NEW MOTOR VEHICLE FLEET STANDARD

The ANSI accredited Z15 Committee has begun preliminary draft development of a new standard titled Safety Requirements for Motor Vehicle Fleet Operations. According to the Journal of Professional Safety, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) has received authorization to act as secretariat of the new standard, expected to be finalized in two years. The overall objective of the committee is to develop a fleet management standard including minimum criteria to be used by all fleets, including:

• Driver hiring procedures
• Training to include initial, refresher and remedial courses
• Vehicle maintenance procedures
• Crash and incident investigation procedures
• Annual or periodic procedures to assess driver behaviors
• Disciplinary procedures associated with driving behaviors
• Use of positive incentives via safety incentive programs
• Operational procedures and assessments, such as scheduling practices, root cause analysis, and application of in-vehicle technologies
• Data collection and measurements, such as crash and incident frequencies, motorist and customer complaint frequencies, schedule overruns, and vehicle breakdowns.

Companies with good working fleet-safety programs should not be significantly affected. The largest changes are anticipated in the area of accident investigation procedure documentation and the (controversial) inclusion of incentive programs.

Introducing incentive programs is based on the assumptions that professional drivers need enticements to drive safely and that they will be positively influenced to do so by the company-selected incentive. Deemed inadequate to ensure safe driving are the multiple measures currently in place: state and federal traffic and driver safety laws, hiring procedures, behavioral assessments, company rules, accident investigation procedures, drug testing, background investigations, training, customer complaint frequency evaluations, and other data collection and measurement criteria.

Such a plan would apparently assume also that a company will not pressure drivers to deliver heavier loads than permissible, will provide first-class safety equipment, will allow for driver inspection time, and will not require faster delivery than the driver considers to be safe.

OSHA'S INSPECTION PLAN IN EFFECT

OSHA continues in its fifth year to target high-risk employers for inspections. A Lost Time Incidence Rate (including restricted cases) of nine or more injuries or illnesses per year resulting in lost workdays or restricted activity for every 100 full-time workers raises a red flag to regulators. Such work-sites can expect an inspection within the next 10 months. The new incidence rate is down from a target level of 14 just a year ago. Employers who fall in this category might be well advised to develop and implement a specific plan of action to reduce the incidence rate, refine their safety program, check documentation procedures, and review procedures for OSHA inspections prior to the inspector's arrival.