Developing a simplified model for safety management system in African transport companies

The study compares framework conditions for safety and organisational safety management among bus drivers in Norway and Ghana, based on bus driver survey data in the two countries (n=285 and 281) and interview data (n=11 and n=19). An overarching purpose is to adapt the Norwegian Safety ladder for safety management to African bus companies. Multivariate analyses of the survey data indicate that Safety Ladder practices influence organisational safety culture, which influences aggressive driving style which in turn influence drivers’ accident involvement. Our study show, however, that the Ghanaian bus companies have few formal safety measures in place, and that they should start to work with safety commitment, and focusing on drivers’ driving style and seat belt use. We discuss, however, whether it is sufficient for the Ghanaian bus companies to focus on organisational safety management, given the framework conditions that are negative to safety. Bus drivers in Ghana experience far more challenging framework conditions for safety than the Norwegian bus drivers. The most important framework condition for bus drivers in Ghana is type of employer (commercial or institutional), which influence whether drivers have bonus wage arrangements (which lead to speeding, driving while tired), and which also influence rest rules, vehicle standard etc. The safety commitment of managers might not be sufficient, if the drivers need to maximize the bonus pay arrangement to earn their living. Thus, we also point to authorities’ responsibility to change these framework conditions. Despite the ambitious goal of adapting the Safey ladder for transport management to African transport companies, the focus of this paper is only on one African country: Ghana. It is an important issue for future research to examine these issues further in other African countries.