How safe driving is a boon to the firm’s bottom line
Australian Financial Review – Special Report -RISK MANAGEMENT
Company cars are more at risk through employee apathy than for any lack of driver skills, reports Miriam Hechtman.
Everyone wants to reduce accidents in car fleets. The employees do not want to go to hospital or the morgue and fleet managers do not want to pay higher insurance premiums.
But reducing accidents in car fleets requires more than driver training and buying safe vehicles. Fleet managers have to start analysing the driving behaviour of employees, act on that analysis and start talking to their employees.
Tony Robinson, the chief executive of SurePlan Australia, says that when they are working to reduce fleet accidents, companies “need to adopt a proactive approach rather than one that plays catch up”. Robinson’s company, which provides accident management services to fleet operators, says operators should regularly examine what influences driver safety and most importantly, driver attitude. To do this, Robinson recommends companies “get down to basics”. Employers need to “sit down with people and get out the white board” when analysing an employee’s driving profile. “The key ingredients are to be found in the recording of collisions, traffic infringements, fuel use and distance being travelled, all of which can help in the establishment of a driver risk profile that can identify where your greatest driving risks are.”
The most common causes of accidents, says Robinson, are nose-to-tail collisions, which usually involve a stationary vehicle at the lights. He also cites excessive speed and manoeuvring cars, often in places such as a car park. Robinson says employees react well to this approach and are able to transform their attitude as well as pick up on bad habits.
Donna Robertson, Johnson & Johnson’s group fleet controller for Australia and New Zealand, says the most common reason for car accidents in fleets is apathy. “It’s a company car, it’s not really going to cost me anything, so why should I care.” “Fleet safety is a huge thing within the company, within the whole area, and it’s No. 1 on our priority list of occupational health and safety.
“We’re working very hard to try and resolve the problems. We’re putting in a lot of training,” says Robertson. It is compulsory for every company driver to do driver training. “Every accident against every person and any fine infringement goes against that person as well,” says Robertson. “Each driver has another file attached to it that will have all their information regarding their driving record.”
The safety committee at Johnson & Johnson has systems in place to reduce accidents, including recording all accidents and working out the high risk factors. Promotions and incentive-based schemes are also used and generally have a good response rate by employees. The number of accidents has dropped. In 2003 Johnson & Johnson in Australia had a rate of 12 accidents per million miles driven. Last year, the rate went down to nine and by 2009 the company hopes to have an accident rate of three per million miles or less. But accident rates are difficult to gauge, says Robertson. As Johnson & Johnson have tried to encourage honest reporting, the rate tends to go up because people now give an honest account. Ultimately, “you must get through to the mindset of the drivers”, says Robertson. “You’ve got to aim it at the employees because they’re the ones that are the stakeholders.”
Cheetham Consulting Group offers corporate psychological services and counselling and advises on how to change behaviour and attitudes of drivers. John Cheetham, consulting psychologist and director of the company, says there are two sides to the coin. “Employers need to ask whether their policies are inadvertently promoting inappropriate driving.” For example, the driver is under pressure to get things done, such as sales for the company, rather than to focus on driving. There is also the issue of driver attitudes. “Research indicates males tend to overestimate their capacity as drivers more than females. Male drivers tend to be more comfortable and more prone to take risks,” says Cheetham.
Risk is a significant factor even in driver training programs and can increase accidents rather than prevent them. “Humans tend to operate at the highest level of risk that they think they can manage safely. And with driving we tend to be over-optimistic,” says Lori Mooren, a consultant on fleet safety for Safety and Communication. “As people gain more skill, they simply adjust their targeted level of risk upward.” Drivers need to become more aware of their own life in the car, says Cheetham, rather than who owns the car. “The most important thing from the occupational health and safety viewpoint is the most important thing from a personal viewpoint to be safe.”
Safety first
* Companies need a proactive approach on fleet safety.
* The most common accidents are nose-to-tail collisions and those caused by speed.
* Men tend to overestimate their capacity as drivers.
