Developing Employer-Based Behavioral Traffic Safety Programs for Drivers in the Workplace (2022)

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1 SUMMARY It is widely known and well documented that traffic crashes are the leading cause of workplace fatalities. While any workplace injury is a serious concern, on-the-job vehicle crashes are particularly devastating, with severe impacts on the workers themselves, their coworkers, their families, their communities, and their employers (businesses). Despite an extensive array of healthy living programs and employer-sponsored activities, and a fundamental understanding of the broad causal factors underlying crashes, work-related traffic crashes remain particularly challenging to address. The proximate causal factors are often beyond the control or even influence of the employee and employer. However, recent research and practice have shown that instilling an awareness of safety and fostering a corporate safety culture supportive of safety may prevent traffic crashes, reduce their frequency, and reduce their severity. Employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs are known by such terms as traffic safety/citizenship, safety climate, and safety culture. These programs are predicated on the idea that a supportive corporate safety culture (i.e., one where corporate shared values and beliefs encourage and facilitate employer-based safety programs) can change attitudes toward safety and instill behavioral change in individuals. Corporations, organizations, and employers have implemented a number of programs to address and reduce work-related traffic crashes based on the safety climate perspective in one form or another. However, there is limited research on the specifics of work-related, employer-based traffic safety or safety climate programs, their proliferation, their results, their underlying behavioral theory, or the extent and means of their assessment. There is a need to better understand theoretical issues inherent in the development and delivery of safety climate programs. Needs include characterizing employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs that impact workers across multiple fields as part of their job duties, identifying essential elements that lead to program effectiveness and transferability, and identifying characteristics of successful employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs. Findings from this research can be used to guide employers as they plan, implement, and evaluate safety climate programs that target crash prevention. The objectives of this research were to: • Document the components of existing U.S. and international employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs for workers who operate motor vehicles. • Use behavioral change theories (e.g., health belief model, transtheoretical model, social cognitive theory, diffusion of innovation) to identify essential components of programs. • Identify measures of program effectiveness. • Develop a guide and an interactive web-based tool that incorporate the results from the first three objectives to plan, implement, and evaluate an employer-based behavioral traffic safety program. STATE-OF-THE-PRACTICE OVERVIEW The state-of-the-practice overview was comprised of a literature review and a series of interviews. The literature review segment (Task 1) summarized the current state of the research literature concerning employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs and identified the types

2 and extent of behavioral change theories and measures of program effectiveness currently in use. The role and relevance of safety culture/climate in these studies was also identified. The review of the literature described the current state of the practice as follows: • There is limited explicit use of behavioral change theory in designing or evaluating employer-based driver safety programs. • Evidence of the effectiveness of behavioral change theory in general exists but is insufficient to determine the relative effectiveness of the specific theories. • Many nonexperimental traffic safety program studies rely on survey methodology and incorporate behavioral change theory variables. • General or one-size-fits-all driver safety programs may not be effective for employee- based programs, based on behavioral change theory’s demonstration of the need to consider individual differences (e.g., stage of change). • Safety climate captures employees’ perceptions of what the organization rewards and supports. Safety climate is consistently associated with both safe and unsafe driver behaviors, the importance of safety, and the effectiveness of traffic safety programs. • Relatively few traffic safety programs have undergone a rigorous evaluation using a between-subjects experimental study design (experimental vs. control groups) or a pre-post within-subjects experimental study design. The employer interview segment (Task 2) consisted of interviews of employers and practitioners engaged in safety programs that target employee drivers. The purpose of the interviews was to validate the knowledge gained from the literature review and fill in gaps in knowledge that the literature review did not address. Specifically, the interviews gathered information on existing employer-based safety programs that address employee traffic safety and behavioral traffic safety concerns (e.g., distraction, speeding). The interviews also solicited information regarding the process used to select and adopt these programs. The interview protocol was based on the results of the state-of-the-practice literature review. The results of the interviews assisted the research team with the remaining project tasks. Key points across all four categories of interviews (transit agencies, corporate trucking companies, safety organizations, and employers of other types of drivers) are summarized below: • Safety culture was strong and promoted among corporate trucking companies and transit agencies. There was more variation in safety culture observed among the employers of other types of drivers. However, the presence of a safety culture seemed to increase as the degree of driving hazards or risk increased. • The Smith System was a very common packaged safety program used among corporate trucking companies. • Packaged programs were common among transit agencies. Selection of a specific package seemed related to peer practice and prior experience in other agencies. • Exemplary programs implemented in corporate trucking companies may be transferable across the trucking industry and other industries. • Overall, across employer types, evaluation of specific safety programs amounted to monitoring of driver performance and events such as crashes. There were no traditional, comprehensive efforts that involved process and outcome evaluations of specific programs or whether to retain or terminate a program. Rather, employers monitored driver behavior and events such as crashes to identify problems. Then, employers modified safety programs to address these problems.

3 • Common metrics to assess performance included number of crashes, number of near misses or incidents, and behavioral triggers such as the frequency of speeding and hard braking and the frequency of public complaints. Some employers compared their performance with their peers’ performance, some used industry statistics, and some used both. • Safety organizations are highly specialized and very diverse. Safety organizations and the programs or approaches they provide are evolutionary and respond to the needs of their constituency. In some case, the need is imposed (e.g., government regulation), while in others it is emergent (e.g., technological changes increase in-vehicle distracted driving). • Safety organizations typically assess their performance based on distribution and use of materials rather than outcomes. BEHAVIORAL CHANGE THEORY Regarding the application of behavioral change theory to practice (Task 4), the analysis consisted of two components: (1) identification of the relevant behavioral change theories in existing safety programs, and (2) identification of the critical components of existing safety programs. Ultimately, it was anticipated that this would result in a catalog of safety programs with their associated behavioral change theory and critical components. However, this was not entirely possible because the development of most programs did not appear to be based on behavioral change theory, and when theory was considered, detailed information about how it was incorporated was unavailable. Nevertheless, based on a list of programs/companies that provide safety programs and authors with research programs generated from the literature review and state-of-the-practice interviews, 21 candidate programs were identified. Employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs are defined as an ongoing organizational initiative designed to reduce the risk of an employee being in a road accident, reduce the severity of an injury if a collision occurs, or improve driving safety while driving for work. Based on the 21 candidate programs reviewed, employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs include one or more of the following: • Employer-based driver training programs. • Monitoring of systems using telematics. • A wide variety of organizational efforts to promote a favorable safety culture/climate including communication and reward systems, among other initiatives. Within the list of 21 candidate programs, the research team identified eight employer- based driver training programs. Researchers also identified two additional employer-based driver training programs. A preliminary taxonomic framework for driver training programs that comprised program features and characteristics was developed, and each of the 10 driver training programs was reviewed in reference to this taxonomy. Overall, there was considerable heterogeneity in the safety programs in terms of focal content, delivery methods (e.g., from traditional classroom training to a smartphone app that delivers micro-training modules), and cost, among others. Multiple programs incorporate technology in the delivery of content as well as pairing with telematic systems. There was very little evidence that any of the safety programs were based on any behavioral change theory. A review of eight professional driver safety-related programs of research did not reveal an evaluation of any formal off-the-shelf training programs. (A program of research is a series of studies on a related topic with common senior researchers.) Instead, many researchers examined

4 safety-related initiatives like safety communication or incentive systems. Many scholars have found positive relationships between safety climate/culture and driver behavior, suggesting that consistent with organizational climate theory and the broader research literature, safety climate/culture promotes safe behavior. Some scholars have also examined driver attitudes and shown relationships with various driving behaviors and outcomes. Most of this research has been nonexperimental and relied on cross-sectional surveys. Many of these studies are grounded in behavioral change theories as well as other psychological theories (e.g., organizational climate, goal setting, feedback, and accountability). MEASURES OF EFFECTIVENESS The identification of measures of employer-based behavioral traffic safety program effectiveness consisted of two phases. The first phase assembled a detailed summary (including measures of effectiveness) of 23 research articles and eight programs of research based on the literature review, as well as the employer interviews. From the literature review, studies from two sources were examined: (a) individual studies of specific safety programs, and (b) scholars’ programs of research. While the individual safety program studies provided details on programs and measures of effectiveness, the research programs are examinations of safety-related initiatives by the same researchers across multiple studies, over time, and across organizations/populations. The grouping into research programs had the potential to highlight the external validity or generalizability of the findings (consistency over time and across organizations/populations). The employer interviews were examined by industry grouping (transit, trucking, other hazardous industries, and safety organizations). While employers typically have no formal measures of safety program effectiveness per se, they do monitor driver safety through employee behavior and events. There were many examples of this type of measurement in the interviews. Common metrics to assess performance included number of crashes, number of near misses or incidents, and behavioral triggers. Some employers compared their driver performance with their peers’ performance (benchmarking), others used industry statistics, and some used both. The second phase identified specific employer-based traffic safety program outcomes and corresponding measures of effectiveness from these sources. Because employer-based traffic safety programs occur in the real world, where classic research designs are rare, the possible measures of effectiveness were presented in the context of safety program outcomes. WEB-BASED TOOL The culmination of the preceding tasks was the development of guidance for planning, implementing, and evaluating employer-based behavioral traffic safety programs (Task 6). That guidance features a web-based tool, BTSCRP WebResource 1, along with a guide that is presented in Section 6 of this document. The layout and flow of content in BTSCRP WebResource 1 is initially developed and communicated to web-page designers via a wireframe document. A wireframe is a basic, two- dimensional visual representation of a web-page layout. Wireframes typically depict only functionality, not the true style and visual elements of the final product. Thus, most wireframes are visually plain—grayscale instead of colored—incorporating placeholders for images and “Lorem Ipsum” for text. As basic as they are, wireframes provide more information than a traditional flow chart, so web-page designers use wireframes to communicate how they plan to arrange and prioritize features, and how they intend for users to interact with the website.

5 BTSCRP WebResource 1 itself incorporates theory, previous research, and lessons learned from practice, along with various planning aids such as an introduction to behavioral change theory, an overview of academic studies, an overview of measures of program effectiveness, and a logic model template to aid program development and implementation. In this way, the WebResource provides employers with an accessible and flexible means of learning about current practice and theory along with resources for planning, implementing, and evaluating an employer-based behavioral traffic safety program. It also provides researchers with access to detailed project materials and resources. The guide presents the layout and flow of content in BTSCRP WebResource 1. Each page is illustrated with a screenshot and accompanying text. Together, the guide and the WebResource provide employers with virtual step-by-step instructions for planning, implementing, and evaluating behavioral traffic safety programs.