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28 add to overall vehicle maintenance workload (Van Order et al. committed to high performance. Two companies participated 2009). A recently published fleet test of onboard brake perfor- in more in-depth surveys of individual frontline industrial mance and tire pressure sensors (Van Order et al. 2009; Flani- supervisors. "Generic" high-performance management prac- gan 2010) used three different TPMS on 36 tractors and 39 tices were associated with both company financial perfor- trailers in two fleets. Preliminary results from one fleet and mance and with safety measures. Figure 5 shows some of the 4.6 million miles of travel found the use of TPMS to be asso- correlational relationships among various corporate measures. ciated with slower tire wear and 1.8% better fuel economy. Of most interest here is the relationship between a corporate Complete and final project results are pending at this writing. high-performance work system and corporate safety climate. Striving for high organizational performance may have neg- GENERAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ative impacts on safety if it results in excessive demands for EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY productivity. Efforts to increase productivity in factories, for The previous sections have presented findings relating to spe- example, can result in higher accident rates if workers are per- cific tactics to increase both carrier efficiency and safety. What forming tasks too fast for safety (Blum and Naylor 1968). Caird about the general relationship between efficiency and safety? and Kline (2004) looked at job demands and driver safety In the aggregate, do the various practices cited previously add behaviors among 150 work drivers in a large western Canadian to both greater efficiency and greater safety? Do the same car- company. The study found that organizational demands rier practices and processes that foster efficient operations also encouraging high work speed were associated with higher lev- foster safe operations? The project did not measure either the els of driver fatigue, more errors, and more moving violations. efficiency or safety of any fleet, so it cannot provide defin- itive evidence. A question on both the safety-manager and Larger carriers have advantages over smaller companies other-expert survey forms, however, asked respondents about and owner-operators in creating operational efficiencies with the general relationship. High majorities of both categories of potential safety implications. Many proactive and systematic respondents selected the choice, "Highly efficient carriers tend management practices are practiced more widely among also to be more safe than other carriers." Only 2 of 77 safety larger carriers than among smaller ones (Stock 2001; Corsi managers believed that such carriers were less safe. None of and Barnard 2003). Larger companies may also feel less pres- the 31 other-expert respondents selected this choice. sure to push productivity and delivery schedules to unsafe levels. In Australia, Mayhew and Quinlan (2006) interviewed In an article entitled "High-Performance Work Systems 300 long-haul commercial drivers to assess economic pres- and Occupational Safety," Zacharatos et al. (2005) surveyed sure, driver workload, and occupational safety and health. 138 manufacturers (including chemical, automotive, and con- Owner-operators reported worse health and safety than did struction) that were members of the Industrial Accident Pre- drivers in small fleets and, especially, those in large fleets. vention Association of Ontario. The surveys contained 124 Structured interviews revealed a connection between eco- Likert-scale questions on high-performance management prac- nomic pressure (e.g., month-to-month dependence on income tices and the extent to which employees practiced and were from loads) and negative health and safety outcomes. Owner- FIGURE 5 Interrelationships among five organizational characteristics among 138 industrial manufacturing organizations. Source: Zacharatos et al. (2005).

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29 operators were less likely to seek medical treatment for injuries · Executive and management involved in all levels of or illnesses, often citing financial pressures as the reason. safety and compliance. Drivers working for large firms felt more secure about report- · Accountability for safety. ing sickness and injuries and in taking time off for them. · No one practice but a culture. · Efficiency and safety must be used in conjunction, and Can one therefore demonstrate a link between overall motor not considered "stand-alone" initiatives. carrier performance and safety? Corsi et al. (2002) compared the financial performance of 656 carriers with their safety per- The following are similar comments from other experts: formance to determine whether there was a link. The study controlled for carrier features such as size, revenues, average · Managers of well-managed operations pay attention to load, and average haul. Financial data were obtained from the all aspects of their operations. ATA corporate annual report database, and carrier safety rat- · Some efficiency measures in dispatch may result in non- ings were retrieved from SafeStat. The 656 companies in the rested drivers being given long runs that will result in study were mostly large, prominent carriers. Carriers with fatigue. satisfactory ratings (553 of the 656) had an average 3% profit · Some standard practices with respect to vehicle type, margin. The 103 companies not rated satisfactory (96 condi- operations, and schedules may promote efficiencies but tional + 7 unsatisfactory) had average operating losses of 4%. not fit a driver's ergonomic needs, circadian rhythm, and On a second financial measure, return on investment (ROI), temperament, which often lead to increased risk. satisfactory fleets had a 5% average ROI. This compared · Need to adopt a systems-based approach, applying a to a negative 2% ROI for non-satisfactory (conditional or model or framework such as the Haddon Matrix. unsatisfactory) fleets. Though there were exceptions, safer · To manage efficiency implies an organizational struc- companies generally had higher profits. The study contained ture that can also manage risk. no measure of efficiency per se, but the findings of this large study with regard to safety and profitability suggest a simi- Two of the case study interviewees commented on the general lar link between safety and efficiency. issue of operational efficiency in relation to safety. Carrier A's management structure is designed to strengthen the link The following are safety-manager survey comments relat- between efficiency and safety. Division operational managers ing to ways in which efficiency can relate to safety, positively are also safety managers for their divisions and are evaluated or negatively: based on both operational and safety success. Carrier J's safety manager had had previous experience in pickup and delivery · You must develop a safety culture from the top down. (P&D) operations. He felt that intense monitoring of driver You must be willing to make investments in technology delivery times by management sometimes forced drivers to to promote safety. work too fast and cut corners on safety.