{"id":3495,"date":"2019-09-19T16:50:01","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T14:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/?p=3495"},"modified":"2019-09-19T16:50:01","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T14:50:01","slug":"3495","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2019\/09\/19\/3495\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Safety Culture to Reduce Large Truck Crashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A fleet\u2019s safety culture is the underlying foundation for all efforts to improve safety. Without a positive safety culture, a fleet is going to a hard time seeing sustained success in reducing crashes. Photo: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute<\/em><\/p>\n

Improving Safety Culture to Reduce Large Truck Crashes<\/h1>\n

Despite efforts to improve heavy vehicle safety, an analysis of U.S. crashes shows that heavy vehicle crash rates continue to rise. \u00a0In 2017, large trucks were involved in 6% more fatal crashes per million miles compared to 2016. Although there are a lot of heavy vehicle fleets that have successfully improved their safety records, unfortunately, there are thousands more that are struggling to implement effective strategies to reduce their crashes. Researchers from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) have found that one of the best ways for a heavy vehicle fleet to reduce crashes is to examine their safety culture.<\/p>\n

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Safety culture has remained a popular topic in the safety literature since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986; however, the exact definition of safety culture has been widely debated. Perhaps safety culture can best be thought of as a \u201clens\u201d through which employees see how an organization feels about safety. In other words, a fleet\u2019s safety culture can be assessed by the shared beliefs, values, and attitudes all their employees have toward safety. Research has found that there is a strong connection between these shared beliefs, values, and attitudes and a carrier\u2019s actual safety record. In other words, a fleet\u2019s safety culture is the underlying foundation for all efforts to improve safety. Without a positive safety culture, a fleet is going to a hard time seeing sustained success in reducing crashes.<\/p>\n

All employees have a role in creating and sustaining a safety culture that discourages risky behaviors, regardless of their position in the organization. Management has the responsibility to create recruitment and hiring policies, training programs, vehicle maintenance schedules, and practices to encourage safe driving and discourage unsafe driving. Additionally, management needs to invest in technology and vehicles to demonstrate a commitment to safety. On the other hand, drivers have the individual knowledge, skills, abilities, motivations, beliefs, and attitudes towards at-risk driving behaviors that can directly influence whether a crash occurs.<\/p>\n

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What can your fleet do to improve your safety culture and successfully reduce your crashes? We know that creating a positive safety culture is not easy and does not happen overnight. Instead, it takes deliberate actions over a long time. A recent study conducted by Matt Camden, Senior Research Associate<\/a>, in VTTI\u2019s Center for Truck and Bus Safety, set out to identify exactly what fleets did to improve their safety culture and significantly reduce crashes. Camden will present these results and share fleets\u2019 recommendations at the 2019 Fleet Safety Conference.\u00a0 This session \u201cProven strategies to reduce crashes: Results from nine carriers that have significantly improved safety\u201d convenes at the Fleet Safety Conference<\/a> on Wednesday, October 30, 2019<\/a>, at 9:45am.<\/p>\n

Originally posted on Trucking Info<\/a><\/p>\n

by Matt Camden, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute<\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.worktruckonline.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n

Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n

Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n

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Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n

The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n