Safety Culture among Transport Companies in Ethiopia: Are They Ready for Emerging Fleet Technologies?

Ehitayhu Hagos, Tom Brijs, Kris Brijs, Geert Wets and Bikila Teklu ()
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Ehitayhu Hagos: Transportation Research Institute (IMOB), UHasselt, Agoralaan, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
Tom Brijs: Transportation Research Institute (IMOB), UHasselt, Agoralaan, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
Kris Brijs: Transportation Research Institute (IMOB), UHasselt, Agoralaan, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
Geert Wets: Transportation Research Institute (IMOB), UHasselt, Agoralaan, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
Bikila Teklu: Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1000, Ethiopia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: The safety culture and safety climate of transport companies have a significant impact on fleet safety outcomes. Ample research shows that transport companies with a strong safety culture also show lower crash statistics. In spite of modern technologies that help with having a safer fleet, it is difficult to achieve a safer fleet without a proactive safety culture and climate. In Ethiopia, it is assumed that most transport companies have failed to create a distinguishable safety climate in their fleet safety administration and that their heavy vehicle drivers have a poor safety culture. These could be important factors contributing to a higher rate of road traffic crashes involving heavy vehicles. This study aims to assess the existing safety culture among a sample of transport companies in Ethiopia and identify suitable intervention methods to improve the safety culture. Moreover, the study sought to identify the readiness of the transport companies to apply modern technology in their fleets by examining their safety culture and safety climate. In total, 10 fleet managers and 174 heavy vehicle drivers participated in the fleet safety audit survey. A descriptive analysis and a detailed fleet safety audit score were calculated. Based on the scale scoring, ten companies score below best practices, one scores well below best practices, and only one company meets the criteria to be considered achieving best practices. The results from this study show that the safety culture and safety climate in most transport companies are quite limited. In addition, most transport companies implement similar safety measures, including inconsistent driver training and annual maintenance.

Keywords: safety culture; safety climate; transport companies; heavy vehicle drivers; fleet managers; fleet management; fleet technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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