MORR™ : An International Comparisons Review
This review aims to establish the current state of matters regarding occupational road risk from an international perspective. Therefore a number of countries have been selected with the aims of highlighting some statistics and developments in this area whether they are Government guidance documents or initiatives to raise the profile of this issue.
This international perspective on MORR might demonstrate the following:
- The political will to address this issue at national and international levels;
- Statistics which reveal that work-related road risk is the largest single cause of occupational accidents for many countries;
- That countries with good records in the management of occupational safety and health are now addressing areas of new or emerging risk such as work-related stress, MORR, etc.
- That many countries have National Road Safety Programs, and in looking for ways to meet set targets they have turned to work-related driving as a way of influencing overall road safety;
- That current legal cases have also contributed to highlighting this issue in various countries (this has been mostly related to road accidents caused by fatigue);
- That various countries have specific characteristics, which might result in different strategies and timescales for addressing MORR issues (e.g. some countries are more dependent on their road network, due to lack of alternative transportation, whilst other countries are more concerned about driving in the dark and in wintry conditions);
- Major companies are not tied by national boundaries and therefore if they are required by one country to address their occupational road risk, they are likely to spread their policy or programs for managing this risk to their other establishments in other countries;
- That there is a great deal of lobbying and influencing work on this issue at individual country levels (and whose work might benefit from more networking and co-ordination at an international level);
All this points to the fact that MORR issues cannot be ignored by individual countries if they want to maintain or improve their record on managing occupational health and safety matters. Secondly, it is at the international level that developments should be looking to, in terms of co-ordinating joint efforts and sharing lessons learnt for developing guidance, revising the law or ensuring enforcement.
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