Steering toward total driver safety

If you’re serious about reducing driverrelated hazards and risks for your organization, the “hierarchy of controls” is one tool to keep on your list. It offers a workplace model that ranks your actions to decrease hazards from most effective to least effective.

If you supervise the safety of others or manage a safety program, you know it’s hard to observe an employee’s driving behavior. Most program management strategies try to manage driver safety through driver behavior, but that's the hardest way to do it. Effective driver safety management programs focus on system strategies instead.

Evaluating your current program

There's no one magic action to keep drivers safe; the right solution will depend on the risks your drivers face everyday as well as your crash history.

Use this helpful hierarchy tool to choose where you want to invest your time and energy; keeping in mind employee behavior is the hardest part of any safety program to manage.

Driver hierarchy reviewed

Using this driver hierarchy of controls can pinpoint strategic and useful improvements. Looking at the diagram from the bottom up, the least effective management strategy is focused on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE); PPE is important but shouldn’t be the prime focus of any safety effort. These items only help you in the event of a crash; most efforts should be focused on ways to reduce or eliminate the frequency and occurrence of crashes. If you have trouble with drivers wearing seatbelts and other protective equipment, we recommend using SAIF’s safety culture resources to look for other ways to create a positive environment for your driver safety program.

Making driving safer, easier

It's tempting to put a lot of focus on driver training, or administrative controls, to change behavior. While training has it's place, it isn't as effective as other measures in a driver safety program.

Substitution and elimination are system improvements that require more effort but have a greater impact on the driver safety program because they don't target driver behavior.

Hierarchy of controls for driver safety

This hierarchy of controls is a guide of suggested improvements you can make to your driver safety program.

For more on this topic, visit saif.com/safedriving.