All in all, a transportation safety manager is responsible for ensuring that drivers are following relevant laws and guidelines, and also examining and conducting regular risk assessments to reduce risk.

To become a transportation safety manager, you will need a bachelor’s degree in safety management. A transportation safety manager also must have several years of experience in this or a similar field. Along with this, you should have exceptional interpersonal as well as organisational skills. Since being a manager requires overseeing numerous activities and sometimes many employees.

A transport risk assessment is a process that seeks to identify health and safety hazards in connection with workplace transport. Such a risk assessment helps organisations understand how to take steps to protect their workplace, workers and business operations.

Undertaking a regular risk assessment of workplace transport systems helps employers and managers make the right decisions on how to mitigate any risks in their work environment and ensure everyone’s safety.

Workplace transport can cause serious injury. The most common type of work-related vehicle incidents are:

• Being hit by a moving vehicle
• Falling from a vehicle
• Being crushed, thrown or otherwise injured from a vehicle overturning
• Being injured during vehicle maintenance

Other fatal injuries occur during the following activities:

• Loading & unloading
• Deliveries & collections
• Maintenance & repair

Vehicle-contributed risk factors are risks that derive from the vehicle itself. Poor maintenance or inspection routines can lead to equipment failure, which is always a risk and can become a risk multiplier in other situations.

Some of the common examples of vehicle-contributed factors are:

• Poorly adjusted brakes
• Broken headlights
• Dirty windscreens
• Loose or broken seat belts
• Leaking fuel tank