Publishing an Annual Safety Report Is Essential. Here’s What to Include

HopSkipDrive publishes an annual safety report detailing its safety investments and data. We do this to hold ourselves accountable, be transparent — our report is published on our site for anyone to read — and hold the industry to a high standard. We are proud of our safety methodology and statistics, and more than that, we want to encourage others to be open about theirs.

Here are reasons for organizations to publish open safety reports and suggestions for what to publish in a safety report.

Why Publish a Report?

It is crucial for companies in the school transportation space — and transportation at large —  to share their safety statistics.

Publishing safety data:

• Provides transparency to your partners, parents, and caregivers.
• Lets anyone working with you make an informed decision, whether they are contracting with a vendor or putting their child on a bus or van.
• Shows the public how safe school transportation truly is.

In addition, safety reports help hold your organization accountable to safety investments and data-driven improvement. In fact, they hold the entire industry accountable, setting the bar high for everyone.

Below are some recommendations for chapters to include, as well as how to promote the report to the public.

What to Include

1.Safety policies, technology, and methodology.
It is essential to reveal how your operation maintains a safety culture, from the thought leadership on safety, who is on your Safety Advisory Board, safety processes, and safety technology.

HopSkipDrive is transparent about its Safe Ride Support system, including the use of telematics to help proactively solve issues, record events of risky driving behavior, and the ability to offer CareDrivers weekly feedback on driving behavior. We share our CareDriver criteria, communication workflow, a look into our technology, and the members of our Safety Advisory Board.

We do this not to market ourselves, but to share what we know and do with our partners, potential partners, and others in the industry. These reports hold us accountable to our safety philosophy of being proactive, innovative, and relentless; it ensures we do what we espouse openly.

How can your operation hold itself accountable by being transparent about safety? How can you put out your own industry call to action by sharing what you do?

2. Safety investments made over the year.
Share your safety investments in your annual report. Innovation is crucial to safety; what was considered safe even a few years ago doesn’t quite cut it anymore.

Let schools, districts, and parents/caregivers know about the innovations you have made over the year and policies you have decided to change. It’s a great way to acknowledge what you have done and be open about what’s happening in the safety sector of your organization.

For instance, our report details the COVID-Safe Ride Standards we implemented in 2020, including features such as plastic dividers required between front and back seats, and technology built into the app to provide reminders and confirmations of health and sanitization.

3. Safety metrics.
Include tangible safety data in your safety report. The report is not just about what you do internally, but the results you have driven. Compare your metrics to industry or national benchmarks.

We can track many of these metrics due to telematics, such as device use while driving, events of risky driving behavior, etc. The rest is due to the hard work of our Safety and Trust team.

When including these metrics, ensure your audience knows exactly what constitutes a critical versus non-critical safety event. (We provide a list of what is considered critical and non-critical for better understanding.)

Report on:

1.            Number of critical safety incidents (if any).

2.            Number of non-critical safety incidents — be thorough.

3.            Collision rates, including accident fault.

4.            Device use while driving. (It is now the number-one cause of accidents, so a must-include.)

5.            Driver safety rating if applicable.

4. Traffic metrics.
For the HopSkipDrive 2020 Safety Report, we examined data collected in 2020, in which a total of 3 million safe miles were driven by CareDrivers across 15 markets in eight states and Washington, D.C.

During 2020, no rides ended with a critical safety issue. The vast majority of rides — 99.72% — ended without any kind of safety-related incident. Only 0.02% of rides experienced a traffic collision, 0.001% of rides with a collision were considered major.

HopSkipDrive CareDrivers display significantly less risky behaviors while behind the wheel, with higher safety scores than the general driving public. Although device use while driving is the current number-one cause of accidents, CareDrivers use their phones while driving eight times less frequently than the average U.S. driver.

HopSkipDrive is proud of our safety record and investments and we’re proud to publish our Safety Report for the public. Hopefully you, too, are proud of your safety record and want to share it with the world. Let’s hold the industry and ourselves accountable together — we’re excited to read what your organization has to say about safety.

Read the full HopSkipDrive Safety Report.

Aylin Cook is the director of content for HopSkipDrive.