Winners of the inaugural best paper for implications on Workplace Road Safety at ARSC2016, Dr Sharon Newnam and Dr Amanda Warmerdam, share with NRSPP their research insights to answer this question.

As winners of the award at last year’s Australasian Road Safety Conference their research has been converted into a Thought Leadership Paper: Missing a trick: Safety of light vehicle drivers takes a ‘back seat’ and a webinar on 27 June leadership practices that support and constrain safe driver behaviour.

The vehicle is a workplace – does management recognise this?

Driving for workers is often the most the dangerous task that they will do during their day. An organisation has a responsibility to provide a safe work place and a vehicle is included within that definition. However, as Sharon and Amanda’s research points out:

When it comes to light vehicle drivers, there is little regulatory or industry focus on improving workplace road safety, meaning regulators are missing an opportunity to improve safety for a large percentage of the driving population and business owners are missing out on productivity and efficiency gains while improving safety.

What are they saying, investing in safety is a good thing??? That is correct, not only is a business going to protect it workers but it can translate to productivity and efficiency gains.

Research has established a direct relationship between safety outcomes, including performance and injury rates, and how much safety is embedded within daily organisational practices. These findings highlight the role of senior managers in the safety management of light vehicle drivers through risk management and broader operational practices and provide impetus for industry, regulators and government to play a more influential role in the systematic management of workplace road safety.

Sharon suggests regulators and the industry both need to play a clear role. Regulators can help put light vehicle workplace road safety on the agenda, focussing on education as well as compliance, while industry operators can consider it as part of everyday operational practices.

We hope you enjoy reading Sharon and Amanda’s Thought Leadership Paper. Should you have questions please join us for their webinar The leadership practices that support and constrain safe driver behaviour on the 27 June.

NRSPP is proud to sponsor the Best Paper with Implications for Improving Workplace Road Safety at ARSC and continues this sponsorship year.

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