There has been much discussion about what the health and safety law change means for businesses, and what they need to do to comply — but what is really needed now is a cultural shift in attitudes to safety within organisations.
For businesses that involve driving — and that’s most of them — this cultural change needs to start from the drivers, as they have the most exposure. This change can’t be imposed by management — to create genuine change, the focus has to be on drivers taking the lead on the pathway to safer driving.
Genuinely driver-led
It’s critical to get senior drivers involved at the beginning of the decision making around how to move to safer driving practices. Businesses need to move away from just monitoring drivers, and move towards education, safety and responsibility.
It’s a collaborative process that may also involve discussions with driver unions.
Transparency throughout the entire process is imperative. Businesses need to say to their workers: “We’re looking at implementing this GPS fleet management technology for your safety first, and our compliance together.”
It’s critical to engage your workers in the negotiation stage, let them know what you’re looking at and what it means to them.
The next step is creating a way to recognise safe driving practices amongst peers, and have drivers lead the positive pathway to safer driving. We also need to give drivers something tangible to work towards, and find out what rewards matter to drivers. This doesn’t have to be monetary incentives, it might be recognition, preferential shifts and so forth.
What can companies do to support this cultural change?
Companies need to provide education for drivers and work alongside them in using technologies like GPS fleet management as a tool for better safety monitoring and management.
Businesses need to work with drivers to show how GPS tracking technology helps them ensure they meet their professional requirements and responsibilities. It’s the driver at the end of the day who has the biggest exposure.
The technology is not about labelling people as bad drivers, but is a tool to educate and empower drivers. You can say to your drivers, “This is an aid to compliance, but more importantly it will help you drive more safely, and get home safely to your family.”
The next step is to increase the level of driver skills. The goal is not to move someone from being the worst driver in the world to the best driver in the world in a week, this is unattainable. Rather, you gradually increase the requirements, and look for change across the organisation. Once drivers achieve the initial threshold, you gradually increase that threshold.
Through the various analytics in a GPS fleet management system, you can get a lot of information about a driver in a meaningful form. You analyse the raw data and turn it into something useful. You can granulate driving behaviour in great detail — braking, accelerating and so on. An example is how the driver scorecard pulls together metrics gathered from the GPS vehicle tracker units installed in each vehicle to display behaviour such as speeding, excessive idling, harsh braking, high engine rpm and other poor driving habits. This means that managers and drivers can discuss any training or improvement required, with some meaningful data to back it up.
The driver scorecard benchmarks driver behavior across the entire fleet, and works on a daily 100-point scoring system. Drivers can use the scorecard as a tool for friendly competition within the company to see who is the best driver each week. Again, it’s a driver-led approach to improving safety.
A win-win situation
Drivers leading the move to safer driving has benefits for all.
• The drivers are safer and have a better understanding of areas for improvement.
• The business achieves better compliance with regulations, as well as improved efficiency.
• The whole company gains through achieving a cultural shift in which safety genuinely is the number one motivator.
It’s a win-win. And it all starts with the driver.
