National Academies Press: OpenBook

Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Safety Belt Usage (2005)

Chapter: Chapter 8 - Conclusions, Suggested Practices, and Recommended Research Needs

« Previous: Chapter 7 - Ergonomic and Technological Factors Affecting Safety Belt Use
Page 32
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 8 - Conclusions, Suggested Practices, and Recommended Research Needs." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Safety Belt Usage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13838.
×
Page 32
Page 33
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 8 - Conclusions, Suggested Practices, and Recommended Research Needs." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Safety Belt Usage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13838.
×
Page 33
Page 34
Suggested Citation:"Chapter 8 - Conclusions, Suggested Practices, and Recommended Research Needs." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2005. Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Safety Belt Usage. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13838.
×
Page 34

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

32 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSIONS, SUGGESTED PRACTICES, AND RECOMMENDED RESEARCH NEEDS 8.1 CONCLUSIONS The research team believes this research project supports the following conclusions that can help guide future efforts to remove the barriers to safety belt use by CMV drivers and encourage increased use: • The benefits of safety belt use are well understood and appreciated by CMV drivers. • Usage rates are high in cases where top management is committed to driver safety belt use and encourages, enforces, and provides rewards for belt use. • Safety belts that are generally available have features that can make belt use comfortable and convenient for most drivers. • Safety belt and truck manufacturers are taking steps to further improve the convenience and comfort of safety belts. The principal barriers and factors that are holding back higher rates of safety belt use are the following: • Drivers have a cultural or factual misperception about the risks of not wearing belts in normal every day use or in emergency egress situations. • Fleet managers do not employ active, comprehensive approaches to improving safety belt usage rates. • Some operational situations such as multi-stop, short dis- tance driving and delivery environments lead to situa- tions where drivers give in to a perceived inconvenience or hassle of disciplined, persistent use of belts. • Large- and small-statured drivers experience discomfort with current safety belt features. • Drivers are not aware of the comfort features available with modern belts installed on their vehicles. • Not all fleets insist on the most advanced belts when they purchase their vehicles. The research team believes that the barriers to increased safety belt use can be bridged by such intensive educational and technological developments as follow: • Deepen driver understanding of the values of 100% safety belt use and the risks of non-use. • Ensure that fleet managers employ all available methods to provide incentives for their drivers to use safety belts as a basic and constant feature of their driving activity. • Accelerate installation of full-featured safety belts in all fleet vehicles. • Focus on eliminating the discomfort and inconvenience that large- and small-statured drivers associate with cur- rent safety belt designs. 8.2 SUGGESTED PRACTICES 8.2.1 General Suggested Practice Concepts As noted in Chapter 3, the fleet manager survey respondent group was not a random sample of the industry but rather a group of safety-conscious managers (e.g., those who are active in state association safety councils). These safety-conscious managers employed, on average, at least eight different sur- veyed methods of promoting safety belt use. These fleets typ- ically have written policies requiring safety belt use, include this policy in their driver handbooks, discuss belt use during safety meetings, post signs in offices and terminals promoting belt use, and directly observe drivers’ belt use when they are at company terminals. These companies also typically require all their employees, including supervisory and administrative per- sonnel, to wear safety belts while on duty at the company. This consistent but multi-pronged approach seems necessary to con- tinually reinforce company policy regarding safety belts as well as to convince drivers of the personal benefits. Of various government/industry methods to promote safety belt use, fleet manager respondents gave the top rating to video demonstrations of the occupant kinematics of safety belt use and non-use during crashes. Such videos can show the violent movement of unrestrained truck occupants during severe impacts and during rollovers, as well as the safety bestowed by belt use. Respondents also commented that drivers needed to be convinced by statistics proving the safety benefits of belt use. The combination of action demon- strations with statistics may help to counter persistent myths about safety belt use, such as the myth that entrapment in vehicles due to belt use is a likely outcome in large truck crashes.

8.2.2 Motivating Drivers The research team’s analysis of motivational approaches to increasing driver understanding and acceptance of 100% safety belt use includes the following approaches to fleet management strategies and practices: • When possible, use small discussion groups when talk- ing about safety-belt use. By keeping discussion groups fairly small, driver involvement and commitment will likely increase. • Try to involve family members and coworkers as much as possible; they can be a valuable source of motivation and support. – Use company events to obtain family support and involve family members. – Describe safety initiatives and progress in newsletters sent home to the driver’s family. • Be specific and carefully explain all company policies, procedures, and consequences regarding safety belt use. • Obtain personal testimonies from company drivers who have survived crashes because of their safety belt use. Encourage these discussions at safety meetings. • Be ready with statistics about the actual safety benefits of belt use for those drivers who may believe falsely that safety belts do not increase safety. • Do not assume that drivers are influenced only by mon- etary or other material consequences. Appeal to their professional pride and encourage them to make a safety personal commitment to 100% belt use. • Consider making mandatory use of safety belts a condi- tion of employment. Some fleets find this effective, while some use punitive disciplinary actions only if other approaches have failed. • When possible, allow employees to take an active role in safety decisions, thereby increasing their feelings of empowerment and self-control. For example, allow employees to discuss and have a choice in the methods used to promote safety belt use. • Obtain management support and participation. – Include company management and non-driver employ- ees in safety meetings and events. – Have fleet management and other employees set an example by always wearing their belts. 8.2.3 Suggested Practices Model The research team explored suggested practices concepts with fleets with successful safety belt programs. These sug- gested practices have led to substantially increased commit- ment on the part of drivers to virtually 100% use of safety belts while the drivers are operating their vehicles. The prac- tices may not suit every fleet situation but are offered as sug- gestions to remove barriers to safety belt use and increase current usage rates. 33 The first step to benchmarking safety performance is for a fleet to understand its relative position in terms of key perfor- mance metrics. In this case, average truck driver safety belt usage expressed as a percentage. Once a fleet understands where it fits relative to the average, the next step can be taken, that is, selecting one or more appropriate interventions from the following list. The list is comprehensive enough to provide options that will fit almost every type of fleet operation, regard- less of that fleet’s individual culture. For larger fleets, it will also be desirable to internally benchmark by looking at differ- ent usage rates from one terminal location to another. It may be that there is already a “best practice” location within the fleet whose practices can be duplicated at multiple locations. • Equip all power units with belts that are colored safety orange or another bright color for more visibility. This type of change should be well communicated before implementation. Another approach observed by the research team ergonomist was requiring drivers to extend the belt over the steering wheel and exit the cab by the passenger door. When reentering the cab, the driver easily reattached the safety belt. • Add a safety belt item to pre-trip inspections. Specifics should include that the belt be there, working, and clean and have both a lap and a shoulder belt. An added ben- efit of bright-colored safety belts is that they are easier to keep clean because dirt is more visible on them. • Develop a comprehensive company/corporate policy that includes an overview, driver and management responsi- bilities, training, and enforcement/progressive discipline. Be sure it includes all employees, not just CDL holders. “This policy applies to all employees and all occupants of vehicles driven by employees on official company business, whether in company-owned vehicles, rented vehicles, or an employee’s vehicle.” • Have all drivers sign a pledge to use safety belts after completing initial training. • Develop a strong management “walk the talk” program. Employees will be more likely to mimic what their man- agers do rather than what they say. One way to test man- agement commitment is to have a safety belt check at the entrance to the corporate headquarters. One fleet had a local police officer and a senior vice president (chief exec- utive officer might be better) at the company entrance issuing “dummy” tickets to anyone not wearing a safety belt as he/she entered the property. Publish the results. Repeat as needed. Be prepared to discipline your best salesperson for failure to observe the law/corporate pol- icy to the same degree as you would your CDL drivers. • If a fleet had one or more fatal or serious injury accidents where the driver was or was not wearing his/her safety belt, the fleet can use non-privileged information from the accidents to convince all other drivers to wear their safety belts (e.g., displaying wrecked trucks on a flatbed, showing videotapes of accident scenes, or having drivers give testimonials.)

• Develop a comprehensive communication program about safety belt use. Use the marketing communication depart- ment (if the fleet has one) to help. The goal is to get the message out in multiple ways. Elements might include initial and follow-up training, company newsletter arti- cles, pep talks, posters, paycheck mailers, or simple reminders by dispatchers. Something new should come out about every 3 to 6 months. • Schedule a safety day around the safety belt theme. Use a committee of employees to develop a creative program such as having a children’s coloring contest or having the state police bring in “the convincer”—a sled type device that lets people see what it feels like to come to a sudden stop at 5 mph. • Implement a behavioral safety program using employee peer observations and self-observations to check com- pliance. (These can be fairly complex. The fleet manager may need outside help.) • Implement a “one strike and you’re out” disciplinary process. Like dealing with drugs and/or alcohol, the con- sequences of not wearing safety belts are serious enough that fleets have been able to gain full buy-in by drivers and driver organizations in this practice. • Regularly publish dollar amounts for fines paid by com- pany drivers who were cited for not wearing their safety belts. 34 • Reproduce newspaper and magazine articles on safety belts. Distribute to drivers. 8.3 RECOMMENDED RESEARCH NEEDS While there is substantial literature on safety belts in auto- mobile use and growing information on usage in the CMV driver environment, the research team believes additional research in the following areas can enhance progress toward significant increases in CMV driver safety belt use: • Develop a methodical, periodic, and statistically sound methodology for measuring safety belt use among CMV drivers. The methodology should account for differing operational types, locations, and driving situations. A credible measuring approach is essential for determin- ing the current baseline of usage rates and for gauging progress toward a chosen goal. • As suggested in Chapter 7, perform investigations on the ergonomics interaction of seats, belts, and other comfort features of vehicles to simplify safety belt use and pro- vide user-friendly safety belt operation. • Perform additional BBS studies to determine the most effective means for motivating drivers to use their safety belts.

Next: References »
Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Safety Belt Usage Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

TRB’s Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 8: Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Safety Belt Usage identifies and documents motivating factors that influence commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers in deciding whether to wear safety belts and research and practices that address CMV safety belt usage. It also offers a review of ergonomic and human engineering factors in the design and use of safety belts in CMVs as well as approaches to facilitate safety belt use by truck manufacturers.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!