Eco driving as a road safety measure: Before and after study of three companies

Abstract

This study reports the results of a natural before and after study of economic driving and use of fleet management system recording driving style as a road safety measure. The study includes three companies studied on three occasions, in: 1) 2013, 2) 2018 and 3) 2020. Surveys in all the companies were conducted in 2013 and 2018, and interviews were conducted at all three time points. Two of the companies (Company B and C) started working actively with fleet management system as a measure for economic driving between measurement time points 1 and 2. The third company had such a measure in place before time point 1 (Company A). Company A is therefore used as a “control company”. The study indicates that measures for economic driving in general and fleet management systems in particular have a good effect on road safety and economy. This applies to fleet management systems focusing on aspects of economic and safe driving. The accident risk in Company B and C decreased significantly in the post-measurement in 2018, and the safety culture improved. The interview data supports the conclusion of lower accident risk. The discussion indicates that these results cannot be explained by referring to other safety measures during the period, changes in framework conditions, demographic changes in the samples, or a decrease in the risk of property damage accidents with heavy goods vehicles during the study period. However, it is concluded that implementing safety management systems have better effect on road safety than fleet management systems, because Company A, which has the former, has a higher level of road safety than the other two companies.