Your Driving Behaviour, Your Responsibility

“Don’t drive like an a**hole” Have you ever gotten this from your family or friends? If yes, it simply means that you might have a bad driving behaviour. Driving behavior refers to a set of actions that are done by drivers behind the wheel to ensure the safety of the driver and that he or she is in compliance with the traffic rules. However, many drivers are oblivious to their bad driving behaviour whilst some refuse to change. This is the reason why big fleet companies are mandated to adopt telematics solutions to rectify the problems before a serious accident happens - better safe than sorry!

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Check out  the most common bad driving behaviour, how you can identify them and change for the better - you help me, I help you, you know?

Hard Acceleration

Every car enthusiast feels the temptation for a full-throttle every once in a while. It is pretty common for car buyers to find out how fast their car can accelerate before purchase. Their concern would be ‘Will I be the first one to take off from a traffic stand still?’ OR ‘Will I be able to perform a quick pick up when overtaking the slow car in front of them?’ - just don’t want to be the slowest, am I right?

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All the above actions are fair points but did you know that hard acceleration burns a ton of fuel and places a heavy load on drivetrain components. Moreover, this opens up to potential car accidents. You should always keep a steady pace of acceleration and give yourself enough space to brake without having to slam on it. Accelerating out of a bend is deadly, make sure you drop your speed when you are approaching the bend, accelerate gently and make substantial acceleration once you steering and wheels have been straightened. 

Harsh Braking

In Malaysia, it is more commonly known as “sudden brake”. Harsh braking is one of the most common offenses for drivers out there and it usually comes after hard acceleration. The simple truth of speeding is that the faster you go, the longer it takes to stop. In an emergency, the average time taken for a driver to react is around 1.5 seconds, which will get longer when you are traveling at a higher speed before you stomp on the brake pedal.

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A full force braking will cause wear and tear to the brake pads and you will soon have to fork out repair costs to fix them. To avoid this, you should always drive according to or below the speed limit. If you are always in a hurry, try to plan your journey ahead and allocate extra hours to buffer. 

Fast Cornering

I bet many of you have watched ‘Tokyo Drift’, the character Sean Boswell looking so cool drifting his Mitsubishi Lancer on the streets of Tokyo, now you must be thinking ‘I can do it too’ HELLO, CANNOT! Cornering without considering potential obstacles or hazards hidden by the bend is dangerous especially if you are driving at high speed.

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The deadly effect of reckless cornering could be the loss of control of your vehicle, the vehicle going off-road or the rolling of the vehicle - sometimes, all together. The higher speed at the point of impact the greater risk of serious injury or death. The next time when you decide to practise ‘Tokyo Drift’, think twice and thrice before you act. You should always maintain your car's tires and suspensions to make sure there is enough traction which will improve your vehicle’s ability to safely navigate turns in the event of a possible accident.

Conclusion

We share the road together, we need to show respect and courtesy to other road users. Besides adhering to the traffic rules, you should always be mindful of your surroundings, do not let other drivers displease you. Let’s play our part and make the road safer for everyone. If you wish to monitor your driving behavior, try OmniFleet. OmniFleet can track your vehicle in the event of car theft and help you in finding out how well you drive on the road as well as when and where you are making mistakes. Be a smarter driver, practise safe driving today!