Grey Fleet

‘Your Car, our responsibility’

Grey fleet project

The National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP) has received funding from the Commonwealth Government to support Australian businesses in developing a positive road safety culture. The project includes a number of streams one of which is specific to Grey Fleet. 

What is grey fleet

Any vehicle used for work not directly provided by the organisation that employs the driver. Grey Fleet includes personal vehicles, all forms of vehicle leases and client vehicles. Grey Fleet applies whether workers are reimbursed for expenses associated with work use or not, such as kilometres travelled.

Who does grey fleet apply to?

A Grey Fleet Driver is a worker of the organisation who is operating a personal vehicle for work purposes. Grey Fleet does not only apply to the driver directly working for the company, it applies to anyone who needs to drive a private vehicle for work purposes. This includes un-paid volunteers, contractors, or anyone billing their time to the company, or being reimbursed by the company.

What is the risk of grey fleet?

“Grey fleet safety management needs to be adapted to align with the unique risk assessment of the: i) organisation; ii) work tasks; iii) work equipment and technology; and iv) workforce.” (Grey Fleet Project Literature Review)

However, there are some commonalities across the majority of organisations towards optimal safety management of grey fleet such as: a focus on safety culture; buy-in from leadership and other organisational decision makers; training and education; worker consultation and engagement; and communication of safety awareness. (Grey Fleet Project Literature Review)

The Commonwealth Funded Grey Fleet Project

The NRSPP Grey Fleet Project includes the following key steps:

  1. Establishment of the Grey Fleet Working Group (WG) to provide industry governance. 
  2. Literature Review.
  3. Select four industry partners with grey fleet known as Focus Partners (FP) to benchmark and develop good practice grey fleet safety management and supporting resources with.
  4. Develop a Grey Fleet Safety Management Model (GFSMM) drawing on the 2017 NRSPP Grey Fleet Guide with key performance measures and supporting resources for implementation. 
  5. Establish GFSMM within the NRSPP website.
  6. Webinar on Grey Fleet Management.
  7. A research report on the process.
  8. Journal paper published on GFSMM.
  9. Conference presentation at the Australasian Road Safety Conference.

The Grey Fleet Safety Management Model (GFSMM) 

The GFSMM covers 13 criteria for grey fleet safety management. The criteria focus on practices that can be verified and evaluated. An organisation may use the model to rate its performance within each criteria and determine where the organisation is and needs to go to achieve optimal safety management. Broadly, to achieve a high standard in grey fleet safety management, all those within the organisation need to:

  • Recognise the risks involved in Grey Fleet and how they need to be managed
  • Understand the risks of Grey Fleet and the implement the best systems to manage them
  • Manage these risks and anticipate them through training and education
  • Ratings reflect this process of evolving safety management maturity, ranging from I to IV: 
Risk ManagementOrganisational PerformanceCriteria Rating
Proactive: risk is anticipated before it arisesHigh StandardIV
Calculative: systems are in place to manage riskThere is some room for improvementIII
Reactive: risk is recognised but no systems existThere is considerable room for improvementII
Inactive: risk is not recognisedPoorI

For each rating, the level of risk awareness is presented, with examples of policies and procedures that the organisation employs to manage risk (operational examples).

The 13 criteria include:
1. Workers
1.1 LICENCE AND ADMIN CHECK
1.2 FITNESS FOR DUTY, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
1.3 VEHICLE MAINTENANCE AND SERVICING
1.4 JOURNEY MANAGEMENT
1.5 ORIENTATION, INDUCTION AND PROCESSES

2. Organisation
2.1 POLICY
2.2 MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT
2.3 COMMUNICATION AND CONSULTATION
2.4 DRIVER SAFETY TRAINING AND EDUCATION
2.5 VEHICLE SELECTION AND SUITABILITY
2.6 INCIDENT REPORTING AND RECORDING
2.7 INDICATORS AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES

The grey fleet project deliverables

The project will produce:

  • Literature review.
  • GFSMM which will be an interactive tool on the NRSPP website to help organisations assess their maturity and steps to help improve it.
  • Supporting resources such as grey fleet specific Toolbox Talks, tools and guides.
  • Webinar and published journal papers.
  • Links to other related resources.

Working group partners

The WG and outputs of the project would only be possible thanks to the following organisations:

  • Australasian Fleet Management Association
  • Campos
  • Commonwealth Bank of Australia
  • Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
  • EML
  • Engie
  • HireUp
  • Gallagher
  • IAG
  • Monde Nissin
  • Nestle
  • Silver Chain
  • Super Retail Group
  • Telstra
  • Uniting Care Queensland
  • Uniting Communities
  • Ventia
  • Vero
  • Zurich

Timelines

  • Grey Fleet Focus Partners (FP) selected 18 June 2024
  • Literature Review finalised 17 September 2024
  • GFSMM finalised 29 October 2024
  • Co-design action plan with each FP based on inputs from GFSMM assessment, survey and focus group inputs finalised 15 November 2024
  • Baseline of FP established and presented to WG 10 December 2024
  • Longitudinal test of FP GFSMM, survey and focus group complete by 20 October 2025
  • Workshop with WG 19 November 2025
  • Complete project 31 January 2026