Operation Safe Driver Week reminds us that the safest fleets don’t become so by chance. They evolve through targeted coaching, clear expectations, and by connecting safe choices to getting drivers home safely to the people they love.

For Safe Driver Week, Motive customers share how they’re building stronger safety cultures every day, whether that’s through AI-powered coaching, frontline leadership, or rewarding drivers for safe performance. Their stories show how technology, trust, and accountability can help create safer, more confident drivers.

1. To shape driver behavior, personalize the safety message

Real change often starts with what matters most in a driver’s life. You can usually see it in the details around them — framed photos, reminders of home, drawings from their children.

“When I was on a Zoom call, I’d look at what was in the background,” says Rodney Fetters, fleet director at SPATCO Energy Solutions, a petroleum field services company. “It was often pictures of their kids, their families. That’s why they show up to work — for their families.”

Find out what means the most to your drivers and bring those people and moments into your coaching conversations. When you connect everyday safety choices with the lives and relationships your drivers hold dear, those choices feel personal instead of abstract.

“There are things you can do to get drivers to think in a different way,” Fetters says. “What do they care about the most? And how do you make them believe that in their day to day?” Make that your focus.

“When you connect everyday safety choices with the lives and relationships your drivers hold dear, those choices feel personal instead of abstract.

— Rodney Fetters, fleet director at SPATCO Energy Solutions

2. Lead with ‘compassionate accountability’

Strong operational leadership is the foundation of consistency and accountability across an organization. At CoolSys, a leading provider of HVAC services, branch leaders work closest to drivers, which puts them in the best position to influence driving behavior day to day. By empowering these leaders as coaches, you can influence performance in the field. 

“We empower them, we train them, we give them the tools,” says Shawn Martinez, director of Environmental, Health, and Safety at CoolSys. “We do everything we can to have them do what’s necessary. Because they are the ones with the relationship with the drivers.”