Road safety improvement in large companies. An experimental comparison of different measures

Road accidents among professional drivers are a major problem in many companies. There are several traditional measures for improving safety, but knowledge about what measures are most effective is rather limited. The aim of the study is to compare four different measures for reducing accident involvement through changed driver behaviour. The measures are driver training, group discussions, campaigns and bonuses for accident free driving. Five groups of approximately 900 drivers each employed by the Swedish telephone company "Televerket" have been used in the experiment. Four of the groups were test groups, where each took part in one of the measures. The fifth group was a control group. The effect on accident risk (accidents in relation to mileage) and accident costs have been calculated for a period of 2 years after the measures were applied. The results show that group discussions and driver training with the rather unusual design used in the experiment succeeded in improving the accident risk compared to the control group. Accident costs were reduced in all four test groups, but not in the control group.