This symposium on How organisations are minimising work-related vehicle crashes and their consequences was recorded at ARSC2015. It featured 7 NRSPP partner organisations exploring their approach to this question and the consequences internally and externally.

Acknowledgments

At the Australasian Road Safety Conference 2015 the National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP) held a collaborative forum to highlight:

  • the business case for organisations to do more in their road safety;
  • the 101 road safety fundamentals; and
  • examples of good practice from organisations who priortise and champion road safety because it is simply good business.

The symposium was Chaired by Prof. Ian Johnston, independent chair of the NRSPP, and kindly recorded by Vero. The NRSPP would like to acknowledge the following partners for kindly presenting:

  • Ali Abdurrahman – Origin Energy,
  • Dr Darren Wishart – CARRS-Q,
  • Greg Smith – Toll NQX,
  • James Newton – New Zealand Transport Agency,
  • Mark Stephens – Uniting Care Queensland,
  • Mervyn Rea – Zurich Insurance and
  • Rod Baker – Viva Energy

Thank you all for collaborating and being willing to share your knowledge in this symposium.

Abstract

The NRSPP is an industry-led collaborative network which aims to support Australian businesses in developing a positive road safety culture. It aims to help businesses to protect their employees and the public, not only during work hours, but also when their staff are ‘off-duty’. How do we engage and help an organisation minimise work-related vehicle crashes and their consequences both internally, and within the broader community?

The first step is helping an organisation to understand the true cost of its road incidents. Larger organisations often wear the costs without knowing the true impact to their bottom line. All they perceive is the change in insurance or vehicle repairs. Understanding the true cost should help mobilise a business’s leadership to do more.

The next step is ensuring the business undertakes an informed, structured, evidence-based pathway which will guide them around the costly pitfalls. A pathway based around the safe system approach with buy-in at the top which brings the workforce along.

The final step, benchmarking, allows the organisation to measure and track its change. This symposium will explore the pathway steps for organisations using NRSPP resources to become engaged in road safety. The ‘Total Cost of Risk’ calculator has been developed by Zurich, tested in Europe by Nestle and modified by NRSPP for Australia. This provides the first crucial step.

The next step is a structured approach through the Workplace Road Safety Guide using experts and industry to discuss the preferred safe system approach which can then link into the national Benchmarking Project.

The outputs from the symposium can help frame a pathway for organisations to follow through the NRSPP website.