Unfortunately, the fine for speeding is one of the most common violations in Brazilian traffic, which happen constantly on all highways in the country.
Knowing how to monitor the speed of vehicles in your fleet is an issue that goes beyond the financial aspect, since maintaining the permitted speed is essential for the safety of drivers, as well as contributing to making national highways safer.
With that in mind, we prepared this article to bring some considerations about fines, traffic safety and what is the best way to reduce costs with infractions.
Fines and infractions: some initial considerations
Fines management: why is it important?
Road safety culture: the best way to reduce fines
Technology and fleet management: a powerful combination to reduce fines
Fines and infractions: some initial considerations
The fines work with clear purposes, which are promote the education of drivers in traffic, monitor the behavior of licensed drivers and apply punishments to individuals who perform actions that harm individual and collective safety on roads and highways, in order to guarantee safe and fluid traffic.
Possible penalties are provided for in the Brazilian Traffic Code (CTB), whose guidelines point to the payment of a certain financial amount, which varies according to the seriousness of the infraction.
According to Article 258 of the CTB, traffic fines are divided into:
- Infractions of a light nature (fine of BRL 88,38): such as parking on the shoulder, stopping the vehicle at crosswalks, honking horns in inappropriate places, driving without carrying documents required by law, among others;
- Infractions of a medium nature (fine of BRL 130,16): in this group, there is the act of throwing objects out of the vehicle window, running out of fuel on public roads, among other actions;
- Violations of a serious nature (fine of BRL 195,23): driving without a seat belt, running away without helping the victim if involved in accidents, parking on viaducts or bridges and other infractions, for example;
- Infractions of a very serious nature (fine of BRL 293,47): this group encompasses more serious actions, such as driving without a license or having these documents revoked/suspended, driving without wearing mandatory accessories, such as glasses and hearing aids, driving and threatening other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, and driving under the influence of alcohol.
However, infractions may receive some multiplier, which makes these expenses even more expressive.
For example, when the driver drives at a speed 50% above the tax limit, which is a very serious infraction, the value is tripled, that is, the fine is converted to R$880,41.
Overtaking another car on the shoulder or at intersections and level crossings or overtaking on the wrong way are also very serious infractions, except that the multiplier, this time, is five, resulting in a fine of R$1.467,35.
If the driver is notified again within one year with the same penalties, the amount of the fine is doubled, in the amount of R$ 2.934,70.
In the case of driving under the influence of alcohol, the multiplier is 10, that is, the fine totals R$ 2.934,70.
Other offenses that happen frequently:
- not registering the car: R$195,23;
- performing a dangerous maneuver or forced overtaking: R$2.934,70;
- not paying IPVA: R$293,47;
- blocking the flow of traffic with the vehicle: R$293,47;
- driving with a revoked license: R$1.467,35;
- driving with a non-corresponding CNH: R$880,41;
It goes without saying how much these values are lacking in the company's budget, which should never be held responsible and assume payment, something that often ends up happening. Furthermore, this amount could be applied to some growth project.
Money that is converted into fines is the worst loss for a company that uses transport services such as: logistics, agriculture, dealerships, pharmaceuticals, ambulances or related to such sectors.
Therefore, finding ways to reduce these costs, or even eliminate them, needs to be a top priority in fleet management.
Read more: Respect and Responsibility: are you practicing in traffic?
Fines management: why is it important?
Controlling expenses should always be the goal of efficient management. In view of this, being aware of fines that may lead to unnecessary expenses and without any return is essential.
Have you ever imagined a fleet, with several vehicles in circulation, that is not concerned with this monitoring? Such carelessness, in addition to causing irreversible damage to the company, makes traffic a dangerous place for everyone.
Therefore, the management of infractions brings numerous benefits. Among them, stand out:
- Preservation of company assets: spending on fines is avoidable, so any payment that occurs on fines is money wasted. Avoiding infractions means appreciating and valuing the company's assets;
- The preservation of the company's image: not only financial assets must be kept safe, but also their image. If the company is constantly involved in traffic scandals, customers lose the interest and trust they had before, in addition to commitment to deliveries;
- Increased availability of drivers and vehicles: remember that if the infractions are frequent, the vehicle is seized and the driver's license is suspended, due to the accumulation of points in his driver's license, the CNH. Preventing this from happening is a way of not compromising your productivity and profitability;
- The reduction of NIC-type fines: as a legal entity does not have a license to be penalized, the responsible driver needs to be identified. The Traffic Code provides a way to punish companies that do not identify drivers, through the NIC fine.
This charge corresponds to the same amount as the original fine multiplied by the number of times it occurred in the 12-month period. Given this legislation, identifying the drivers who committed the infractions is a way to protect the company and reduce cumulative costs like this.
- Promoting safe and healthy traffic: According to the Federal Highway Police (PRF), the main cause of death on national highways is speeding. As a fleet manager, helping to reduce this sad rate should be a duty.
The best way to take advantage of these advantages is through fines management, being technology is an important ally for monitoring the speed of drivers and identifying the most common crimes, as well as those responsible for them.
In addition to this monitoring, having a culture that values traffic safety is essential for the logistical success of any company. Read on to learn how to implement this into fleet management.
Road safety culture: the best way to reduce fines
the implementation of technology tools like telemetry are essential to reducing traffic violations. However, in order for there to be even this cut in expenses caused by fines, it is essential that drivers are responsible in traffic.
As a manager, constantly investing in traffic education, through lectures, meetings and workshops that make the team aware of such a responsibility being in charge of a vehicle can make a big difference.
Read more: step by step to create your light fleet policy
Such exposures can raise issues of legislation, what characterizes an infraction and the values of each, what to do to avoid them and how to use tracking technology to help reduce these occurrences. In addition to endangering the lives of fathers, mothers and children in traffic.
These conversations, formal or informal, need to make it clear that drivers carry responsibility on the roads and that reckless driving not only harms the company but also, and more importantly, people's lives.
Also, it is worth mentioning that it is the responsibility of the manager and the company to keep vehicle documentation up to date and carry out periodic maintenance on the vehicles. Such carelessness also makes safe traffic impossible, as well as can generate fines and infractions.
Keep documents up to date and vehicles in excellent condition is fundamental for the implementation of the road safety culture.
Technology and fleet management: a powerful combination to reduce fines
In order to facilitate the work of fleet managers, GolSat developed the system Golfleet, which brings a module called Vspeed per route, responsible for identifying the maximum allowed on highways and urban roads parameterized by the inspection bodies.
Managers are informed if drivers are above the permitted speed on the road. In addition to notifying about the speed per stretch, which is changed during the course, there is a heat map, and also infractions by vehicles that allows recognizing which are the main points where excesses are committed.
With the analysis of this information, we were able to find out how the behavior of the driver is being and directly help with this change in behavior and safety culture.
It is worth mentioning that in exceptions, the single parameterization of a speed is not effective and, therefore, it is important to have the speed of each section of the road.
In addition, the Golfleet management system enables:
- monitoring how drivers drive, not just by identifying speeding, but other aspects such as fuel consumption;
- the taxiing module also brings numerous fleet indicators;
- the fleet policy module assists in defining rules for drivers;
- the generation of vehicle and driver performance reports;
- the planning of more agile routes, either by route or by less exposure to radars or more dangerous roads.
Drivers can do a lot to reduce unwanted ticket costs. For this reason, maintaining a relationship of companionship, promoting a culture of safety and use technologies for your fleet, can help reduce costs and most importantly keep the driver safe.
In this way, the company's assets are used in what really matters, whether applied in investments in the form of new acquisitions of vehicles and technological tools to optimize processes, or even to implement more security for its employees.
Furthermore, there is a contribution to make highways and national roads safer and the road flow to be constant.
Do you want to know more about how to increase the safety of your fleet and reduce the occurrence of traffic violations and fines? Then access our free material:
