MOTOsafety Back-to-School Checklist

Now that summer is ending, the expectations and boundaries you set for summer driving will need a fresh look. As your teen’s schedule changes, the flexibility of your MOTOsafety system can help you both prepare for a season of driving to school. Here is a checklist for keeping your teen driver safe throughout the school year.

Set geofences to reflect authorized school-year boundaries.

You and your family’s schedules just got a whole lot busier now that school has started. Your teen’s day will be more structured, so you might need to tighten up the driving area if you allowed some room for summer roaming. Correct geofence settings will also allow you to make sure that they arrive at school, sports practice, or other extracurricular activities. If your teen has an after-school job, you can see if they made it safely without having to call. When they leave their last scheduled destination for the day, you will know that they are on their way and determine what time to expect them home.

Create authorized driving hours for school days and weekends.

MOTOsafety’s flexible alerts let you customize driving hours for each day of the week; you can receive a notification by text, email, or mobile app if the car is driven outside of those hours. This lets you enforce curfew rules while allowing for differences in their daily schedule. Does your teen need to stay out a little later for Tuesday night basketball games? Do you want to make sure they are in early on Sunday to be well-prepared for the week? You can easily set these exceptions in MOTOsafety.

Establish clear expectations for your teen’s car use.

This is a great time to review standard safety guidelines as well as family rules, such as when a friend can ride in the car. Review the MOTOsafety driving pledge and make sure your expectations are clear. Do you expect your teen to keep up with maintenance? Set maintenance reminders so they won’t forget. Make sure your teen understands the importance of checking tires regularly for air pressure and tread wear.

Agree on a regular “meeting time” to review the driving report card.

Independence doesn’t mean an absence of accountability. Your teen still needs your coaching to make responsible driving a habit. Just as their school teachers will evaluate their academic performance, you need to evaluate their driving performance. If you review the report card with them on a regular basis, you can reward good driving behavior and help them refine skills that need to be strengthened.

Giving your teen access to a car for the school year can help them build independence while freeing up some time in your schedule. MOTOsafety’s features will help you give them the right amount of freedom set within clear boundaries for safety and peace of mind.