Nonprofit car fleet safety

Research Partner

Project in brief

To develop, implement and evaluate specifically targeted fleet safety interventions, using pre and post intervention analyses with an aim to improve fleet safety in the nonprofit sector, and establish employer regulatory frameworks to prevent liability.

Aims

• to examine, and map the particular legal and regulatory structures applying to nonprofit organisations, and their volunteers, and the barriers to legal risk management (such as self insurance) used in other sectors.
• to develop a model of the factors influencing the safety of drivers in the nonprofit organisations. This model will incorporate individual and workplace contextual factors, which will guide the development of participatory fleet safety initiatives.
• to design and implement a fleet safety program. It is anticipated the fleet safety program will involve drivers and all levels of management, volunteers and activity groups, targeting the factors contributing to safety behaviours identified in the pre-intervention stage.
• to conduct a post-intervention stage to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiatives based on a reduction in crashes, costs, traffic infringements, and improvement in self-report measures from the pre-intervention stage.
• To develop risk management and legal compliance strategies to apply to nonprofit organisations, and their volunteers.

Project background

Road crashes have become the most common form of work-related death, injury and absence from work (whether for profit or nonprofit) in Australia (Haworth, Tingvall, & Kowadlo, 2000). Australian and overseas statistics have estimated approximately one quarter of work-related fatalities occur in work vehicles each year (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2002; Stone, 1994). It has been estimated work-related traffic injuries are approximately twice as likely to result in death or permanent disability as other workplace accidents (Wheatley, 1997), and account for up to 13% of the national road toll (Murray et al., 2003).

In addition to the human and societal impacts of work-related crashes, work-related vehicle crashes also place a heavy financial burden on society. For example, in Queensland, it has been found the annual cost of road traffic injury is estimated to be over AUD$500 million, and related property damage increases this figure to over AUD$1 billion (Travelsafe34, 2002). As such, these figures provide strong financial and corporate governance arguments for undertaking research into the factors contributing to the safety of work-related drivers, and investigating initiatives with potential for improving work-related road safety outcomes.

In recent years, Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and employer regulatory frameworks with their associated duty of care, and chain of responsibilities have increased attention on safety outcomes in the transport and road safety sectors (Murray et al., 2003). There is an employer obligation to provide a working environment that is safe, and has minimal risk to worker’s health, and ensure such environments are used in accordance with regulatory standards (Haworth et al., 2000). Organisations operating trucks, buses, utes, or cars have legal obligations, and a duty of care under the OHS regulations to provide a safe and healthy workplace (Haworth et al., 2000). Additionally, a hardening insurance market, increased litigation, OHS and, civil liability legislation, worker’s compensation procedures, and compulsory third party motor vehicle insurance have demanded better fleet safety management across all organisations (Clark & McInnes 2004). The nonprofit sector has struggled with the new employer regulatory frameworks, hardening insurance market and increasing civil liability (Ipp, Crane, & Sheldon, 2002) and particularly the unique legal liability issues surrounding volunteers has caused particular problems ((McGregor-Lowndes  2003(a); 2003(b); McGregor-Lowndes & Nguyen, 2005; McGregor-Lowndes & Scott, 2004; McGregor-Lowndes & Scott, forthcoming). A recent report of a national survey of nonprofit organisations warned, “Key risk management challenges raised were those of public liability, and insurance risks influencing adversely the preparedness of nonprofit organisations to engage volunteers” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2005)

Although there are some developments in workplace safety management to address vehicle and driver safety in commercial fleets (e.g., Murray et al., 2003), there is no research about nonprofit sector car fleets. Anecdotal evidence points to nonprofit organisations’ car fleets (e.g., Meals on Wheels, domiciliary nursing, HACC program, clothing collection trucks) having a higher crash incidence than government or private fleet operators. In comparison to a 27% annual crash frequency benchmark in commercial organisation fleets, nonprofit organisations have been found to have an annual crash frequency as high as 32%. Given the significance of the nonprofit sector in the Australian economy (4.7% of GDP and 6.8% of the workforce), and increasing reliance on welfare service provision, this is a serious knowledge gap.

In the commercial fleet sector, fleet safety initiatives designed to decrease crash involvement have traditionally focused on strategies aimed at motivating drivers to comply with safety procedures, through strategies such as, incentives schemes. However, in the nonprofit sector, interventions focused on compliance run the risk of offending drivers, who are devoting their time on a voluntary basis. As such, this presents a challenge for current fleet safety research, as no fleet safety intervention has been developed that focuses on increasing motivation to drive safely while encouraging participation in safety activities. The aim of participatory fleet safety interventions is to encourage motivation by increasing the valence or instrumentality of engaging in safety activities. 

The Chief Investigators, in conjunction with industry partners intend to develop, implement and evaluate specifically targeted fleet safety interventions, using pre and post intervention analyses. The research arises from a two year old reference group of Queensland nonprofit organisations with car fleets who are struggling with vehicle management and liability issues. This project aims to improve fleet safety in the nonprofit sector, establish employer regulatory frameworks to prevent liability and to integrate this into an overall risk management, legal compliance and insurance management program.

The data collection for the first year of the work-related driving project has been completed. The first round of data collection included 41 interviews with work-related drivers from Bluecare and Lifeline. Specifically, these interviews were conducted with executives with salary sacrificed vehicles, community oriented staff, truck drivers, and volunteers. The results of the interviews assisted in the development of a survey (the second round of data collection), which was sent to work-related drivers within Bluecare, Lifeline, Uniting HealthCare, ministers and volunteers within the congregations. The surveys were distributed to community oriented staff, executives with salary sacrificed vehicles, pooled vehicle drivers, ministers within the congregations, truck and bus drivers, and volunteers. The response rate for the following group were; staff within UHC 63%, community oriented staff 33%, salary sacrificed staff within Bluecare 60%, salary sacrificed staff within Lifeline 46%, and ministers within the congregations 27%. The response rate for volunteers and pooled vehicle drivers within Lifeline will be available in the near future. The results from the interviews and surveys will be used to develop a fleet safety intervention, which will be implemented in 2007.