11 Feb Victorian roads minister launches driver safety award in partnership with Optix
Victorian Minister for Roads, Road Safety and the TAC Jaala Pulford has launched a new recognition program for the transport industry that acknowledges and rewards heavy vehicle operators and drivers that demonstrate best-practice safety in the course of their duties.
The program – to be known as VTA Driver Salute – is sponsored by leading truck tyre manufacturer and retailer Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres, and is powered by Optix, a driver behaviour management company that uses video technology to help operators and drivers change behaviour and identify risk.
Under the Driver Salute program, Victorian-based transport operators that deploy Optix video technology and telematics in their fleets can submit in-cabin footage or profiles of drivers demonstrating sustained best-practice safety behaviour in the course of their duties.
Eligibility for the award extends to entrants that have been assessed by Optix’s DriveCam solution as having the lowest risk score over the previous 6-12 months, entrants who, over a given period, have achieved the largest risk decrease as assessed by the DriveCam technology, and entrants who can clearly demonstrate having a long term low risk driving record using alternative auditable evidence.
The submissions will be reviewed by an independent panel of judges from the VTA, Optix, Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres, and the NHVR, with winners announced on a bi-monthly basis. These winners will be in the running for the annual Driver Salute major award, to be presented at the end of the year.
VTA CEO Peter Anderson said: “We know that for every incident involving a truck there are dozens of examples of professional heavy vehicle drivers that live and breathe safety every second they are behind the wheel and on the job. These are the drivers and their stories that Driver Salute aims to unearth so that we can promote the safety culture that operators enshrine within their organisations every day.”
Victorian Minister for Roads, Road Safety and the TAC said: “Uneventful and totally professional approaches to moving extremely heavy loads at high speed, while safely interacting with other vehicles, is something that we should salute and something we should celebrate. An initiative like Driver Salute, that simply recognises a deep and enduring commitment to being safe and aware 100 per cent of the time to really high professional standards, is extremely worthwhile.”
Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres General Manager, Commercial Tyres, Anthony Crawford said: “Being an industry leader in tyres and technology is very important to Goodyear and Dunlop Tyres so we are very excited to be part of a program that acknowledges and rewards heavy vehicle operators and drivers who demonstrate best practice safety in our industry.”
Optix Chief Operating Officer Owen Neochi said: “Our mission at Optix is to help get Australians home safely, so we feel that recognising drivers’ who have helped us to achieve that mission is of the utmost importance. We hope recognising and promoting these positive outcomes will encourage more drivers and businesses to implement risk management strategies that will keep drivers and wider community safe on our roads.”
To nominate a driver visit www.syn03he.syd5.hostyourservices.net/~optixcom/driver-salute-award/