| Sharing responsibility for safety |
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We all have a duty of care to ensure that the way we operate does not put either ourselves or anyone else at risk. As employers we have a corporate responsibility to ensure that we have good systems and working practices in place, that our employees are following these guidelines, that they have a first-rate understanding of what they are and how they should be reporting any incidents or shortcomings in the system to management. Way beyond the workplace These responsibilities extend beyond the factory floor or office space to anywhere that you have responsibility for employees working under your control – direct or indirect. This is particularly important with a mobile workforce, including work carried out in field sales, delivery operations or company representatives in any other area that use cars, vans or other vehicles to enable them carry out their duties for the company. This lays a heavy responsibility at the door of senior management within the company to fulfil their corporate responsibility to this, often overlooked, complement of staff. This group, by the very nature of their role, may not be highly visible within the organisation because the car or van is not necessarily recognised, by management as a place of work. In particular, it lays responsibility at the door of the fleet director to ensure that he or she has a fully effective, flexible and up-to-date system in place that reflects contemporary legislation, protects the company against litigation and, most importantly, keeps employees and others safe. Driving for work accounts for a third of accidents In this fast-moving environment that we all work in, around 33% of all road traffic accidents involve people driving for work, according to HSE figures. Clearly a sound, systems-based approach to this area would help to minimise the risks. Do you feel lucky? Before you can even begin to get anywhere near having that comfortable, not complacent, feeling about your workforce, it is essential that a thorough risk assessment be carried out. It is sometimes too easy to suggest that, as there haven’t been many reported incidents in recent times, then everything is all right and no action is required. You might have been lucky up until now. History is important, but times, working practices and attitudes change. So, too, does the law. Witness how much the Working Time Directive will impact on work forces in the transport sector! To properly assess the current situation, you have to carry out a full review of what is going on in the fleet. To name but a few things, this includes: • Do you have a staff guide specifically for drivers? If yes, when was the last time it was reviewed? • What is your policy towards the use of mobile phones and other technical equipment in vehicles? • How many hours do your staff work and how many of these hours are spent driving at the wheel? • Do they stop for regular breaks when driving? Professional drivers of Large Goods Vehicles are covered by legislation covering drivers hours and rest periods, car and van drivers are not and need to be given guidance as to company policy. • Do you operate advanced driver training programmes for employees spending a significant amount of their time driving? • How do drivers report defects? • Are the vehicles used, fit for the purpose? • What is the vehicle maintenance policy and how is it monitored? • How do you audit vehicle safety? Minimise risk It is important to use the review, or risk assessment, to properly gauge the risk. This can be greatly aided by inviting input from employees. What do they see as the potential dangers? On many occasions challenges are best resolved by ideas from the people at the coalface. However the information is gathered, it has to measure the risk potential, so that the root causes can be defined and corrective action taken, if necessary. Ensuring that people are aware of the risks and the development of appropriate management skills are essential first steps. It is important that you take a systematic approach to fleet safety. Now that you know what the risks are, you can set about designing out the problem areas, minimising or eradicating the risk. This may include changing working schedules, the structure of work groups or sharing work load in a different way; the use of telematics and scheduling tools can help manage this area, as well as helping to reduce costs. Enhancing your system could also include introducing revised document management and filing systems, to ensure traceability of issues and actions and spot trends. Accident reports, for example, are used in some companies merely as a means of reporting accidents to insurers, whereas proper in-house investigation of these could lead to uncovering root causes of accidents: was it fatigue, for example, or was the employee driving or working for too long a period? At the next level and in a pro-active environment, some companies operate a confidential “near miss” reporting system, allowing employees to report safety related issues that almost or, in their opinion, could have led to an accident. Finding the cause of an accident is the first step to finding ways of avoiding them. Making it work
Putting the policy in place is not enough; the imposition of rules and restrictions is not enough. For fleet directors to know that their system is effective, they have to carry out robust audits, preferably by an independent person within the company, or an external third party, and review its efficacy. Best practice would dictate that benchmarking performance in areas such as accident rates, repair costs, vehicle downtime, hire costs and vehicle safety between different departments or, better still against willing, like-minded external companies, allows you to measure and compare performance, implementing corrective action and adopting best practices across the business. Employee participation should be encouraged, not frowned upon. This important area of feedback is ignored at your peril. Regular safety reviews should be an integral part of management and business performance, with top management being actively involved, leading the campaign for safety, by example. The benefits for everyone are manifest: • Improved safety culture • Reduction in accidents/incidents, for improved reliability • Less stress, more focus • Increased motivation, more productivity • Fewer accidents, improved bottom line • Corporate responsibility litigation mitigated in some measure • Safer staff Straight to the bottom line
Companies have a duty of care to ensure ALL of their staff are adopting safe working practices. Fleet directors not only need to put systems in place to inform staff of policy, but they also need to monitor, review and continually improve these policies at the coal face. Not easy, just essential. A robust, systems-based management process is a very good place to start. BSI Group provides support material and advice covering all the aspects of system-based management discussed in this article. To see the portfolio go to www.bsi-global.com/transport or contact BSI Customer Services on 020 8996 9001 and quote 3E-11A to receive an information pack. |
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