FLEETDRIVE
Affirming these concepts is an experiment conducted by Russell and his team from Driver Safety Australia. They tracked the postural sway and performance of an initial group of drivers and compared it to a second test sometime later. Though it might be significant for these drivers to adopt some“ muscle memory” from the first test, they performed worse on the second test.
The experiment’ s control group went through a training session with Driver Safety and performed better, with little deviation in lateral movement. Despite not performing as well as the experiment’ s group of expert drivers, the control group performed significantly better than the untrained group.
The Big Ones vs. The Little Ones
There’ s a misconception that the biggest risks in road safety are“ the big ones.” It’ s the“ little ones” we should watch for. The little ones are the scrapes and bumps when your vision is slightly obscured, or your foot was just a tad bit heavy on the gas for a split second. According to Russell, it’ s in how an organisation manages these small accidents that informs its responses to big accidents.
The Holistic Approach
A fleet driver’ s driving behaviour is largely informed by their company attitude towards safety. Instead of approaching driver safety training from a purely technical standpoint, a holistic perspective allows for more leeway and lessens both biological and organisational pressure.
Operating purely on business goals without considering the human factor of driving can put a driver at risk for more accidents, specifically smaller ones. Chasing deadlines push people to rush through a trip, speeding or panicking behind the wheel and increasing risk of both big and small accidents.
Behind the concept of safety is the concept of people. Road safety is not just about getting from point A to B in a timeframe with no incidents – it’ s also about creating a safe environment for an a broader community.
ISSUE 54 AUGUST 2025 / WWW. AFMA. ORG. AU 31