New safety campaign targeting fleet managers launched

Brake has launched a new nationwide campaign specifically targeted at fleet managers, to help them educate and improve safety for company drivers.

At the heart of the campaign is a range of new e-learning tools to help educate and persuade people who drive for work of the importance of making a commitment to drive safely.

The dedicated website - www.pledge2drivesafely.org - has been developed thanks to funding from Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services.

The campaign is run via workshops, which fleet managers attend to learn how to deliver the messages and influence driving behaviour within their own organisations.

It aims to achieve better driver safety by asking drivers to make seven safety-critical pledges and giving them the knowledge and attitudes to keep those pledges.

They are:

Sober Up
Wake Up
Buck Up
Check Up
Belt Up
Shut Up
Slow Down

It revolves around the online resources available via the website, which contains interactive, audio and video content, covering those golden rules behind Brake’s Pledge2DriveSafely.

Resources on the site include a virtual conference presentation by Brake Chief Executive, Mary Williams OBE, and a quiz to test drivers’ knowledge and understanding of it.

Also featured are video interviews with people who have been bereaved by road crashes involving at-work drivers, as a means of focusing discussions around specific topics, and bringing the stark message home to drivers that their actions can have horrific and devastating consequences.

The site offers a series of interactive games for drivers to participate in as aids to learning, including a ‘morning after calculator’ showing the time it takes for alcohol to leave the body, and ‘where will you stop?’ indicating stopping distances at different speeds.

Managers can also use the new site to order essential resources, branded with their own company logo, to help them deliver road safety campaigns to drivers within their organisation.

The site is password protected, being made accessible to anyone who attends the Pledge2DriveSafely workshop.

The one-day workshop for managers gives in-depth advice and guidance on how to use the resources on the new site.

It also covers techniques for delivering the messages, from leading group discussions to one to one coaching, as well as important grounding in the background research behind the campaign.

Mike Brown, fleet services director, Balfour Beatty Plant and Fleet Services, says: “We consider that at-work driving is one of the top five fatal risks in our organisation.

"We work very hard to ensure our drivers are fully risk assessed and trained to the highest standards via our training team and our risk management survey and in house driving simulator facility.

"We also have a number of ongoing campaigns helping to raise road safety awareness.

"We are happy to support Brake in its work towards our common goals of improving safety for our drivers.”

Workshops run at various locations around the country (see listings below).

They are free to Brake subscribers, and £70 +VAT to others.

SPECIAL OFFER

Book a Pledge2DriveSafely workshop place at £70 +VAT and get a year’s subscription to the Fleet Safety Forum worth £155 free.

To book a place on a Pledge2DriveSafely workshop, contact Brake at admin@brake.org.uk.

Dates and locations of forthcoming courses: