Dubbo City Council’s Safe Driving Policy was rewarded for Excellence in Occupational Health and Safety by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia at its awards evening last month.
The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia hosts the awards every year to recognise excellence in innovation, development and management of Local Government and public works projects.
Dubbo City Council took out the award for its Safe Driving Policy which builds awareness of safe driving and operating procedures amongst staff and volunteers. Council was the outright winner in the Occupational Health and Safety Category ahead of competition from metropolitan and regional councils.
Fleet Services Manager, Steve Colliver, said the Safe Driving Policy was awarded because its implementation significantly reduced the number of driver at-fault claims in Council’s fleet.
Mr Colliver said the policy is a model of best practice to large organisations when educating staff in road safety. “The policy’s impact was immediate,” Mr Colliver said. “In 2006/2007, heavy vehicle driver at-fault claims reduced from 100% to 86% and light vehicle driver atfault claims decreased from 82% to 63%.”
A key element of the policy was the dialogue between the Road Safety Officer, Manager of Fleet Services and the Safety Systems Coordinator. The policy has encouraged regular meetings between these managers and an increased involvement of the Road Safety Officer in incident reporting and staff education processes.
“As designers of the policy, we were committed to producing an active document, not a stand-alone policy. It is a pro-active approach to addressing safe driving amongst council’s staff,” Mr Colliver said.
Road Safety Officer, Kristine Long, said an E-education process encourages best practice by keeping staff up-to-date with changes to road safety requirements. The innovative email activities are designed to inform Local and State Government staff of any issues related to the Safe Driving Policy.
“Each week I send out an email with road safety information and questionnaires designed to test everybody’s knowledge of the road rules,” Ms Long said.
“It is important for everybody to keep their road knowledge current, particularly when new rules are introduced,” Ms Long said. “This is one of the reasons this policy is getting attention from other divisions of Government – it’s simple and it works!”
MEDIA CONTACT: Road Safety Officer Kristine Long on 0417 667 984 or Fleet Services Manager, Steve Colliver on 0407 328 796.