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34 Future Research Based on the findings of this report, the following repre- sents a list of gaps in the research that should be addressed in future efforts. Relationship of Labor Stability to Safety Performance and Safety Culture The driver shortage and driver workforce stability issues should be addressed in future research. Drivers clearly are the key to operations and therefore to safety and crash prevention in both trucking and motorcoach operations. There is clear evidence, however, that experience (in years driving) and time spent working within a companyâs culture are key to safety and an organizationâs ability to develop a safety culture. Drivers who leave the profession or jump from company to company often undermine a companyâs safety culture. Research should identify the correlation of safety culture and performance with driver retention and labor stability. Relationship of Driver Peer Influence to Safety Performance and Safety Culture It is an immutable fact that drivers are a remote workforce and that drivers have the ability to be in close contact with other drivers at stopping points and over CB radios and cell phones. Driver-to-driver communications can occur be- tween drivers of the same company or of different companies. In such settings, attitudes, beliefs, values, and norms related to safety may be shared, leading to either positive or negative influences on the safety culture of individual organizations. Drivers may undermine driver retention efforts through peer influence, which may have a negative impact on safety culture for some organizations. Therefore, research should be con- ducted to determine the level of influence driver peers have on one another and how that influence relates to safety cul- ture and safety performance. The Small Carrier/Safety Culture Conundrum The majority of the 600,000+ trucking companies in the United States are very small operations that do not have the ability to maintain a safety department. While it may be true that a positive safety culture can lead to safety performance results, what are the implications of this, if any, for small car- riers? Can a safety culture be developed among employees of a small carrier, particularly those carriers not large enough to have a safety department or safety professionals on staff? Conclusion A strong safety culture, when properly defined by a motor carrier, is not something that is unachievable. This research hopes to offer guidelines to motor carriers, and potentially to similar industries, as to best practices regarding the assess- ment, development, and reassessment of safety culture. The guidelines should offer motor carriers and others a method by which to see safety culture as an evolutionary process that is adaptable to changes and offers safety managers the oppor- tunity to commit entire organizations to a single, common goal: safety. C H A P T E R 6 Summary of Major R&D Needs and Conclusion
