CASE STUDY: 46,000 Vehicles/25% Reduction in Car Accidents

There are many lessons to be learned by reviewing international best practice in Accident Management and fleet safety. Though the vehicle total in New Zealand is tiny at only around 4 million, we have one of the worst car accident statistics in the world so have much to learn from the work that is happening globally to reduce collisions.  Technology has had a very positive influence, as has improved processes, and engagement with professional Accident Management providers.

Royal Mail in the UK (our NZ Post) operates on an enormous scale, with over 46,000 vehicles on the road continuously 6 days/week, visiting over 29 million addresses covering every motorway, street and rural road.  Last year, they reduced car accidents by 9%, equivalent to 750 fewer car accidents. The year before that a reduction of 12% was achieved and this year collisions are already down 5%. That’s around 2,500 fewer collisions over a three-year period.  How did they do it?  The following case study makes compelling reading for any fleet manager and driver.

 

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/fleet-management/case-studies/awards/royal-mail-saves-15m-in-accident-claim-costs: “Royal Mail’s fleet is ubiquitous and instantly recognisable. Travelling down every road, delivering letters and parcels to 29 million addresses six days a week, Royal Mail operates the UK’s largest fleet in every sense: the most trucks, the most vans, the most mileage, the most drivers. The level of complexity that comes with introducing policy changes and new initiatives to 46,000 vehicles and 90,000 drivers is unique and challenging, not least during the Christmas period when the numbers swell by an additional 6,500 vehicles and 21,000 staff.  Yet, the organisation has some of the most advanced processes around for safety and cost efficiency, and it is constantly investigating new ways to improve its fleet performance.

Safety is a priority. While the memory of a red blur hustling down the local high street may not have been completely erased from the public’s mind, in reality Royal Mail’s wide-ranging driver behaviour policies supported by an ongoing roll-out of telematics have created a safe and considerate fleet. Road safety manager Mark Bromhall is responsible for driving down incidents and managing risk. A former insurance employee, he joined Royal Mail 11 years ago, initially to manage its claims centres. He moved to his current role three years ago. “On claims, you deal with everything that has gone wrong, so to get the opportunity to try to stop that happening in the first place is very worthwhile,” Bromhall says.

While Bromhall has completed his first decade at Royal Mail, head of fleet operations Debbie Rivers has notched up her 22nd year, having joined from university. A former workshop and regional manager, she moved to her current role six months ago and is responsible for cost initiatives, utilisation/efficiency and supporting the driver safety programmes.

Fleet News: Could you outline your approach to road safety and when the current policy started to take shape?

Mark Bromhall: We target ourselves on reducing RTCs (road traffic collisions) year-on-year and we are in our third year of achieving this. Every manager is directly affected (through annual bonuses) by whether we achieve our RTCs targets – that was a massive step to changing their buy-in. We have a suite of operational road risk standards including recruitment, how we buy the vehicle and what we do on the road. Four years ago we introduced a new driver training programme. We went from having lots of regional partners to one provider and from 120 courses to just three, which gives us greater consistency. We put in place a minimum driver standard which we assess against, but our focus isn’t to fail people, it’s to improve them. Drivers have an initial assessment and the instructor will coach them before giving them a final assessment. They spend more than two hours on the road so fewer than 2% fail to make the grade.

FN: How do you follow up RTCs?

MB: Investigations have been a big focus to ensure it doesn’t happen again – managers are required to investigate all RTCs. We’ve gone from following up just 7% of fault RTCs with training to nearly 50%. We encourage the use of training, but don’t mandate what the intervention should be as we need managers to take responsibility. People don’t go out to have an RTC; we have to understand why it happened and put in a solution to address it. You can’t be prescriptive. We look at telematics scores, any witnesses and the root cause analysis to find out the real cause. If it results in on-road training, it’s usually not about the skills, it’s about the behaviour.

FN: What reductions in RTC have you achieved?

MB: Last year, we reduced by 9.1%, equivalent to 750 fewer accidents. The year before that we reduced by 12% and so far this year we are down 5%. That’s around 2,500 fewer collisions over a three-year period, saving us £1.5 million in claims costs last year alone, not to mention the cost of repairs and time off work.

FN: Has taking on electric vehicles (Royal Mail has more than 100 EVs) caused any safety concerns?

MB: We have looked at the risks, such as quiet running, regenerative braking, flood water, range and charging and we have put in a new four-hour induction course for EVs. So far, we’ve not had any RTCs in our EVs (touches wood).

Debbie Rivers: Charging and range anxiety hasn’t been an issue. We found that the EVs don’t require charging every day. We put them on routes of a maximum of 60 miles a day so they only require charging every two days. Now we have proven the case, we are starting to put them on longer routes.

FN: How does your risk management policy feed into Royal Mail’s recruitment policy?

MB: In a driver’s first year with us, they have a 30% higher collision frequency rate compared to existing drivers. So we have developed a risk assessment system to funnel down who we should select. The assessments introduce driving elements, such as the Highway Code and hazard perception. A question and answer story takes them down different paths dependent on their answers and three best scoring applicants are selected for the shortlist. We are currently trialling the programme and targeting deployment in July 2019. The business case for investment is to turn that 30% negative into a positive, so we recruit drivers who are better than our existing drivers. We recruit 5,000 people a year and we have, on average, 85 applicants per role, so it’s a major project.

FN: How do you use telematics data to support your safety targets?

MB: Telematics in vans is approaching two-thirds of the fleet and drivers get live feedback with audio and traffic lights. All our HGVs have telematics, and we have almost 100 advanced driver coaches who have access to the data to help identify the drivers that need support.

DR: We are very supportive of telematics. We train managers to use the data so they can improve their drivers’ performance.

MB: We are also looking at forward-facing cameras. We have fitted them to 20 vans for a six-month trial. While we’ve seen no difference in RTCs, where there has been one, the camera has supported the investigation, especially with accidents that were not our fault. We also saw an improvement in telematics scores and fuel efficiency. We are now expanding the trial.

FN: How did drivers react to the ban on the use of mobile phones, including hands-free?

MB: This happened in July for all vehicles, including cars. Most vans and HGVs don’t have the technology but where it really makes a difference is with the culture. It also affects managers and that sends a strong message to all drivers that we are serious about road safety. The communications was huge, with briefings, emails, WhatsApp, the use of films, our staff magazine and executive support. Educating everyone about the issue by using stats on the impact of phone usage won hearts and minds. The key was to keep it brief; use the same message through different mediums – that’s more effective than a large briefing session.

FN: One of the big distribution challenges is running empty or part-empty vehicles after making deliveries. How does your ‘empty legs’ initiatives offer a solution?

DR: We have sold space to more than 150 customers on empty legs, carrying everything from baked beans to bubble bath, from Inverness to the south-west. We have fixed routes that we run and also an element of flexing with extra routes. Some customers buy a guarantee on the route; others are ad hoc requests. Year-to-date, our empty legs project has saved 55,000 miles for our customers.

Royal Mail is constantly reassessing its fleet, routes and networks to minimise journeys. Fewer journeys improve safety and reduce fuel use and CO2 emissions.

“It’s about making best use of vehicles, fully utilising them, updating our profiling of customers and where demand is changing, and linking our fleet to customers’ requirements,” says Rivers. “We do it annually – also for our planes, trains and boats.

“We work on 97% fleet availability and we are constantly looking at ways to simplify our routes for consistency and reliability.”

6 Responses

  1. Terri
    | Reply

    Another excellent read thanks Crash Management and lessons learned that can apply just as well to NZ. thanks

  2. Tui Kane
    | Reply

    Excellent case study. Appreciate driver safety being kept front and centre, it’s a critical issue that does not receive the attention it deserves. The traffic accident statistics in New Zealand are a disgrace, vehicle technology has certainly helped but driver behaviour is still dreadful and little has changed on that front. Professional accident management programs should be compulsory for all fleet operators and would help raise driver awareness significantly. Case studies are a great source of information around new initiatives including the previous DHL article at https://crashmanagement.nz/dhl-delivers-fleet-safety/. Keep up the good work and keep the case studies coming. Thank you

  3. Hans
    | Reply

    Agreed this is very illuminating and demonstrates how all accidents can be reduced specifically driving incidents. Good work and as the above says – keep up the good work and keep the case studies coming they’re a very useful learning tool for drivers and fleet managers as well as H&S professionals.

  4. Adrian A
    | Reply

    Wow! Huge progress on a huge scale! Congrats Royal Mail, and thanks Crash Management very interesting read.

  5. Steve Johnson
    | Reply

    Very interesting to anyone involved with fleet vehicles, good lessons learned. I also came across an interesting topic coming up at the Fleet Managers conference. They’re holding a safety field day for safety demonstrations about the effects of weight on vehicles something that is probably not often properly considered. The field day includes a chance for everyone to drive different vehicles and experience the difference between empty and full loads in different driving conditions including cars and vans. The afternoon session is on EVs. It all looks very valuable learning for anyone who can swing the trip to one of the Australian locations! Check it out here
    https://conference2019.afma.org.au/2019-sd-active-safety-demonstration-impact-of-weight/

    • Crash Management
      | Reply

      Thanks for the heads-up and the link, the AFMA conference does indeed look valuable, and appears to include a range of safety-focused events and workshops. The technology section may be of particular interest to the Fleet Managers amongst us so we’ve copied below a synopsis of the event scheduled for May 22
      https://conference2019.afma.org.au/2019-sd-advanced-driver-assist-systems/
      Automotive safety technology is pretty easy to wrap your head around, but advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are a little harder to pin down.
      The issue is that advanced driver assistance systems are systems and features that provide a driver with essential information, automate difficult or repetitive tasks, with the goal of engendering an overall increase in car safety for everyone on the road. Since these systems are so varied, it isn’t always easy to see how some of them actually relate to safety.
      Many advanced driver assistance systems are right on the bleeding edge of emerging automotive technologies, and the jury is actually still out on some of them.
      ADAS systems that are currently being delivered to the market in Australia include:
      • blind spot monitoring
      • adaptive cruise control
      • following distance warning
      • lane keep assist
      • lane departure warning
      • self-parking
      • adaptive headlights
      • fatigue warning, and
      • traffic-jam assist

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *