Building Safety Habits That Stick

Anne-Marie Naples, Senior Safety Consultant, SMSC

Safety culture comes down to how safety shows up in daily operations and in the decisions leaders and drivers make every day. When that happens, a fleet spends less time reacting to incidents and more time getting ahead of them.

What this has to do with your insurance

Fleets with a strong safety culture tend to have fewer preventable crashes and better roadside inspection results. Both show up in their CSA scores and their claims. Those are the same factors that drive underwriting pricing. A lower-risk fleet earns a lower premium.

Document what you’re already doing

Good records help you see what’s working, and they put you in a much better spot if you end up dealing with a claim or a lawsuit. Start with coaching. Every coaching conversation and any corrective action that follows should be written down every time.

Use your data to catch problems early

Your CSA BASIC trends can point to where risk is building before it turns into a crash or a claim. When you review them, look at your speeding and following-distance events alongside them to see which drivers need a conversation first.

Go beyond enforcing rules

Culture gets built through coaching and through recognizing drivers when they do things right. It also takes enough trust that people speak up about hazards before something happens.

Make safety part of everyone’s job

The safety department can’t carry this alone. Leaders show they’re behind it, and operations understands how its decisions affect safety. Supervisors help with coaching, and drivers get a say in how the program runs.

What it looks like at two Ohio fleets

At Ploger Transportation in Norwalk, ownership attended risk control workshops alongside the Safety Team and listens to their Safety Director’s goals and ideas. That visible support gives the Safety Team real credibility with the rest of the company.

At General Transport in Akron, everyone takes part during safety meetings and trainings, including ownership and people from payroll and accounts payable. Whether someone drives a truck or works behind a desk, they have a role in safety.

If you’d like to see how your safety culture stacks up and talk through next steps for your program, our Safety team is happy to help. Contact our Safety team today.