Get on the Road to Zero
Employers who embrace transportation safety reduce risk and can save on crash costs, sick leave, health care and fringe benefits. While doing so, they also can make a positive impact in their communities and build a reputation for caring about employees and their family members.
In her report, Employer Transportation Safety: On the Road to Zero, National Safety Council Senior Program Manager Lisa Robinson outlines the Our Driving Concern model and highlights positive outcomes of employers who have attended training sessions and used Our Driving Concern materials.
For example:
- Midland-based EnLink installed flashing lights at entrances and changed start times of construction work teams to prevent them from driving during high-volume traffic periods, resulting in a 22% decrease in vehicle incidents in 2018.
- Conoco Phillips began implementing in-vehicle monitoring in 2013, providing employees real-time feedback on their driving performance. Employees averaged a 94% safety score before the program was launched. Two years later, the average score rose to 98%.
In Robinson’s report, the voices of others serve as testimony to the bottom-line impact of transportation safety.
“Since our initial training and introduction to the ODC program here at the City of Waco in 2015, our awareness and focus on driver, pedestrian, citizen and tourist safety has increased every year,” Safety Coordinator Berry Bairrington said. “The ODC program, the educational materials and the professional support we receive are all key elements in the success we are achieving.”
The City of Waco reduced crash incidents by 70% at eight targeted intersections through improved traffic control, dropping from 120 crashes in 2017 to 37 in 2018.
At your organization, you can take on the 4 Ds of impaired driving – distracted, drunk, drugged and drowsy – with free training and resources from Our Driving Concern.
Spot Symptoms, Take Action
One of our newest free resources is a Traffic Safety Huddle talk – Can You Read the Signs: Impairment in the Workplace. Here’s a bit of background:
- Substance abusers use three times as many sick days and are five times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim
- 75% callers to a national drug help line admitted to using drugs while working, and 64% said drug use adversely affected their job performance
Discussion centers on the difficult decisions that can arise if a co-worker may not be safe to drive. Can you recognize the signs and symptoms of impairment due to alcohol and/or drug use? What about your employees?
Once you recognize the symptoms, the next step is to take action. You don’t want anyone at your organization taking unnecessary risks. You don’t want to see the safety of others on the road compromised, either.
As part of this learning exercise, you may want to review or update your organization’s safe driving policy for employees. We have created a Sample Driving Policy you can use as an example as you prepare your own safe driver policy.
The document addresses concern over aggressive driving, distracted driving, impaired driving and seat belt use. At the end, there is a place for employee acknowledgement of company policy, signature required.
Watch: 6 Signs of Drug Abuse & Addiction. Share: Signs and Symptoms of Addiction.