Within Australia and New Zealand a high proportion of road related trauma is linked to work related purposes. This trauma is relevant to more than vehicle use although the majority is driving related. It also includes cycling and pedestrian road related trauma. Therefore, organisations large and small have an opportunity and obligation to share the responsibility to mitigate the risk of road trauma both locally and at a national level.

Ultimately, road safety, both within an organisation and in the community environment, requires leadership, support and willingness to act. This guide has been developed as a learning and enabling tool to support and focus an organisations willingness to act.

Preface

Corporate and organisational fleet and road safety is of strong interest to government and government agencies in Australia and New Zealand. It has been identified that there is great opportunity to engage and assist organisations and corporations in the delivery of road safety and road safety measures to achieve nationally significant road related trauma reductions.

This guide has therefore been developed through public sector funding for use by any workplace within Australia and New Zealand.

Significant road safety benefits can be achieved by road safety government agencies (Australia and  New Zealand) that engage with private and public sectors at their workplaces to address work related road safety issues. It has also been noted that organisational road safety advancement creates effective and sustainable outcomes, safer places of employment, and safer communities. This can be achieved without totally relying upon traditional and often lengthy processes such as further public legislation and/ or community attitudinal and behavioural change programs.

Currently, there is little in the way of robust guides or support for those organisations that are wishing to adopt road safety within their places of employment, supply chain and/ or community. Due to this identified gap in available resource and support, it has been recommended that a practical organisational road safety guide be produced; hence the development of this guide. A guide, or supporting documentation, that bridges the gap between government and road safety research knowledge, internationally endorsed road safety methodology, and assists industry as the end user.

To achieve this, the guide is designed to be non-specific to any industry sector and usable for small or large organisations, public or private, and engaging for senior executives and the personnel on the ground responsible for its implementation. Therefore, this guide is based on methodology and principles so that it can be applicable in a scalable way to the greatest number of public and private organisations while providing enough detail and ‘how to’ advice to enable organisations to generate their own solutions to road safety issues.

Essential Message

Essential messages within the guide have been summarised to assist the reader to identify and reference areas that will be of greatest interest. The essential messages are separated into two elements; firstly the essential message for all organisations about the building blocks to improve work related road safety.

Secondly, the essential messages specifically for organisations are based on organisational scale/ size, recognising the significant differences between smaller organisations requirements and that of larger organisations. No formal definition of organisational size is provided as it is recommended that all readers review the full content of the guide before addressing road safety within their organisation. This approach is suggested to avoid missing content that may be relevant to your organisation.

The essential messages should only be viewed as the starting point for improving an organisation’s work related road safety.

Essential message for all Organisations

Building blocks to improving work related road safety The following points have been identified as fundamental building blocks to improving work related road safety within an organisation, as well as referencing the major chapters within the guide for relevant information and guidance.

  • Start out simple and then build complexity.
    • All organisations need to ensure that the simple things are managed and done well. It is    suggested that when starting out, keep road    safety simple, logical, relevant and achievable,    without resorting to a silver bullet approach (one size fits all). There is little value to an organisation    if a small forest worth of corporate policy and    procedures exist but are not well developed or representative of the organisations actions    and sit on a shelf. In order to implement change in a simple and achievable way, a work place    may rely on developing a supportive culture and    environment for these activities, supported by sound process, procedures, standards and policies.
    • Chapter 1 – Commonly identified work related road safety issues  Checklists – (Annexes A to C)
  • Managing to legal requirements is a sound starting   point, even though it may be far from achieving a   Safe System approach to road safety.
    • Compliance is not an end point. Road rules for pedestrians’ right through to heavy vehicle legislation and the related laws are not just developed for the sake of giving police something to do. Identify, link and use the knowledge networks within, (and where relevant external to) the organisation that relate to road risk management, vehicles and road users.

Chapter 1 – Commonly identified work related road safety issues, focused on this point

  • Build an understanding of road safety and the Safe System approach to road safety throughout   the organisation.
    • Develop a collective understanding with those who are involved with road safety across    the organisation and avoid the reliance on just one person as a centre of knowledge. This    understanding of safe system includes the    interaction and interrelationship between the major elements (Safe Vehicles, Safe Users, Safe    Speeds, Safe Roads and Roadsides).
    • Chapter 2 – Road Safety and the Safe System  Approach
    • Chapter 3 – Managing and applying the safe system approach to work related road safety
  • Assess the ability of the organisation to manage   work related road safety.
    • Conduct a work related road safety    management review and implement the findings. This may be more extensive than first thought and would include the review  of knowledge and information shared across divisions or departments, as well as operational    and management systems.
    • Chapter 4 – Reviewing your organisation’s work related road safety management capacity
    • Chapter 5 – Auditing, monitoring and Evaluations  Conducting a Review Process (Annex F)   Checklists – (Annexes A to C)