Capstone: a fleet safety and journey management plan

This capstone brings the course together in a plan for an invented company. You will see how to assess the company's driving risks, set policies, plan journeys, prepare vehicles and drivers, monitor performance and respond to incidents. The company and all its numbers are invented for illustration, but the structure fits most small and medium fleets.

Tamarack Mechanical is an invented heating, ventilation and air conditioning service company based in Sudbury, Ontario. It has 32 technicians who drive company service vans and pickups, 6 supervisors and estimators who drive their own cars on business, and 2 delivery drivers in a straight truck with a gross vehicle weight above 4,500 kg. Technicians drive between customer sites in the city and to remote mines, camps and First Nations communities up to 300 km away, including on winter highways and some resource roads. Last year the company had 11 collisions, including one rollover on an icy highway that injured a technician, and dozens of minor backing incidents.

Step 1: Understand the risk

The plan starts with data and conversations. The fleet safety coordinator reviews last year's collisions, insurance claims, telematics data from the vans and maintenance records, and meets with technicians and supervisors to hear how their days really work. Several patterns emerge.

# Tamarack's baseline (invented data).
collisions, preventable, km = 11, 7, 1_420_000
injuries = 1
rate = collisions / (km / 1_000_000)
print(f"Baseline collision rate: {rate:.1f} per million km ({collisions / (km / 1.609 / 1_000_000):.1f} per million miles)")
print(f"Preventable: {preventable} of {collisions} ({preventable / collisions:.0%})")
target = rate * 0.6
print(f"Two-year target (40% reduction): {target:.1f} per million km")

Baseline collision rate: 7.7 per million km (12.5 per million miles)
Preventable: 7 of 11 (64%)
Two-year target (40% reduction): 4.6 per million km

Step 2: Leadership and policy

The owner signs a one-page fleet safety policy stating that no job is so urgent that it cannot be done safely, that drivers have authority to delay or cancel trips for weather or fatigue without penalty, and that managers are accountable for scheduling that allows safe driving. Detailed rules follow in a short driver handbook.

Step 3: Drivers and vehicles

Every driver's licence and driver abstract is checked at hiring and annually, with consent. The two truck drivers' records are kept as required for the company's CVOR, and they complete daily trip inspections under NSC Standard 13 schedules. Supervisors who drive their own cars provide proof of business-use insurance and confirm their vehicles are roadworthy and fitted with winter tires in season, and the company pays a mileage allowance that covers those costs.

Vans are fitted with racks and bulkheads to secure tools, backup cameras and telematics units. The maintenance schedule follows the manufacturer's intervals, with a fall winter-readiness service. Technicians use a phone app for daily circle checks and defect reports, and the shop acknowledges defects within one working day.

Step 4: Journey management

Journey management is the planning of trips to reduce risk before they start. For Tamarack, routine city trips need no special planning beyond the daily schedule. Remote and winter highway trips use a simple journey plan and risk score. The plan asks whether the trip is necessary or could be combined, sets the route and departure time, checks weather and road reports, sets check-in times, and decides whether conditions call for delay, an overnight stay or a second person.

# Journey risk score for an invented remote winter trip (illustrative scoring).
factors = {
    "distance_over_200km": 2,       # long trip
    "night_driving": 2,             # return after dark
    "winter_conditions": 3,         # snow forecast
    "resource_road_section": 2,
    "driver_awake_over_12h": 3,     # if returning same day
    "no_cell_coverage": 2,
}
trip = {"distance_over_200km": True, "night_driving": True, "winter_conditions": True,
        "resource_road_section": False, "driver_awake_over_12h": True, "no_cell_coverage": True}
score = sum(points for name, points in factors.items() if trip[name])
print(f"Journey risk score: {score}")
if score >= 10:
    print("High: supervisor approval needed; overnight stay or change of plan required")
elif score >= 6:
    print("Medium: journey plan with check-in times and winter kit")
else:
    print("Low: normal precautions")
# Same trip with an overnight stay (no long day, no night return)
trip.update({"night_driving": False, "driver_awake_over_12h": False})
print("With overnight stay:", sum(p for n, p in factors.items() if trip[n]))

Journey risk score: 12
High: supervisor approval needed; overnight stay or change of plan required
With overnight stay: 7

Step 5: Training and coaching

All drivers complete defensive driving awareness training, including this course's content, and a short practical session on backing and winter driving in the company's vehicles. New technicians ride with an experienced technician for their first remote trips. Supervisors are trained on scheduling, journey approval and coaching. Telematics data on harsh braking, speeding and phone use is reviewed weekly; the top issues are discussed in toolbox talks, and individual drivers get private coaching rather than public ranking.

Step 6: Incidents and learning

Every van carries a collision kit with a card listing the steps from lesson 10, a form and the reporting numbers. Drivers call their supervisor after any collision once the scene is safe. The coordinator reviews every collision and near miss, using the questions in lesson 10, and the safety committee looks at trends quarterly. Corrective actions are tracked to completion.

Step 7: Measuring and reviewing

Testing the plan: a scenario

A plan is only useful if it works on a real day. Tamarack tests it with a scenario: a technician is dispatched in January to an emergency furnace failure at a remote camp 250 km away. The forecast calls for snow in the afternoon. It is already 1 p.m., and the job will take three hours.

Making it last

Programs fade if they become paperwork. Tamarack keeps its plan alive by reviewing it every year, involving technicians in changes, recognizing safe driving records, and having the owner talk about driving safety at company meetings. When schedules and safety conflict, the policy says safety wins, and managers show they mean it.

Rolling out the plan

Tamarack rolls out the plan in stages over six months, so drivers are not overwhelmed and early lessons can shape later steps. The first month covers the policy, driver checks and the phone and dispatch changes. The second and third months add circle check apps, vehicle racks and backing training. Winter readiness and journey management start before the first snowfall. Telematics coaching begins once drivers understand what is collected and why. Each stage is explained at a company meeting, with time for questions and suggestions.

Costs and benefits

The plan costs money: training time, racks and cameras, winter tires, overnight stays and the coordinator's time. Tamarack's owner compares these costs with last year's collisions, which cost far more once repairs, deductibles, downtime, the injured technician's time off and higher insurance premiums were added up. Fewer collisions also mean fewer missed appointments and happier customers. Even without counting the human cost of injuries, a well-run fleet safety program usually pays for itself.

What success looks like

After two years, Tamarack hopes to see fewer collisions and no driving injuries, but it also looks for signs that the culture has changed: drivers delaying trips for weather without being asked, supervisors approving overnight stays without argument, near misses reported and discussed openly, and new technicians learning safe habits from experienced ones. Those signs show the plan has become the way the company works, rather than a document on a shelf.