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

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.