How can we integrate road safety into occupational health and safety management ‘to save lives beyond 2025’? A study of safety management among drivers at work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55329/eldk4357Keywords:
driver at work, safety culture, safety ladder, safety managementAbstract
The Academic Expert Group (AEG) recommendations related to the 4th Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in 2025, suggests a strategy of ‘Saving Lives Beyond 2025’, through integrating road safety into occupational health and safety management; implementing safety management systems like ISO:39001, or ISO:45001, and through working with safety culture. In this study, we study commitment to road safety and the prevalence of road safety management measures, according to the Safety Ladder approach (Nævestad et al 2018). Based on survey data, we compare professional drivers at work; bus drivers (n = 305) and truck drivers (n = 298) and employees who drive at work who are not professional drivers (‘work drivers’) (n = 355). We also draw on data from qualitative interviews. We find that organizations with work drivers have a lower focus on road safety, and that they have introduced fewer safety management measures, compared to organizations with professional drivers. However, the study also shows that there is still potential for improvement in organizations with truck drivers and bus drivers. These also have an unexploited potential when it comes to implementing effective measures. Multivariate analyses indicate the importance of the Safety Ladder practices, as they influence safety culture, which in turn is related to driving style and accident involvement. Specifying the AEG recommendations into more concrete actionable steps, we suggest specific management practices that organisations can employ, based on the Safey Ladder approach, and specific third-party actions to motivate organisations to implement the management practices.
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Author Biographies
Tor-Olav Nævestad, Institute of Transport Economics, Norway
Tor-Olav Nævestad heads the research group ‘Safety and Resilience’ at the Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo, Norway. He has been working on projects related to safety culture, safety management and regulation among companies and authorities in the transport sector and in high-risk sectors. One of the key themes in his research has been to develop an understanding of how the safety culture concept can be applied to private and professional road users, and how this understanding can be used to develop measures aiming to improve road safety. Tor-Olav Nævestad also conducts research on resilience and disaster risk management.
CRediT contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing—original draft.
Jenny Blom, Institute of Transport Economics, Norway
Jenny Blom is part of the ‘Safety, Security, and Resilience’ research group at the Institute of Transport Economics in Norway, specializes in national and organizational safety culture, safety management, road safety policies, and traffic education. Her research primary evolves around heavy vehicle and bus companies, studying how organizational safety culture, management practices, and working conditions impact professional drivers' behavior and accident involvement. Additionally, she studies how framework conditions and national road safety culture influences road safety behaviors. Her research extends to organizational learning, economic driving, and education of both experienced and novice drivers.
CRediT contribution: Investigation, Methodology, Writing—original draft.
Ingeborg Storesund Hesjevoll, Institute of Transport Economics, Norway
Ingeborg Storesund Hesjevoll is a psychologist who joined the Institute of Transport Economics in 2015. She worked on the EU-project SafetyCube and has contributed to the Handbook of Road Safety Measures. She has also analysed data from in-depth studies of fatal accidents in Norway. Her interests include summarizing knowledge by means of meta-analysis and the design of surveys. Her most recent publications deal with passing bays at junctions and the share of fatal accidents that comply with the system limits of Vision Zero, e.g. occur within legal speeds, involve sober users, etc.
CRediT contribution: Investigation, Methodology, Writing—original draft.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Tor-Olav Nævestad, Jenny Blom, Ingeborg Storesund Hesjevoll
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