Risk assessment in work-related fleet driving settings: can self-report questionnaires be used to predict crash involvement?

Fleet and work related motor vehicle crashes represent a substantial physical, emotional and financial cost to the community. Given this burden, researchers are directing increasing focus towards investigating the attitudes and behaviours of fleet motorists’, as well as determining the value of such self-reported data to predict crash involvement and general aberrant driving behaviours. This paper reports on a study examining the predictive utility of predominant self-report questionnaires to identify individuals involved in work-related crashes within an Australian organisational fleet setting (N = 4195). The Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ), Driver Attitude Questionnaire (DAQ) and Safety Climate Questionnaire (SCQ) were distributed through the company’s internal mail system to employees who volunteered to participate in the study. Univariate analyses identified a possible fleet “speeding culture”, as drivers were most likely to report engaging in speeding behaviours and also believed that speeding was more acceptable compared to drink driving, following too closely or engaging in risky overtaking manoeuvres. However, multivariate analyses implemented to determine factors associated with crash involvement revealed that increased work pressure as well as driving mistakes (i.e., errors) were predictive of crashes, even after controlling for exposure to the road (i.e., kilometres driven per year). This paper further outlines the major findings of the study and highlights the implications and difficulties associated with utilising driver behaviour measurement tools within organisational fleet settings. For example, many scales are increasingly becoming antiquated as contemporary issues that influence fleet drivers’ performance are not being included in assessment scales