A case study in road safety for The Northern Lighthouse Board
Why TTC?
Safeguarding high-risk drivers requires an expert in compliance, assessment and education
As the General Lighthouse Authority for the waters surrounding Scotland and the Isle of Man, the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) provides a vital safety service for mariners. It is responsible for the superintendence and management of 208 lighthouses and 174 buoys as well as providing radio aids to navigation (AtoN).
Its service makes a significant contribution to the prevention of accidents and incidents around the coastline, safeguarding not only lives and property, but also protecting our precious marine environment.
At the heart of its operation is a dedicated team of over 170 engineers, technicians, mariners, retained lightkeepers and support staff. Some of these employees perform their NLB role part-time, often alongside another occupation such as farming, fishing or emergency services, and can be required to combine air, sea and road travel, often on remote terrain and in perilous weather conditions.
In 2022, NLB recognised the need to go over-and-above in responsibly safeguarding its employees when on the road, and conducted a strict procurement process to find a suitable partner. As a result, NLB now embraces TTC’s licence checking, risk assessment and training services as a matter of course, protecting employees today whilst innovating solutions for the future.
“The relationship with TTC kick-started with the introduction of its pioneering 40-point Risk Assessment for every employee driving on behalf of NLB. This identified potential risky driving behaviour and knowledge gaps, enabling us to provide eLearning based on the needs of individual employees. We are fully committed to this approach with drivers repeating the assessment every 24 months.”
Trish Donaldson, Compliance Officer at The Northern Lighthouse Board
Compliance
When employees are required to drive for work, it adds a layer of complexity to compliance requirements. Do they hold a valid licence, does the vehicle have a current MOT and is adequate insurance in place? Businesses must ensure they do all they can to protect their employees and reduce risk, even if they are using their own private vehicle for work purposes.
Licence checking in particular is often a time-consuming task when completed manually, but crucial in determining if employees are legally allowed to drive on the UK’s roads. Working with TTC and its automated licence checking service, NLB has significantly improved efficiencies and regained almost three working weeks of time.
It has also been able to carry out checks on employees holding non-UK licences, which has previously been very difficult to do accurately.
37
work days saved in 2022
“In addition to ticking the compliance and risk assessment boxes, TTC’s training supports NLB drivers with relevant training courses. This provides a holistic approach to keeping our drivers safe at all times,”
Lynne Armstrong, Human Resources Manager at The Northern Lighthouse Board
End-to-end Risk Assessment and Training
In addition to driver licence and verification checks carried out for all 170 NLB drivers, it conducts bi-annual risk assessments via a thorough 40-point questionnaire.
If the risk assessment flags that an employee falls short of requirements, they are signposted to relevant eLearning courses to improve their driving skills, gain a greater understanding of the positive safety impact of
these skills and in turn, reduce risk.
Complementing TTC’s face-to-face training courses such as Essential Drivers and Vehicle Familiarisation, eLearning courses cover a wide range of topics and skills, but the most popular are Speed Recognition, Driver Distractions and Hazard Awareness.
Courses are also available to address Light Right Foot, Eyes Fit to Drive and Rear End Protection, among others.
In addition to driver training, line managers attend training workshops with TTC, to ensure they understand the importance of compliance and can accurately relay the benefits of risk reduction to drivers.
TTC also frequently shares safety and compliance information directly with drivers to underline the importance of reducing risk whilst driving.
“Continuum allows us to manage our entire driving community easily and quickly from a single online platform, ensuring real-time compliance with HSE legislation. Live data, visual dashboards, tasks and alerts provide accurate insight into driver compliance, building our own risk landscape which allows us to intervene with learning activities. In a nutshell, Continuum simultaneously reduces the driver risk and administration burden,”
Trish Donaldson, Compliance Officer at The Northern Lighthouse Board
Continuum for continuous driver management
Powered by TTC, Continuum is an end-to-end driver risk management tool, and the lynchpin for easier Driver Management. Everything NLB needs to monitor, manage and reduce driver risk is stored in one place, accessible via Continuum’s easy-to-navigate online dashboard.
Automated licence checks are conducted at regular intervals, whilst reporting and prompts to manage outstanding driver tasks, Risk Assessment and eLearning are all delivered for drivers via one access point.
NLB has integrated Continuum into the company’s own end-to-end approach, and the data delivered has proven invaluable. NLB can now drill down and identify trends to build a risk assessment picture so they can tackle emerging trends quickly, before they escalate. Weekly reminders provided by Continuum are also extremely valuable and increase efficiency as well as accuracy.
TTC and NLB’s partnership is driving positive change
NLB employee eLearning assessment scores have been an impressive 89%, above the TTC average benchmark score.
Drivers identified as having specialist needs are provided with dedicated workshop training tailored to their learning need.
TTC continually reviews and updates its training modules to ensure they meet driver and business needs and changing risks.
Since the 40-point Risk Assessment and training interventions were introduced for all drivers, no NLB driver has incurred any new points on their driving licence.
Drivers are actively encouraged to assess the risks to which they are exposed and authorised to abort a journey if they consider it ‘too risky’.
Training has contributed to a 37% year-on-year reduction in the number of driver incidents from 2022 to 2023.
The TTC Future
Working with TTC, NLB not only meets its statutory requirements but also radically reduces the chances of its employees being involved in dangerous incidents while on the move. Furthermore, it supports NLB as an employer of a diverse community of full and part time employees of varying ages, capabilities and nationalities.
