Distracted Driving: What's In Your Policy?

Long before cell phones, drivers faced various distractions: eating, grooming, attending to children, changing the radio, rubbernecking someone else's accident, becoming absorbed in a conversation, or arguing. These distractions created safety hazards and, of course, still do. So, just what is "distracted driving"? Anything that takes a driver's attention off the task at hand, driving safely, results in distracted driving.

Distracted driving clearly includes entering phone numbers or talking on a cell phone (even hands-free) and texting, emailing or accessing other smartphone or Internet-based features. Yet most employers do not have a longstanding "distracted driving" policy but rather have just a hands-free-mobile-device-use policy. If they have a policy at all.