Conference paper
Safety culture and speeding in the Australian heavy vehicle industry
Proceedings of the 2015 Australasian Road Safety Conference
Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC): Taking Action Together, 2015 (Gold Coast, Australia, 14-Oct-2015–16-Oct-2015)
Australasian College of Road Safety
2015
Abstract
Inappropriate speed and speeding are among the highest causes of crashes in the heavy vehicle industry. Truck drivers are subjected to a broad range of influences on their behaviour including industrial pressures, company monitoring and police enforcement. Further, drivers have a high level of autonomy over their own behaviour. As such it is important to understand how these external influences interact with commonly shared beliefs, attitudes and values of heavy vehicle drivers to influence their behaviour. The present study uses a re-conceptualisation of safety culture to explore the behaviours of driving at an inappropriate speed and speeding in the heavy vehicle industry. A series of case studies, consisting of interviews and ride-along observations, were conducted with three transport organisations to explore the effect of culture on safety in the heavy vehicle industry. Results relevant to inappropriate speed are reported and discussed. It was found that organisational management through monitoring, enforcement and payment, police enforcement, customer standards and vehicle design factors could all reduce the likelihood of driving at inappropriate speeds under some circumstances. However, due to weaknesses in the ability to accurately monitor appropriate speed, this behaviour was primarily influenced by cultural beliefs, attitudes and values. Truck drivers had a tendency to view speeding as relatively safe, had a desire to speed to save time and increase personal income, and thus often attempted to speed without detection. When drivers saw speeding as dangerous, however, they were more likely to drive safely. Implications for intervention are discussed
Details
- Title
- Safety culture and speeding in the Australian heavy vehicle industry
- Authors
- Jason Edwards (Author) - Queensland University of TechnologyJeremy D Davey (Author) - Queensland University of TechnologyKerry Ann Armstrong (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
- Publication details
- Proceedings of the 2015 Australasian Road Safety Conference; 11
- Conference details
- Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC): Taking Action Together, 2015 (Gold Coast, Australia, 14-Oct-2015–16-Oct-2015)
- Publisher
- Australasian College of Road Safety
- Date published
- 2015
- ISBN
- 9780958569170
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2015 The Author. Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. This paper can be found in the online database of papers for this conference at http://acrs.org.au/publications/conference-papers/database/
- Organisation Unit
- Road Safety Research Collaboration; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450641302621
- Output Type
- Conference paper
Metrics
9 File views/ downloads
209 Record Views