Managerial insight towards enhancing road safety culture in the light commercial vehicle and gig economy transportation workforce in Australia

Abstract

Given the escalation in unregulated work-related driving due to the gig economy industry in recent years in Australia, there remains a challenge in how to incorporate this cohort of drivers into road safety improvements, given that traditional forms of work-related road safety education interventions are largely targeted within the workplace. Additionally, even within the employer-based workplace system, road safety challenges exist for managing light vehicles driven by employees. One such avenue of road safety intervention could be targeting road safety culture which has been shown to improve driver safety attitudes and behaviours. The current study aimed to explore managerial insights into road safety culture to better understand the barriers and facilitators to a safer workplace for work-related drivers, and a safer road system for all road users.

A total of 21 participants (managers and industry stakeholders) from across Australia were interviewed on aspects of workplace road safety culture. Components of Reason’s (1997) theory of safety culture, namely, just culture, reporting culture, learning culture, and flexible culture, were thematically analysed to examine opportunities to strengthen an informed road safety culture. Results identified that a learning culture was the workplace road safety culture aspect most integrated into safety management systems. In regards to the light commercial vehicle (LCV) employee driver cohort, flexible culture was one opportunity for potential improvement in the system. Regarding gig economy drivers, a reporting culture could be targeted as an intervention strategy whereby driver safety feedback could be collected and analysed via a third-party agency, beyond the gig platform operators. This consideration for implementation, based upon the analytical findings, is given because many gig economy drivers work for multiple operators, so obtaining accurate reporting on safety information is particularly challenging. In conclusion, the current study has found that targeting workplace road safety culture may be a viable intervention strategy for improving safety in the work-related light vehicle transportation industry.