Safety Culture
Building a safety culture in the commercial transportation industry means creating an environment where safety isn't just a set of rules or checklists—it's a mindset and core values shared by everyone in the company. From the boardroom to the loading dock. From the C-suite to the driver’s seat. How do you build a safety culture? Here are a few thoughts…
🔧 1. Leadership Commitment
Top-down walk: Owners, leaders, managers must set not only the tone, but the example. The values shared must apply without exception. An exception today, is tomorrow’s standard or accepted operating practice. Leaders must never lose the culture of “trust” — the walk must align with the talk.
Clear safety vision: Build shared values in establishing the tone that safety is non-negotiable. If it is a shared safety value, a load that necessitates an unsafe choice (speeding, excess hours or fatigue impairment) must be declined or realigned to meet your safety value.
Open-door culture: Encourage feedback, even if it’s critical of current practices. Open conversations forges greater understanding and leads to more physiological safety (trust) with the team at all levels.
🧠 2. Training & Education
Continuous driver training: Not just initial onboarding (here’s your safety manual), but regular refreshers on defensive driving, fatigue management, load securement, etc., all linking back to your share safety values.
Scenario & function based training: Real-world examples of risks and how to handle them. Safety is not just the driver’s responsibility — how does each job advance your safety culture and what impact does each job in your company have on your safety culture.
Coaching instead of punishment: Unfortunately, mistakes are likely to happen, the key is in identifying those critical safety culture indicators (performance metrics) allowing you and your team to identify and self-correct the decision-making (choices) preventing a catastrophic safety event. While discipline is important building a learning culture is a critical element of your safety culture.
🚛 3. Safe Driving Practices
Advocate for HOS management: HOS/fatigue management safety is a two-way street of not letting drivers manipulate your system to run more hours, but also not letting sales/dispatch push drivers in accepting loads that full excess speed, hours and fatigue safety risk.
Safe Driver - Safe Vehicle: Ensure drivers are inspecting their vehicle pre/post trip. Identifying safety concerns early mitigate down time and reduce costly roadside repairs.
Technology use: Explore the integration of advanced driver assist technologies as a proactive measure in liability underwriting costs, as well as tort liability claims in the event of an incident. When deploying technology ensure it is coupled with a strong education, training, and coaching strategy — rather than a punitive management control.
📊 4. Metrics & Accountability
Tracking Safety Metrics: What are your share safety culture performance indicators? Do you track near-miss incidents? Driver turnover rates? Roadside safety performance (SMS)? If drivers leave your company — WHY?
Safety Stick or Carrot: How are your recognizing drivers and other employees to exceed safety performance indicators or advance your safety culture? Walking the Talk and Highlighting the walk - do you acknowledge and recognize employees in a meaningful way?
What? How? Analysis: After an incident do you look beyond the incident/police accident report? Do you talk with you driver and other employees working with the driver? Do you pull data - event data, technology data, etc.? Do you evaluate whether new performance metrics might help you prevent a future incident (reinforcing your safety “leaning” culture)?
🗣️ 5. Employee Involvement & Communication
Include Employees in Decision-Making: Especially drivers, they are your front lines. But don’t stop with just drivers, engage everyone on determining what’s working and what needs improvement. Other employees may see gaps in others blinds spots and engaging everyone strengthens your shared safety culture values.
Committees & Peer Reviews: Give employees a voice in not only shaping and strengthening policies, but becoming an advocate of your safety culture — promoting buy-in, ownership, and acceptance of one’s personal accountability to your safety culture shared values.
Promote Feedback: Keep your team members engaged. Solicit feedback with regulator check-ins. Until you have established a robust culture of trust consider anonymous surveys to gauge safety policies, performance metrics, and overall pulse check on your safety culture.
🛠️ 6. Maintenance and Equipment
Preventative Maintenance Programs: Catching an equipment issue before it becomes an Out-of-Service (OOS) violation, or worse yet leads to an “X” factor multiplier in a post incident liability case.
Ease of Defect Reporting: Make it simple for drivers to report issues without delays or red tape. There is a lot to be said for the old K.I.S.S. principle.
Yes, safety compliance is very important — I was on that side of the fence for 35+ years as a regulator. When I saw an Unsatisfactory/Unfit out-of-service due to egregious violations of the FMCSRs, more often than not at the heart of their non-compliance was a lack of commitment to safety. A failure to walk the safety talk gave certainty to the fact that I would soon see this company again. Your safety culture journey will be virtually impossible without — Commitment by All, Trust among All, and Learning/Coaching with All.
