Time to invest in safety

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An ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ standard, similar in style to the long-established Investors in People programme, could be launched to help businesses benchmark the success of their occupational road risk management initiatives against established criteria.

The embryonic idea has been mooted following an analysis by the steering committee behind the Department for Transport’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme, which revealed the absence of a common approach by organisations in tackling at-work driving safety.

While the Health and Safety Executive has published advice to fleet decision-makers in its ‘Driving at Work: Managing Work-related Road Safety’ guidance, there is an industrywide feeling that legislation has been left for individual companies to interpret.

Some organisations, such as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), are aiming to clarify what industry should ‘do’ within the criteria laid down by the HSE, while leading fleet safety lawyer David Faithful, a consultant to lawyers Lyons Davidson and a steering committee member, is one of those behind the ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ idea.

Guidelines

He said: “The HSE has laid down best practice guidelines. However, there is wide interpretation of that advice by both risk management providers and businesses. We need a common approach to achieving the work-related road safety standards outlined by the HSE. Just as Investors in People has become a nationally recognised brand I believe we can achieve something similar with ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’. Currently we have no measure as to how companies are meeting the HSE guidelines and whether they are being successful.”

Roger Bibbings, RoSPA’s occupational safety adviser, said: “A lot of work needs to be done to arrive at a standard set of concepts and doctrines. There is so much variation between the risk management models put forward that companies are doing a lot of good stuff in terms of fleet safety but it is not joined up.”

Crucial to the overall success of a workrelated road safety strategy is, say experts, its positioning within an overall corporate health and safety strategy.

“The difficulty for people from a fleet background and a road safety background is that they know what good road safety looks like, but they don’t know what good health and safety looks like so they often gloss over the management issues and introduce solutions such as driver training and that does not service the cause,” said Mr Bibbings. “Risk on the roads should be managed within overall health and safety.

Tangents

“Fleets are shooting off at tangents because there is no clearly established national standard in the public domain. Guidance is available from different sources, but it needs bringing together into a core standard that everyone can follow. Risk management is not just about control measures. It is about the management regime behind those policies and procedures that have been implemented to manage processes and that is where guidance is required.”

Initial discussions have centered on the importance of identifying and setting standards, badging what is achievable, highlighting the education requirements and outlining the financial implications which could result from their implementation.

Jeremy Hay, managing director of risk management consultants RealTime Risk Assessments, who has been looking to introduce an ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’-type programme for a number of years, said: “Many companies are introducing solutions, such as driver licence checking, but they are failing to take a holistic approach to managing occupational road risk.

“Companies must lay down a set of criteria and then measure themselves top to bottom against that criteria taking into account a return on investment and management attitudes. Drivers must be measured in terms of their policy compliance and not whether or not they stop at a red light. Procedures introduced must be sustainable over three to five years against set criteria.

“If a national criteria is introduced then companies can measure themselves both against the criteria and against each other irrespective of the size of the fleet, the type of vehicle operation or the market segment in which the organisation operates.”

He added: “Fire regulations work in the UK because everyone knows what they are and high standards are expected. There is no reason why similar standards cannot be drawn up for at-work driving.”

The steering committee analysis was carried out by Michael Parish, of RoadSafe, which manages the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme. He said: “Work-related road safety is not unique and should be part of a company’s whole assessment of risk within their organisation. But many fleets have not made the connection between legislation and what their role is in providing good management within their organisation.

“An ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ standard would take companies on a journey. But they would never arrive at the destination because internal and external influencers would be changing. But, they would have an absolute set of standards against which they could measure their performance and how they performed against the very best.”

Companies that have already implemented risk management solutions can, in virtually every case identified, highlight numerous benefits to their businesses, including financial savings, improved productivity and increased staff morale as well as legal compliance.

The ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme, could be the catalyst to put in place ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ as it identifies companies to become ‘business champions’ and spread the safety message to other organisations.

Benefits

While the benefits of gaining ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ accreditation would be specific to each company because of the nature of their fleet operation and business set-up, tapping into the knowledge of vanguard companies would be the key to raising safety standards across all at-work drivers.

It is widely believed that different businesses could then benchmark themselves against one another with a process of continual assessment and review in place to ensure ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ standards remained in place.

Mr Faithful said: “We want to encourage organisations to band together so we end up with a recognised national standard. Just as Investors in People is a badge that companies strive towards we want to see ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ achieve similar recognition.

“Many companies are undertaking some excellent work to improve the safety of their vehicles and drivers, but companies need to be measured against a standard that covers the A-Z of workrelated road safety.”

Mr Faithful believes there are five focal points for all fleets within which there are numerous issues to address:

• A complete risk assessment of all vehicles and drivers
• Implementation of a strategy to deal with the risks posed once identified
• Introduction of processes/solutions to deal with the risks
• An audit of the whole process
• Consistent management and review in the light of internal/external issues (eg: company expansion, crashes, legislation changes).

“No two companies are adopting the same attitude to at-work driver safety. Companies are introducing a variety of solutions and they are starting from different points on the occupational road risk spectrum. A laid-down standard would provide a document through which companies can work because a lot of requirements are generic. That would then act as a guide to help companies to drill down to a micro level within their organisation,” he said.

RoSPA has already established its bronze, silver and gold managing occupational road risk awards alongside its health and safety awards. Additionally, the organisation is working behind the scenes to establish a managing occupational road risk safety standard and has written a ‘goal-setting framework’ which sets out broad targets to be achieved as companies travel along the risk management route.

However, said Mr Bibbings: “If it was to be brought into a more universal standard I think there would need to be more consultation. There is a need for ways for organisations to evidence their capacity to manage road safety. But certification with meaningful key performance indicators as part of a continuous improvement report is a some way off.”

Mr Faithful added: “I think fleets would welcome a national fleet safety standard because they presently have nothing to measure themselves against. They are being sold products by risk management suppliers and, in some cases, are unsure whether what they are buying will perform the required job.

“‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ would be a sign that would easily highlight that a company has reached a specific stage in working towards and achieving a laid down national standard.

Progress

“However, occupational road risk is ‘a work in progress’ so it is important that in achieving a standard they should remain locked into maintaining that level and then periodically be re-assessed, while also constantly re-assessing themselves.”

But, warned ACFO (Association of Car Fleet Operators) director John Pryor, who has attended meetings of the ‘Driving for Better Business’ steering committee and is group car fleet and travel manager for the Arcadia Group: “I think Investors in Fleet Safety or something similar is relevant for businesses where transport is absolutely core to their operation.

“However, for user-chooser fleets and businesses where the company car is not jobneed I’m not sure how much demand there would be for such an initiative.”

Scheme would follow Investors In People format – but with a difference

However, any modelling of ‘Investors in Fleet Safety’ on Investors in People would have at least one core difference – managing health and safety at work is a statutory requirement, while the focus of Investors in People (HR and people development) is a non-statutory requirement.

A spokeswoman for Investors in People said: “Over 37,000 organisations of all sizes and sectors are currently recognised by Investors in People and proudly associate with the Investors in People brand as evidence of their achievements in developing their people. Investors in People is a business philosophy with clear evidence showing that employers who put people development at the heart of their organisation enjoy increased staff motivation, higher staff retention and lower absenteeism – all factors which impact on a business’s productivity and, ultimately, its bottom line.”

Initially the standard was administered through a section in the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE). As demand for, and interest in, the standard grew the section became Investors in People UK in 1993.

The Investors in People standard has 10 key indicators involving 39 requirements of evidence and gives companies a framework to ensure they achieve their goal.

Size or type of organisation is irrelevant to achieving Investors in People, which is aimed at improving the way businesses work. Each company has to meet the same criteria – or indicators – as other organisations, but the standard recognises that businesses will meet them in their own way.

Meanwhile, organisations are being challenged to report on their health and safety performance by ‘going public on performance’ in their annual reports.

RoSPA would like all private and public organisations to show their commitment to occupational health and safety by reporting on it publicly via the ‘Going Public on Performance’ website – www.gopop.org.uk.

Originally developed in 2003 by RoSPA, the organisation believes that the open and transparent reporting of performance and targets will promote the sharing of good practice, leading to higher standards of health and safety across employment sectors.

Roger Bibbings, RoSPA’s occupational safety adviser, said: “There should be stronger encouragement for more companies to go public on their performance in managing occupational road risk as well as their overall health and safety performance. RoSPA believes that risk on the roads should be included within annual reports and accounts.

“Putting policies, programmes, standards and performance in the public domain would give an immediate at a glance view of where individual companies stand and help benchmarking.”

The website includes links to about 60 organisations, including the winners of RoSPA occupational health and safety awards, which publish information on their occupational health and safety on their websites, and easy-to-use guidance on how to report performance.

Organisations include the BBC, BG Transco, Balfour Beatty Group, Boots, Cable and Wireless, Carillion Construction, ICI and a number of local authorities and Government departments.

Mr Bibbings said: “We hope the GoPOP website will capture the imagination of those involved in health and safety, providing them with a powerful tool to use in their continuing efforts to reduce the number of work-related injuries and deaths each year.

“The site could help employers gain a competitive advantage because they will be able to show their suppliers and clients how well they are managing occupational health and safety. They will also be able to show their insurer and potential investors that they approach occupational health and safety in an open and measured way.”

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