Identifying driving hazards and assessing and managing risks are keys to crash and injury prevention. They’re also part of an employer’s responsibilities for driver health and safety. Learn how organizations of all sizes can use our tools to spot hazards their drivers face and then rate and reduce the risks.
Identifying hazards
Driving for work may be the most dangerous thing your employees do in their job, even if they’re only on the road occasionally. Before you can reduce driving-related risks, you need to understand what could contribute to drivers being injured. These are called hazards. And hazard identification is the first step in crash prevention.
What are hazards?
A road safety hazard is any potential source of driver or passenger injury, or vehicle damage. Speeding, distractions, slippery roads, poor visibility, and worn-out tires or windshield wipers are just a few examples.
Identifying hazards is part of an employer’s health and safety responsibilities (PDF 169KB). You need to identify the most common ones your drivers encounter. It’s best practice to also include less-common hazards, especially if they could result in serious injuries.
Identifying driving-related hazards
To get started, we recommend downloading our Inventory of Driving-Related Hazards (Excel 14KB). It lists many common hazards. You can modify the list to fit your workplace and the driving your employees do. Be sure to read the instructions on the first tab of the worksheet before beginning.
Effective hazard identification is a team effort. Involve your supervisors, managers, and employees who drive for work. They know the hazards they face and which ones concern them the most. They also may have good ideas on how to manage the risks.
Here are some ways to gather hazard information.
- Ask drivers what practices and conditions they think are dangerous.
- Go for a ride-along. Experience the hazards first-hand.
- Check vehicle inspection reports. What mechanical issues do you see or hear about?
- Review near miss reports and crash investigations. What caused or contributed to those events?
- Review vehicle owners’ manuals. Watch for “Caution” labels and “Hazard” symbols.
- Think about non-routine and high-risk driving circumstances.
- Talk with other employers in your industry. What are their biggest road safety challenges?
- Think of who else could be harmed. Passenger(s), other motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists could be at risk too.
Assessing risks
Once you’ve identified hazards for drivers, the next step is a risk assessment. It’s a requirement for employers. You need to estimate how much risk each hazard creates for drivers. Assessing risks also helps you set priorities.
What are risks?
Risk is the possibility or potential for loss. It’s the likelihood of personal injury, property damage, or another negative outcome if drivers are exposed to a hazard.
How to assess risks
You don’t need to be a health and safety expert to conduct a risk assessment. You can do it yourself if you’re confident you understand what’s involved. Involve drivers, supervisors, and any safety reps you have on staff.
We recommend organizations of all sizes use our RiskCheck online tool. It guides you step by step through an assessment and action plan for reducing risk.
RiskCheck uses a simple risk matrix to rate probability and severity to determine the overall risk. It also allows you to set priorities for actions to reduce risk.
Probability is the likelihood that a crash or another negative outcome will occur. You take into account how often employees are exposed to a hazard and what negative outcomes may result.
Severity is an assessment of how harmful the injuries or consequences could be. In a crash, for example, what injuries could a driver sustain and how much could it cost to repair damage and address other liabilities?
You can assign a rating of High, Medium, or Low based on the following suggested thresholds. They apply in many workplaces. Adjust them as needed for your circumstances, including your organization’s values and risk tolerances.
|
Rating
|
Probability of hazard
|
Severity of harm it may cause
|
| High |
- Frequent
- At least once a year in your organization
- Occurs often in similar circumstances (e.g. in another organization doing similar work)
- Greater than 50% chance of occurring
|
- Serious or disabling personal injury, permanent disability, or fatality
- Substantial cost to replace or repair damaged property
- Loss of business function for extended period, substantial consequences for organization
|
| Medium |
- Not frequent
- Less than once a year in your organization
- Has occurred in similar circumstances (e.g. in another organization doing similar work)
- 10% to 50% chance of occurring
|
- Injury requiring medical aid with or without lost time from work
- Moderate costs to replace or repair damaged property
- Loss of business function for short period, modest consequences for business
|
| Low |
- Unlikely
- Maybe once every 10 years
- Has never occurred but is possible
- Less than 10% chance of occurring
|
- No injury, or minor injury not requiring first aid
- Minimal costs to replace or repair damaged property
- Minor business interruption
|
Always address your highest risks first in your road safety plan. Be sure to take action to help reduce the risk of any hazard that could seriously injure a driver or work passenger.
Risk assessment examples
Here are a few examples of how organizations have applied a simple risk matrix.
The company’s drivers are on the road constantly, in all types of road, weather, and traffic conditions. The company’s risk assessment looked at its most common hazards.
| Hazard |
Probability |
Severity |
Risk level |
| Taxi won’t start due to battery failure |
High (happens at least once each year across fleet) |
Low (minor business delay and repair costs) |
Medium |
| Taxi collides with another vehicle |
High (happens at least once per year across fleet) |
Medium (time lost due to injuries and repair bill can be expensive) |
High |
| Taxi backs into pedestrian |
Medium (happened once before and other companies have experienced it) |
High (serious liability costs and pedestrian injuries) |
High |
As a result, the company identified collisions with vehicles and cars as high priorities for preventative actions.
Some drivers eat lunch on the road, thinking it will improve productivity. One day a driver damaged their van when they backed into a loading dock while eating a sandwich. The employer hired a contractor to fix their client’s loading dock, and had to repair its damaged business reputation and keep the client. The company did the following risk assessment:
| Hazard |
Probability |
Severity |
Priority |
| Driver distracted from driving duties when trying to eat lunch while driving |
High (has happened at least once in last year, and is predicted to occur more frequently) |
High (loss of vehicle use, $17,000 damage to customer’s loading dock, harm to reputation) |
High |
As a result, the company decided to make eliminating “driving lunches” a high priority.
In 2 years the company experienced 2 near misses when its driver encountered aggressive driving behaviours by another driver. The company thinks a crash would probably result in serious injuries to their employee and the patients they transport. They estimate it would cost about $30,000 to repair damaged vehicles. The company did the following risk assessment:
| Hazard |
Probability |
Severity
|
Priority
|
| Aggressive driving behaviours by another driver |
High (near misses have happened twice in last two years) |
Medium (loss of vehicle use, $30,000 damage to the vehicle) |
High |
As a result, the company decided that managing risks associated with passengers distracting their drivers was a high priority.
Risk assessment tools
In addition to RiskCheck, you can use some of our other resources.
Simple Risk Matrix Assessment Tool
Download our Simple Risk Matrix Assessment Tool (Excel 24KB)
The worksheet allows you to rank or score risks according to both probability and severity. It assigns colours to your results so you can quickly see the highest risks.
The worksheet has 2 tabs. One provides instructions and the other is the actual tool where you will enter your assessments.
Review each description in the tool and adjust the criteria to fit your workplace circumstances. For example, a large employer might score property damage of $25,000 as low severity while a small owner/operator may rate it as significant.
Review the video tutorial for this tool before using it.
You can also review our example of a risk assessment for a service business (PDF 180 KB) using this tool.
Download our Road Safety Risk Profile (PDF 393KB)
This fillable PDF asks you to rate risk factors related to the driver, trip, and vehicle. It takes only a few minutes to complete. When you’re done, it will show you the highest priority risks you need to address as well as links to resources that can help you deal with them.
Once your assessment is done, you have the information you need to start reducing driving risks for your organization.
Reducing driving risks
The most important step in risk management is finding ways to eliminate or reduce risks. You need to manage them so they don’t cause or contribute to crashes.
Hierarchy of controls
As you do your risk assessment you’ll create a list of driving-related hazards and rank them for severity. You then need to take action to help protect drivers from the hazards. Always start with the ones that create the highest risk.
There’s a certain order to follow when considering what action to take. It’s called the hierarchy of controls. It’s a system that lays out tiers of safety options according to how effective they are. Eliminating a hazard, for example, is always the best option. If that’s not possible, you then look to the next tier for ideas.
You’ll likely get the best results from combining options that fit under different tiers. You may, for example, mix engineering (install winter tires as soon as temperatures start dropping) and administrative controls (change driving schedules so driving occurs during daylight hours).
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is always the last option, not the first.
You may not be able to identify an option from all 5 tiers for each hazard.
Examples of hazard controls
Here are some examples of how the hierarchy of controls can be applied to road safety scenarios.
Hazard: Winter driving conditions
Scenario: An employee is scheduled to meet a client in a nearby city. When they booked the meeting the weather forecast was good but now a winter storm has rolled in. The forecast calls for freezing temperatures, high winds, and 10 cm of snow.
| Control |
Steps to reduce driving risk |
| Elimination |
- Have the meeting online or over the phone.
|
| Substitution |
|
| Engineering |
- Ensure the vehicle has good winter tires, electronic stability control, and superior all-wheel drive system.
|
| Administrative |
|
| PPE |
- Ensure the vehicle has an emergency kit (PDF 140KB) that includes winter survival resources.
|
Scenario: An employee is doing site visits at various locations. Their first visit took longer than planned. To make up for lost time and to get back on schedule, the employee drivers faster than the speed limit.
| Control |
Steps to reduce driving risk |
| Engineering |
- Equip vehicles with GPS devices that monitor speed.
|
| Administrative |
- Schedule fewer site visits in a shift so the driver won’t feel rushed.
- Schedule a supervisor to do some site visits to reduce workload.
- Have supervisors remind staff that speeding is never acceptable. Empower supervisors to accept that some work might not get done.
- Have drivers complete training on the risk of speeding.
- Review safe driving policies with employees.
- Review the discipline system for violating safe driving policies with employees.
- Complete a trip plan to map the safest route.
|
| PPE |
- PPE won’t prevent speeding.
|
Scenario: An employee is scheduled to meet with a client across town. They check the weather and see that it’s overcast with a chance of fog. The drive starts out with full visibility, but soon the fog rolls in and the driver can barely see in front of the vehicle.
| Control |
Steps to reduce driving risk |
| Elimination |
- Hold the meeting online or over the phone.
|
| Substitution |
- Reschedule an in-person meeting to another day.
|
| Engineering |
- Choose the most visible vehicles (bright colours, headlights, taillights, reflectors).
- Choose a vehicle with fog lights.
- Clean the inside and outside of the windshield as part of the pre-trip inspection.
|
| Administrative |
- Give drivers safety guidelines for deciding when and how to suspend driving until conditions are better.
- Create a trip plan with an alternate route that either avoids the fog or has lane and roadside markers that enhance visibility during light fog.
- Have safe work procedures for driving in foggy conditions.
- Train for driving in foggy conditions.
- Hold tailgate meetings to discuss lane positioning, adjusting following distance, speed selection, etc.
|
| PPE |
- PPE alone won’t prevent a crash but having good driving glasses can help the driver see better during modestly foggy conditions.
|
Hazard: Driver unfamiliar with vehicle
Scenario: Bus Company just took delivery of its first LE5000 low-emission bus. The manufacturer says that many of the features on the LE5000 are the same as on the older buses the company operates but notes there are several important differences. The company assigns the vehicle to a senior employee with experience driving the older buses.
| Control |
Steps to reduce driving risk |
| Elimination |
- Don’t allow anyone to operate the vehicle until they have completed an orientation and understand the procedures involved.
|
| Substitution |
- Have drivers first practice driving the new vehicle on a closed course with no passengers.
|
| Administrative |
- Make sure drivers are familiar with on-board systems and how to operate them properly.
- Create a policy to ensure that all new vehicles come with adequate training and documentation.
- Create a policy and procedure outlining the level of experience a driver must have to operate each type of vehicle.
|
| PPE |
- Don’t rely on PPE alone. It won’t prevent a crash.
|
Hazard: Distracted driving
Scenario: A field supervisor visits various job sites. They drive multiple times each day. This week, 2 new job sites are being set up. The supervisor expects to have long days with little time for breaks because of the extra work.
| Control |
Steps to reduce driving risk |
| Elimination |
- Have supervisors use remote/virtual site visits.
|
| Substitution |
- Split up the site visits between multiple supervisors or schedule fewer site visits per day.
|
| Administrative |
- Ensure the vehicle cab is clean and free of distractions as part of the pre-trip inspection.
- Create a trip plan that minimizes the amount of driving required. Choose routes that are the least hazardous and have few long stretches of open road to prevent fatigue.
- Implement a check-in system.
|
RiskCheck
You can use our RiskCheck online tool to complete comprehensive and regular road safety risk assessments. It gives you an inventory of driving-related hazards that you can customize for your workplace. Then it helps you do a basic risk assessment process to rank risks and set your priorities.
RiskCheck also suggests strategies you can use to address the risks and resources that can help you reduce and manage them. The tool helps you assemble an action plan, assign responsibilities, and track progress.
Using RiskCheck
To get started, open RiskCheck to register. As you use the tool, you can save, print, and share your plan. You can return whenever you like to review and update it.
Watch our RiskCheck tutorial video for more information.
START RISKCHECK
Resources
Tool
RiskCheck is a comprehensive online tool that helps you complete regular road safety risk assessments. Use it to identify hazards, rate risk, set priorities, and take actions to help keep drivers safe.
Video
Our RiskCheck online tool lets you create road safety risk assessments. Review this tutorial to learn how to use and customize RiskCheck for your organization.
Form
Many things are potential sources of injury to drivers, passengers, and other road users. Use this inventory to help identify hazards your drivers may encounter.
Tool
Employers are required to identify driving-related hazards and rate the risk when employees drive for work. Use this Excel spreadsheet to do your assessment and set priorities.
Tool
Of all the hazards your drivers face, the ones carrying the highest risks need to be addressed first. Use this tool to identify your safety priorities.
Online Course
Learn basic risk assessment concepts and how our tools and resources can help reduce the risks your employees face when they drive for work.
Online Course
See how the Hierarchy of Controls applies to road safety hazards and explore some of the most effective actions to prevent driver exposure.
Tip Sheet
Taxis and ride-hailing services can be a quick and cost-effective way for employees to travel. Review this tip sheet with them to help keep them stay safe during the ride.
