times. New drivers are usually so focused on the road that they don't see anything around themselves, they even forget to look into mirrors as they are afraid to look away from the road. Experienced drivers are so used to driving and feel so confident that they can easily look around, get an understanding of what vehicles are around them and what are their intentions.
Unfortunately at some stage the drivers feel so confident that they start looking around to some distractions. Be it events happening on the roadside or something happening in the vehicle, or even worse start using their mobile phones or do other things while driving. I remember my father driving a truck something like 30 years ago and guessing a crossword while being in a slow moving traffic. That's definetly not safe.
As the drivers are taking their driving classes, they are taught to keep both hands on the wheels at all times. The more confident the drivers get, the more relaxed they feel. They start driving with just one hand on the wheel. Now that most of the vehicles have automated gearboxes, they don't have to use the other hand for switching gears, which leads us to a situation, that they use the other hand for distractions like eating, smoking, mobile phone use.
What's even worse - there are occasions when drivers drive with both hands off the wheel, sometimes relying on the lane assistance features of the vehicle and sometimes just relying on their leg to keep the steering wheel in the place. If just taking your hands off the steering wheel doesn't sound that bad, combine that with some activities like trying to physically reach something inside the vehicle while driving rather than just stopping for a minute and picking up the necessary thing.
You're driving down the road, and you see a sign or something out of the corner of your eye that catches your attention. Suddenly, you're thinking about something other than driving, and you're not paying attention to the road ahead.
This is called a cognitive distraction, and it's one of the most dangerous types of distracted driving. That's because when your mind is focused on something other than driving, you're not processing the information coming in from your senses, and you're not reacting as quickly to potential hazards.
Cognitive distractions can be anything that takes your mind off of driving, including:
It's basically anything that takes your focus away from the task of driving.
Why is this so dangerous? Because when you're not focused on driving, you're not as aware of what's going on around you. You might not see a stop sign, or you might not react quickly enough to a pedestrian crossing the street.
I've been working in the fleet management sector for several years now and I've seen various fleets from different angles - very well managed fleets, where processes are in order, policies are in place and fleets where you can barely understand what does the fleet consist of. I decided to lay out these experiences in an easy to read site, where I will look into all of these aspects of fleet management and how technologies can help in fleet management. You can consider this as my attempt and life goal of writing a book. It will take a while, but be sure to check back often.
© 2025 Small Fleet Safety website. Feel free to link to this content, no content should be copied without permission.