Going beyond a safety management system and technology

Bob owns a medium sized transport company, doing linehaul and around town deliveries.  12 months ago he has invested in a good app based safety system, which has helped him implement lots of new safety policies and procedures such as pre-trip inspections, incident reporting, and logging faults or repair requests.

His team all now have work mobile phones and can access the app at any time, whilst at the back end Bob can see reports and manage his compliance.

However, his staff don’t seem to be using the app.  No-one seems to be following his new policies and procedures, and the reports don’t really help him learn from trends, or manage much because he can’t trust the information is the whole story.  Worst of all, his team are still having lots of incidents and accidents which are costing him lots in repairs and insurance costs – not to mention the time he wastes dealing with it all.

So why after investing in a great safety system, is he not seeing an improvement in the business?

Whilst Bob’s story is made up, it is a very familiar one and an easy trap to fall in to.  Just because a business has systems, policies and procedures, or even safety technology – does not guarantee that those things alone that things will improve safety or performance.  The 2020 Heavy Vehicle Industry Safety Survey by the Australian National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) surveyed over 4,000 industry participants and showed 2/3 had a safety system.

Whilst these systems can enable better pre-trip inspections, incident and hazard reporting, fitness for duty checks and real time communication between drivers, workshop and operations, they are proven only to be as effective as the users, and the surrounding business culture.

Here’s some tips for making sure that your safety system achieves the outcomes your business wants;

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Get your staff engaged

Communicate why you have a safety system, policy or tools.  Talk about the benefits to the team, and the benefits to the business.  Think about how it might impact your team in their role, and ask for their input in how these are implemented.  Often they have suggestions for getting more people using it, e.g. taking away the old paper options.

Where you are implementing a system and the team have no say for example in vehicle cameras, why not ask for their input on how it will be implemented and what the rules should be.  Involving the team or at least staff representatives, rather than trying to demand of control them with get better engagement every time.

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Train everyone on how to use

We are have very different learning styles, so just because you stood up and talked for 10 minutes does not mean your team will be competent.  Often the best way to train is to show, and then get them to have a go.  After training, offer support, more training if needed, and make sure they know where to go for help.  

You could train up some of the team to be super users or champions, as often we ask our mates for help first.  Another supportive approach is leaving information in the cab, in smoke rooms, or on noticeboards for staff to read in their own time – often pictures, or straightforward step by step diagrams are best.

Consider refreshers with the team if there are updates, and use this as a chance to check that everyone is confident.

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Communicate your expectations; celebrate the good, hold accountable for the bad

Most people don’t resist change or come to work to be difficult.  Make sure it is clear to everyone what is expected, and then tell stories about where it’s working well and celebrate the good.  

Where you are hitting resistance e.g. people not following process, tackle it early, and constructively.  It may be that because it’s new, they forgot, or that aren’t confident.  By focusing on the behaviour you want, and supporting the team they will trust you to help them learn the new way.

A great safety system is one that is used by everyone, makes peoples job easier, helps keep the team focused on good safe work practices, and assists management to monitor and address issues quickly.

Marty Corry, Ex-Fleet Manager at IOR Petroleum sees the benefits implementing these tips could have had in their business; 

“We saw issues with both the IOR Driver App and MT Data rollouts because we didn’t think it was important to get the feedback from the people who were going to use it.  In hindsight we should have run a trial roll out on a selected number of vehicles/team members. Highlighted any teething issues or failures, asked for user feedback, fixed the problems and then roll it out across the rest of the fleet.  Trying to do it all at once by jamming it down everyone’s throat was a cluster and wasted 12 months and $100ks.”

Often transport operators are quick to blame the system, the policy, the technology or even their team, but it is how the system is implemented that is key to its success and often this is driven by;

• Your staff’s awareness of the system and its benefits,
• Their confidence with using it, 
• Their attitude towards it, and also
• Management’s focus (e.g. if they don’t care the staff won’t either).

If like Bob, your system isn’t working well and getting the results or uptake you wanted, it’s never too late to try these tips and turn things around.

First published on www.transporttalk.co.nz.