The Relative Influence of Fleet Safety Climate on Work-Related Driver Safety

In the past, fleet management has primarily had an asset management focus, with safety initiatives being reactive to particular incidents or events. More recently, it has been recommended that fleet managers should work to facilitate a safety conscious organisational culture/climate, though this has not yet been empirically investigated in a fleet setting. This study investigated the influence of fleet safety climate upon three self-reported measures of work-related driver safety: 1) current work-related driver behaviour; 2) past crash involvement while driving for work; and 3) past traffic offences while driving for work. A questionnaire was completed by 323 drivers from three Queensland based fleets. There was a significant positive relationship between fleet safety climate perceptions and the safety of work-related driver behaviour (r = .42). Multiple regression analysis revealed that safety climate perceptions were a significant predictor of current work-related driver behaviour and were a better predictor than other psychological and socio-demographic factors. However, further analyses showed that fleet safety climate did not significantly predict previous work-related crash or offence involvement. Some organisational differences were also explored. These results suggest that while fleet safety climate influences current fleet driver behaviour, the long-term effect of this on crash and offence involvement remains unclear. In practical terms, organisations (particularly fleet managers and supervisors) need to consider the impact of organisational factors upon employee driver behaviour. Further research is required to investigate the association between fleet safety climate and on-road incidents (namely crash involvement and traffic offences).