Roadkill

First published in National Safety. National Safety is published for the National Safety Council of Australia. www.ncsa.org.au

Some OHS issues are highly specialised, even obscure, but road safety is not one of them. Not only do the vast majority of Australian adults drive, but road safety campaigns over a number of decades have given us all a relatively good understanding of the risks associated with road travel.

We all know we shouldn't speed, or drink and drive, or drive when tired or while not wearing a seatbelt. Improved road safety statistics suggest the public at large generally takes these messages seriously. Given this high level of public awareness, compared to other areas of OHS, you'd think most workplaces would have a solid understanding of the road safety issues their employees face and a solid fleet safety program in place to address them. Think again.

Many experts consider road transport to be Australia's most serious OHS issue-but also one that is frequently disregarded.

"Unfortunately, most organisations do not regard fleet safety as an integral element of OHS," says David Skewes, managing director of road safety consultants Streets Ahead. "Yet Australian research suggests that 49 per cent of all workplace fatalities occur on the roads (including travel to and from work). On this basis you could argue that any OHS manager who is not managing driver risk is only half doing their job."

Richard Tay, associate professor in road safety at Queensland University, says fleet safety is an emerging issue in Australia, one that people are just starting to recognise as critically important. "Work-related travel is now estimated to make up between one-third and two-thirds of all driving. It is also apparent that organisations have a better chance of controlling work-related travel than anyone has of influencing private motorists. So the extent of the problem and of the opportunities to change it are becoming clearer."

But Tay says there is also little rigorous evaluation of fleet safety programs already operating in Australia. "Without this analysis, there is no way of finding out why things are not working. There is also a need for better road safety data. For example, crash statistics do not currently specify purpose of journey. So we have inaccurate information on whether car travel is work-related.

"Work-related crashes should be addressed as an OHS matter, but they can't be if no-one knows they are work-related," he says.

The existing data may be fragmented, but it still speaks of the gravity of the fleet safety issue. The WA Department of Transport says road crashes are the most common cause of work-related fatalities, injuries and absence from work in Australia, with the average time lost being greater than for any other workplace claim.

Of the 2389 at-work deaths between 1988 and 1992, some 26 per cent involved commuting and 23 per cent driving for work, while nine per cent were transport-related incidents on-site.

Recent British research suggests that company-car drivers are involved in 50 per cent more incidents than private motorists.

Poor fleet safety can have an enormous impact on the bottom line. Queensland academics report that between 10 and 50 per cent of fleet vehicles crash annually, with each incident costing about $2000. This equates to 500,000 damage-only crashes, costing industry $1 billion a year.

The academics point out that at a 'return on sales' rate of 10 per cent, $10 billion of revenue would be required to pay for these crashes. In addition, the indirect costs of fleet crashes are estimated to be four to 20 times the average damage repair bill.

Despite these troubling statistics, many Australian workplaces have nothing beyond the most simplistic policy to ensure the safety of their fleets.

For example, a major taxi company told National safety it had no program in place to check, maintain or improve the safety of its drivers or vehicles. "We give our drivers training about safety screens and cameras, but nothing on road safety as such. Most of our drivers are taught that in schools. They should know about that before they come to us," the representative said.

These comments are doubly worrying because they carry the assumption that a fleet safety program equates to 'driver training'.

Lori Mooren, director at road safety consultancy Safety and Communications, says an over-reliance on driver training is a common problem in many fleet safety systems.

"Driver training often seems to employers to be the obvious fix for unsafe driving. This is understandable, but unfortunately there is little evidence that post-licence driver training has any positive safety outcome. There is an over-emphasis on driver training, with employers spending substantial sums of money in course costs and work-time costs on this training.

"Ideally, employers will address fleet safety at three levels: corporate or policy level, management or work environment level, and employee or driver-practice level," she says.

"Currently there is a lack of appreciation for building a good management framework within which improved safety can be realised."

Mooren says the traditionally strict separation between fleet safety and OHS in workplaces is another reason for Australia's poor fleet safety record.

"Many, but not all, organisations separate fleet safety from their occupational programs and policies. The division is often because fleet safety is seen as part of fleet management.

"Fleet managers often take it upon themselves to ensure that the vehicles are in safe working condition. While they may try to influence driver behaviour, this is difficult for them to achieve." Risk management is another division that may deal with fleet safety, she says.

"Each of the three areas has sets of expertise to contribute to improved fleet safety-greater integration would certainly be of benefit," she says.

"It's my view that OHS is the area of the greatest promise for boosting employer commitment and proficiency in fleet safety. The core business of the OHS manager is to promote OHS management, so they are in the best position to push for OHS improvement."

The strict separation between OHS and fleet safety can largely be traced back to legislation, according to Dr Will Murray, head of the transport and logistics research unit at the University of Huddersfield, UK (and formerly visiting researcher at the Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety).

"OHS has always been governed by workplace health and safety regulations and inspectors. Driving on the road has always been governed by road transport regulations and the police and transport authorities, and this is still generally the case," he says.

"In Australia, in some states the vehicle is classed as part of the workplace and in others it is not. In the UK our regulations are just changing now to make the vehicle part of the workplace so it can be covered by health and safety regulations."

Even where the vehicle is classed as part of the workplace, many OHS regulators and agencies still tend to see it as outside of their jurisdiction, he adds. "Also, the police can be quite protective of their 'turf' and not make OHS investigators feel welcome at crash scenes."

Murray says the problem is compounded by the fact that fleet safety cuts across many functions or boundaries in organisations, which means the full extent and costs of the problem go unnoticed-or fall victim to "departmental politics and misunderstandings".

He cites dozens of job titles involved in fleet safety and risk management-from OHS manager to risk manager, from fleet risk consultant to fleet engineer. "Trying to get all these people to work to one agenda, speak the same language, cooperate and schedule their diaries is no easy task," he says.

"Australian organisations who have integrated fleet safety issues into their OHS management system tend to be companies who have very dangerous or high-value products-where the consequences of a crash are very high-oil companies, for example, like Santos or Shell, chemical companies, dangerous goods manufacturers.

"Others quite often take it on board when they have had a fatality or can no longer find anyone to insure them," he says.

Lori Mooren agrees. "Companies are often driven to address fleet safety issues only by the increasing costs of insurance premiums. Fleet managers are driven by cost. Most crashes do not result in injuries, so their focus is frequently on reducing minor incidents rather than safety," she says.

David Skewes says an integrated OHS approach that incorporates fleet and driver safety is essential. "Risk managers should never concede that serious injury and death on the roads is a tragic but unavoidable by-product of human mobility. After all, would they accept it in the factory?"

He concurs with suggestions that driver training is of questionable value to better fleet safety performance. "Driver training in its most commonly delivered format has been unanimously condemned worldwide for being of no benefit whatsoever and in many cases counterproductive to road safety," he says.

The 'FleetProtect' program developed at Streets Ahead recommends practical, on-road training only for those drivers considered high risk. "Our automated approach uses a combination of traffic infringements, excessive fuel consumption and major and minor collisions to identify those drivers most at risk," says Skewes.

These drivers then receive a targeted letter offering constructive advice on how to avoid future incidents of a similar nature. In some cases, driver training is recommended.

"Our 24-hour collision management service captures not only the type of information required for insurance purposes but also information critical from a risk management perspective," he says. "This entire process is underpinned by the introduction of a comprehensive fleet safety policy designed to make drivers more accountable and responsible for the mistakes they make."

For instance, drivers are required to sign a document that accepts use of the company vehicle in accordance with the terms and conditions mapped out in the policy.

"This should all take place within a company-wide culture of safety," says Skewes.

A new RACV report on driver training programs also supports the view that there is no evidence that advanced or defensive driving courses reduce crashes for experienced drivers. Dr Ron Christie, psychologist with RCSC Services and author of the report, advocates a broad approach to fleet safety. "All workplaces should have a driver safety policy of some type and safety programs should be driven by this broader policy," he says.

He suggests that before developing a program, workplace management should ask themselves: