Instilling a Culture of Safe Drivers

With an ever-present focus on fleet safety, working toward the elimination of crashes and incidents in your fleet is a top priority.

While technology can make a big impact, I believe one of the best ways to make progress toward the elimination of injuries and fatalities on the road is by creating a culture of safe drivers.

A safety culture is defined by OSHA as the “attitude, beliefs, perceptions, and values that employees share in relation to safety in the workplace.” 

There are several ways a fleet manager can work to create a strong driver safety culture. Just a few ideas include:

1. Evaluate needs. What issues do you currently face? What is your goal? Reduction of preventable accidents? Reduction in harsh driving? Keep fleet’s needs in mind when creating your culture.
2. Determine core values. Before you can create a culture of safe drivers, you must determine what your core safety values are. Use those values and your needs to create goals.
3. Communicate. Be sure to consistently communicate the safe driving message during meetings, in written communications, and through signage.
4. Work together. Creating a safety culture is all about teamwork and you want to ensure that everyone is on board for change and growth. Listen to team member concerns or suggestions and take appropriate action.
5. Empower drivers. Make your drivers feel proud of being a safe driver.
6. Reward drivers. Consider creating a safe driving program that rewards drivers for safe driving practices.
7. Learn from past errors. If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to try something new. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Don’t fall into that trap.
8. Get started. One place many fleet managers get stuck is starting a program. Planning is great but the action is what makes things happen. You can always re-evaluate needs as issues come up, but if you never get started you will never realize results.

What have you done to build a safe driver culture at your workplace? Do you participate in any of the above or do you have other ways?

E-mail me and let’s chat!

Lauren Fletcher
Executive Editor, Work Truck magazine
Lauren.Fletcher@bobit.com