Spectra Energy is the recipient of the inaugural NETS Road Safety Achievement Award. The award was presented at NETS’ 9th annual STRENGTH IN NUMBERS® Fleet Safety Benchmark Conference in Chicago, Ill., October 14.
Kevin P. Wright, manager, corporate environment, health and safety, accepted the award on behalf of Spectra Energy, one of North America’s leading pipeline and midstream companies.
Motor vehicle crashes are consistently the leading cause of death in the workplace. The NETS Road Safety Achievement Award recognizes a member company for advancing the road safety of its employees, their families and the communities where employees live and work.
Spectra Energy received the award for its “Driven 2B Safe” program, implemented over a four-year period. Starting in 2011, with leadership support, the company provided resources and assembled a team that spanned the organization, including members from the communications, operations, health and safety, fleet, project management, human resources, and labor relations groups. Spectra Energy also benchmarked other NETS member companies, across industries, to identify areas for improvement and subsequent implementation.
“Driven 2B Safe” has three main components: Branding and organizational focus, training, and the use of telematics technology to provide drivers with immediate feedback following a high-risk driving act. Since the program’s implementation, the preventable collision rate has dropped 36 percent across the Spectra Energy organization, which manages a fleet of approximately 2,500 vehicles, most of which are light duty.
“Our singular objective throughout the process of implementing ‘Driven 2B Safe’ was, and continues to be, safety above all else. We want our employees to get home safely at the end of each day,” said Paul Rietdyk, vice president, engineering, construction and storage and transmission operations at Union Gas, a Spectra Energycompany. “During the program’s development phase, we had the invaluable opportunity to work with fleet safety professionals from other organizations. We identified a number of best practices used by other companies and applied them to our program. We wrapped these proven initiatives together in a way that integrated communications and change management with training and technology. Applying the best of what others do today has allowed us to be successful.”
“We were pleased to receive a field of nine very competitive submissions from NETS member companies, all advancing road safety within their respective organizations,” said Jack Hanley, NETS’ Executive Director. “Spectra Energy’s program stood out because it was a long-term project with significant leadership engagement that combined people, processes and technology. It was also an excellent demonstration of what can be accomplished when you look outside of your own organization to learn from others.”
