Survey: Firms know of cell phone use

Updated May 18, 2011

Texting Driver OdA survey shows that 32 percent of companies have knowledge or evidence of on-the-job crashes that resulted from distractions caused by employee using cell phones while driving, software maker ZoomSafer said.

The survey polled 500 business managers in North America and was designed to gauge corporate attitudes and best-practices pertaining to distracted driving.

Survey results show that 62 percent of companies have written policies prohibiting employees from using a mobile phone while driving on the job. The survey also reveals that while many companies have written cell phone while driving policies, only 53 percent try to enforce compliance.

Among companies that do enforce compliance, the survey found 61 percent rely on post-incident disciplinary measures, and only 2 percent use technology to proactively measure and manage employee compliance.

“The fact that so many companies are telling employees to put the phone down while driving is encouraging from a policy perspective – however, from a practical perspective, it’s simply not enough to change behavior,” said Matt Howard, CEO of ZoomSafer, which creates software to prevent distracted driving. “To truly change behavior and fully protect themselves from liability, companies must actively measure and enforce employee compliance.”

For more information about the survey, visit www.zoomsafer.com/distracted-driving-survey-results.