Case studies

Massey combats driver fatigue

After Massey University opened its Wellington campus, the size of its fleet and the amount of staff travel increased dramatically.

So did the rate of driving-related incidents – and analysis showed there were particular issues with driver fatigue.

In 2004, the university introduced its safe driving policy, a major part of which was aimed at alerting staff to the dangers of fatigue.

Staff must stake steps to avoid fatigue if they will be off campus or in transit for 11 hours or more, or if they will be driving for more than five hours in a working day. Breaks of at least 10 minutes must be taken every two hours.

Rather than driving between Wellington and Palmerston North on top of a full day's work, staff are encouraged to stay overnight, share the car with a colleague or take the train instead.
The policy has been publicised widely through campus newsletters and health and safety committees. It's now a management responsibility to ensure employees are not being put at risk with expectations of a long day with time on the road, and this message is reinforced by fleet managers when cars are taken out.

The university has also introduced defensive driving courses. Any employee who gets a speeding ticket or is involved in an incident – anything as minor as a dent – is expected to attend.

LG Anderson gets its staff on board

When Lower Hutt-based transport firm LG Anderson introduced driver safety training in 2000, it met a less-than-enthusiastic response.

Many staff had been in the business for years and didn't want to be told how to do their jobs better. Managers realised that it had to be more than a tick-box approach to get buy-in from staff. They stressed that the motivation was drivers' welfare – to ensure they got home safely to their families at the end of the day.

To earn trust and credibility, 'it wasn't enough to just say it – we had to show we really meant it,' one manager says. Consulting and involving drivers has been key. The onus is on staff to report safety issues, and they're encouraged to give feedback and spearhead improvements.

Management follow-through is essential: good ideas from staff are picked up and actioned quickly, and any faults or hazards staff point out are repaired promptly.

As one example, an employee noted that keeping toolboxes permanently on larger trucks' trailers would mean drivers wouldn't have to carry tools along slippery connecting rails in the rain. The change was made and is now standard practice.

New staff go through driver awareness training, and periodically all drivers get a full in-cab assessment with the focus on assisting and learning, rather than examining them. The turn-around in attitudes has been marked. The number of complaints from private motorists – often common in the transport industry – has dropped form several per week to less than one per month. Recent driver safety training held on a Saturday morning got full attendance and 'no grumpy comments'.

Fulton Hogan BoP tackles idlers

Fuel efficiency and environmental performance is a major focus at Fulton Hogan Bay of Plenty.

Nationally, Fulton Hogan uses more than 1.2 million litres of fuel per month, accounting for 15 percent of its operational costs. Rising fuel prices prompted it to set up the Smart Drive programme to reduce maintenance, save fuel and protect the environment. Posters at sites around the country emphasise key fuel facts – for example, efficient driving can reduce fuel use by 10-30 percent, and an hour of idling equals the same engine wear as 190 km of highway travel. Overcoming some of the entrenched myths about idling has been one of the biggest hurdles, with many drivers wrongly believing it's better for diesel engines to let them idle.

The Bay of Plenty branch has taken the environmental focus as step further by joining GreenFleet, run by the Sustainable Business Network. It has undertaken a staff awareness programme that included a training day with an exercise involving a trip to the supermarket – revealing marked differences in time, distance and fuel consumption. This helped highlight the importance of good travel planning, as well as the impact of driver behaviour, on fuel use.

With recent advances in its data management, Fulton Hogan BoP hopes to introduce an incentive scheme to reward improvements in fuel efficiency. It has also taken part in the GreenFleet tree planting scheme, with more than 300 native trees planted in the region to offset its transport-related carbon emissions.

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Last updated: 18 September 2006