A Risk-Based Approach to Driving and Journey Management for Land Transport Contractors

Abstract

Despite significant efforts to improve safety, driving continues to be the work activity that poses the highest risk to personnel in relation to injuries and fatalities. Data collected by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers indicates that contractor activities contribute to more than two-thirds of all driving activities in the upstream oil and gas industry. Therefore, it is essential to focus on improving the effectiveness of land transport contractor driving safety management. The conventional way that contractor driving safety is managed is to apply the company's own driving standard. In this contracting mode, every contractor, whenever they work for a particular company, is required to follow all the safety requirements stated in the company's standard. Although this may seem to be simple, the reality could be quite different, particularly for an organization that uses many contractors and operates globally. Managing contractor driving safety can be a complex matter when the number and diversity of the land transport contractors is considered. The complexity increases as the size and scope of the company's operations grows and when the land transport contractors have various levels of maturity in their driving safety programs. For the land transport contractor, difficulties can arise when working for several customers who have different contractual requirements, which all have to be met. To address these challenges, an oilfield services company has developed a risk-based driving safety management procedure specifically for land transport contractors. The procedure is based on the risk of the driving environment, the type of load and the maturity of the land transport contractors’ own driving safety programs. This paper presents the oilfield services company's risk-based approach for land transport contractor's driving and journey-management. It describes how the approach has enabled the organization to improve the effectiveness of managing land transport contractors’ driving safety in more than 85 countries.