Susan Gray, Stakeholder Manager at CIRAS, asserts that intelligence from frontline staff can help prevent health and safety incidents – and confidential reporting can help inform coach and bus operators about safety risks in their business
When it comes to protecting the safety of staff and passengers, how much is too much? If we’re referring to injuries and fatalities, then surely even one is too many. ‘Target zero’ advocates argue that setting targets any higher than zero sends the message that hurting people is acceptable. Whether you agree with that or not, it’s less costly – in human, financial and reputational terms – to prevent an incident than deal with the aftermath. [wlm_nonmember][…]
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If we’re talking about safety intelligence then arguably there’s no such thing as ‘too much’ – the more you know, the better placed you are to manage risk and reduce incidents. National datasets for coach and bus safety are scarce. Transport for London (TfL) publishes data from all its operators to help evaluate safety performance, and the DVSA issues stats on safety defects, vehicle recalls and collision investigations. But what about a completely different source – the workforce?
There are around 120,000 people directly employed in the UK coach and bus industry today. Frontline staff are the ‘eyes and ears’ of the industry, out on routes and in depots. They’re well placed to spot unsafe behaviour and working conditions – no safety team can get that kind of coverage on its own. The key to turning this into safety intelligence is to empower everyone to report what they see without fear of repercussion.
Actively engaging staff to report safety concerns is a feature of a mature risk management culture. The Office of Road and Rail’s Risk Maturity Management Model (RM) sets out how a company can demonstrate excellence in risk management, for example by:
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- empowering staff to take responsibility for reporting safety concerns
- tapping into frontline staff knowledge and experience.
If this seems like a luxury you can’t afford in the face of tough performance expectations, remember the saying, “If you think health and safety is expensive, try having an accident!”
A bus operator in London told us recently that an avoidable incident led to £30,000 worth of damage to a bus.
If you accept that it’s better to know about all health and safety risks, then it’s critical that frontline staff can speak up. But what about the times when that’s not so easy? For example, few could muster the courage to report microsleeping while driving their bus. Confidential safety reporting can help by offering people a way to tell their employer what’s worrying them without revealing their identity. Fear of retribution and cynicism are just two reasons people give CIRAS for why they have chosen to report confidentially.
Intelligence gleaned confidentially may highlight different issues from those coming through internal reporting channels. Confidential reporting can help surface issues which can lead to improved workplace health and safety.
Visit www.ciras.org.uk/case-studies/case-studies-container/ratp-dev/ to see how a CIRAS report last year led to improved rest facilities for bus drivers in London.
In conclusion, if bus and coach operators want to be confident they are doing everything possible to protect the health and safety of workers and passengers alike – they should make sure they’re doing everything they can to tap into all their eyes and ears.
