Posted By Steve Derby Does anyone have any ideas on how to get drivers to "buy into" good standards of driving and vehicle care? Somehow I've managed to end up with the responsibility of fleet care for 25 white van men. The vehicles are dirty inside and out, they drive like they are on F1 qualifying hot laps and they damage vehicles through careless parking manoeuvres in addition to the 4 RTCs so far this year. I've got training lined up, got all the sticks in place but I really need some carrots! I don't think "shallow" incentive schemes are going to work on this lot, need something a bit deeper maybe?

Posted By Ian G Hutchings Steve I think Manny's suggestion is excellent. You could also try 'ride withs', when a supervisor/manager does a rota of safety tours which include a trip with a driver. I would also recommend defensive driving training and an educational approach including the 'whys' of incident reporting and increasing risk to them and their families. You can also have rewards for miles without an incident; not necessarily monetary, but linked directly to appraisal and reward. When the stick does come out you can demonstrate plenty of positive and educational approaches first. Try and put more attention and reward on the safer drivers. Ian

Posted By G-man You could use the approach my company uses, and thats having a policy where the employee has to pay the first £150 - £250 excess for repairs. You would be amazingly suprised at how much more carefully people drive, and how much more thought is put in to where and how vehicles are parked and left.

Posted By Steve Derby Many thanks for the replies so far. The idea of pooling a repair budget and paying out the remainder is good, but the incentive would be lost if we spent the budget.Also, it onlt deals with damage. All our vehicles have Co Name and Office number in huge letters, I do receive complaints but sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint the offender. I like the idea of building up "safe miles" for incentives. Especially because if we call them "Careful miles" we can include accidents, convictions, complaints and vehicle appearance within the scheme. My directors are discussing my proposals for such a scheme later, so I might owe one of you a pint. Thx

Posted By Michelle Wilson We have a fleet of vans & LGVs. Drivers complete a daily vehicle check sheet and this is checked at random by a driver supervisor. Completion of the check sheet is required to gain the weekly bonus - and the checks include vehicle interiors. No check or poor standard of vehicle "housekeeping" costs them their bonus. Sometimes difficult to enforce with agency drivers, so not 100 percent effective. I like the idea of building up safe miles though, might just have to develop that theme as a proposal!

Posted By Kieran J Duignan Steve Since you headed this thread with reference to 'culture' and started your enquiry asking about employee 'buy in', here are 3 additional options 1. Arrange a focus group to gather the opinions on the issues, with an independent chartered occupational psychologist/safety practitioner as the FG moderator to control for bias. 2. Apply relevant ideas on driving ergonomics outlined at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/d...research/ergonomics/biw/ 3. Apply some of the well-honed principles of the psychology of influencing presented in 'Life's a Game. So fix the odds' by Phil Hesketh, a very upbeat communicator (www.heskethtalking.com) Sounds like a good opportunity for everyone involved. Would be good to know in 3/6 months what helps you most cost-effectively.

Posted By Brett Day Another thing to check, already mentioned here is the workload/time relationship. I looked at one company with lots of damage incidents and most of the fleet's drivers had points. When looked at the office were sending drivers out and working on the times generated by Multimap and Google maps, in reality these travel times were grossly over optimistic. If the same is happening here then realistic scheduling and route planning will make a big difference. As for the 'housekeeping' of vehicles, is time allowed during the working week to allow for this? Many company vehicle drivers are loath to give up thier free (personal) time to carry out what they see as work related vehicle maintenance (not a view I hold with, but one I come across).

Posted By ian I was a white van man for many years and to be honest i did not have any thought for the van as such but enjoyed nothing more than tearing round the country lanes causing mayhem and did i ever wash the van?? er i don't think so. The thing is with a van driver the licence is the same as a car so there is not much to lose really. I done my lgv1/2 tankers/adr and now i value my licence. I drove Europe/eastern block and it made me look at things slightly different as to the way they drive abroad. compared to UK well what can i say? If you have not drove Europe i suggest you try. I wouldn't change the experience for the world, it made me follow what a always wanted to do from a small boy. lgv tankers. Back to the subject though, you will just have to try to find people who want to DRIVE for a living not play for cash. some white van men turn out to be good drivers but some never learn!