Engagement and collaboration key to fleet safety success

Communication, collaboration and stakeholder engagement were the underlying themes running through a Fleet News safety roundtable sponsored by Samba Safety. All were key to embedding a fleet safety culture within the business, according to delegates.

While some fleets raised concerns about “operations taking priority over risk” or the “length of time it can take directors to understand risk”, they recognised the importance of engagement and imparted useful advice about how to win support for risk management initiatives.

“I’ve always taken a collaborative approach rather than just looking at it from the fleet perspective,” said Jo Coffey, who recently joined CEF as fleet manager.

“I don’t want to just mitigate risk; I want to remove risk. But it needs a top-down approach, Businesses need the fleet, but they don’t always realise how important it is until something goes wrong.”

Andrew Ertl, fleet contracts specialist at Belron, agreed: “Fleet can be seen as a cost rather than a benefit.”

Fleet News: How do you get safety to become a cultural standard across the entire business?

JC: Collaboration between teams is one of the biggest things you can do to reduce risk. Mock court cases can be effective training but don’t just put it on for the drivers and fleet; do it for the business leaders.”

Paul Gibbons, delivery operations manager, Sainsburys: “The lightbulb moment for us was when we created a DVD called ‘rest of your life’ with Warwickshire Police which showed what could go wrong in an accident and the implications such as corporate manslaughter. That got us the buy-in from company directors and enabled us to have a policy that is all-encompassing from grey fleet to truck drivers.”

Stace Webster, transport safety and compliance at Sainsburys: “With lorries you have CPC and an O Licence. With a van fleet, you have a driver’s licence. But there is a big difference between a Fiesta and a 3.5-tonne van. You need cultural change to have the right mindset. When I talk to our drivers about the training they remember, it’s not the eLearning, it’s the video.”

Marc Spurling, director of new mobility strategy, Aon: “Drivers need to be trained to drive larger vehicles; you can’t rely on a driver licence.”

Attendees

• Jo Coffey, fleet manager, City Electrical Factors (CEF)
• James Connolly, area controller (East Midlands) asset management & operations support, National Grid
• Julie Davies, group fleet & plant compliance manager, Amey
• Andrew Ertl, fleet contracts specialist, Belron UK
• Paul Gibbons, delivery operations manager, Sainsburys
• Tammy Parsons, fleet manager, National Grid
• Melanie Richardson, fleet operations manager, Sainsburys
• Marc Spurling, director of new mobility strategy, Aon
• Neil Thomas, head of fleet supplier management, Royal Mail
• Stace Webster, transport safety and compliance, Sainsburys
• Charles Smith, vice president, product management, Samba Safety
• Andrew Smith, solutions consultant, Samba Safety

Fleet News: How clear are your policies and are you where you want to be as a fleet?

JC: “We have policies in place that cover everything; the question is whether the driver is compliant with them.”

Tammy Parsons, fleet manager, National Grid: “We have updated our policy, but it is sometimes seen that we are putting hurdles in place to stop people from doing their job.”

PG: “We have an initial risk assessment when we employ, and we turn away high risk people because it takes too much time and effort to get them to the right level.”

SW: “Sometimes cost bases can be siloed and not shared at group level so the big picture visibility isn’t there. We have to understand the full costs to have the right conversations and move forward. We have done this by focusing on the cost of preventable incidents.”

AE: “We have a new focus on zero harm, and we record every incident whether or not it results in time off work so we can identify how to prevent them happening again. Having buy in from the business is the only way we are able to do this.”

Neil Thomas, head of fleet supplier management, Royal Mail: “We have gone from vehicles and fleet never being mentioned by the board to it now being top of the agenda. Electric vehicles have helped because of the cost of the vehicle, so the focus became financial to prevent RTCs (road traffic collisions).”

JC: “It is important to assess RTCs to understand whether they are major or minor issues and put in place measures to tackle both.”

FN: How do you change driver attitudes – is it reward or punishment?

JC: “We have just started rewards to focus on improving drivers. We have to make it accessible by bite-sizing into regions to give a range of people an opportunity to win. We include complaints, fines, cleanliness, safety and discipline. But it’s important for the winners to have the opportunity to say what they do differently – it’s same-level training rather than me saying it.”

PG: “Our top drivers are the only ones who can take out new drivers so they impart the right behaviours and habits.”

MS: “The insurance industry has always been about penalising. We are trying to change that – beat them with a carrot – by incentivising change. Even small incentives can work.”

Andrew Smith, solutions consultant, Samba Safety: “Rewards are one lever to help them to understand they are professional drivers and that they have to take that part of their role seriously. It helps you to be more proactive and manage the risk rather than react after an accident.”

AE: “It also doesn’t have to be the best driver; it can be the most improved.”

NT: “We have a ‘My Performance’ app on our PDAs which brings in telematics data, time off sick and other metrics. It makes the postperson more aware of their overall performance.”

FN: What measures do you take to pre-empt, and therefore prevent, incidents?

PG: We have brought in a near-miss policy so we can address that risk. It means we can be proactive based on their behaviour and we can stop them from driving if they keep having near misses. It’s key to get that message across. We have the data and can show their driving history: is the manager willing to stand up in court and recognise that a driver had previous near issues before they had a crash and killed someone?”

AE: “It is important to recognise near misses – they have done something wrong but have just got away with it.”

Charles Smith, vice president, product management, Samba Safety: “Certain behaviours are a predictor of risk. We can look at a decade of claims and identify the combination of behaviours that show the likelihood of them having a claim in the next 12 months. It changes the conversations with unions and insurance companies. It enables intervention.”

MS: “Evidence was an area that businesses traditionally struggled with, but technology now allows them to use it as back up. Then it’s following up and taking action.”

FN: What technology do you rely on to improve safety and minimise risk?

AE: “We are trialling AI in the cab and front facing cameras in the States. Because it interacts with the driver, we’ve seen a 97% reduction in distracted driver incidents.”

MS: “We have seen many instances where cameras and telematics can protect the driver from going to court – it works in their favour. But it’s also important to remind them that it only keeps a recording of events, where something has gone wrong. It’s not big brother watching them all the time.”

SW: “We can defend the driver but it also means we can find solutions for incidents because we can see what they are doing; we can identify the root cause – tiredness, on their phone, etc – which will help with our accident investigations. It can change the driver’s whole way of driving. When something goes wrong, it’s human nature to rewrite the situation – it’s trauma mode. The camera can piece it together and help them to understand it as well.”

FN: Is there a role for eLearning within your training policies?

JD: “We find toolbox talks more effective than classroom-style PowerPoint presentations. We don’t see any real benefit from eLearning.”

SW: “They don’t relate to eLearning training and don’t come away thinking ‘I don’t want to hit a vulnerable person.”

PG: “We see it as a confirmation of learning. Test your knowledge after having practical training. For me, should have to get a score of 100% to be signed off.”

NT: “All our eLearning has to hit !00%. We use it for compliance and safety but most of our training is face-to-ace with an external agency.”

FN: How do you ensure drivers carry out vehicle checks?

JC: “When we did some group training, we checked all their vans and then asked them to do the same and compared the differences. It showed the gaps in their knowledge.”

SW: “We put tags on non-compliant areas, and they have to find them on a pre-vehicle check.”

MS: “It’s important to make sure they do the full check – 15 minutes, not two minutes.”

JD: “We have a timer on our app. We also work with Logistics UK who come and stand on the gate and check the app and the vehicle to highlighting any concerns. Doing random checks by an independent body can be more effective than me telling them what to do.”

FN: What is your end goal; what are your risk management policies trying to achieve?

JD: “Our objective is to reduce claims little by little. Behind that goal is making vehicles fit for purpose and getting driver buy-in. We work with colleagues to ensure their vehicles are safe, such as having low entry cabs to reduce the risk when they are getting in and out.”

SW: “I don’t think zero harm is a realistic goal. If that is the focus, it can detract from other areas. We focus on engineering out risk through continuous improvement.”

AE: “We have a zero harm policy where the emphasis is that every incident is a person, a colleague, a friend. It’s about learning from incidents to prevent it from happening again.  A zero harm policy has more benefits than risk.”

PG: “By putting incidents into a type, we can identify themes and reinforce the policy. But you have to really get into the data and analyse the root cause.”