It’s likely that you may have certain big employers
operating in your area, and we suggested developing
a relationship with them to allow you to engage and
re-engage with their workforce over a period of time.
They may want to be known as a responsible employer,
or have certain obligations to provide training, or their
drivers may have a reputation for phone use that they
need to shake off. Whatever the reason, working with
big employers ‘upstream’ is a good way of influencing
the behaviour of large numbers of people and is more
efficient than continually picking-off employees at
ground level.
If there is a systemic issue to blame - for example
that delivery schedules make drivers feel they have
to multitask, or that relies on drivers taking orders
as they drive - then we are unlikely to address
the problem of mobile use by picking-off drivers
repeatedly at the bottom end. There are a number
1
50
of schemes that employers can sign up to, and be
encouraged to sign up to, to help them to help their
drivers to drive more safely (see the pages on Van
Excellence (p56) and Driving for Better Business
(p55)) and which bring benefits to the company too.
The ‘Gig’ Economy
There are particular challenges posed by workers in
the growing sector of ‘lifestyle’ couriers and workers
(fast food and parcel delivery drivers and riders). These
drivers are not technically ‘employed’ by companies,
so don’t have workers rights or (often) any training.
But their work is often controlled via Apps, and they
are rated on the speed at which they respond to jobs.
We might expect that this category of driver might
start to appear in our distracted driving statistics.
More information can be found via the PACTS report
referenced below. 1
Christie, N., Ward, H. and Helman, S., 2017. The changing nature of driving for work and questions for safety policy and practice. PACTS: London