Case Study - TNT Express

Profile

Company Name: TNT Express
Business Sector: Business to business express delivery service provider
Postal Address: Trinity Park, Solihull, West Midlands
Postcode: B37 7ES
Fleet Size Overall: Over 23,400 including contractor vehicles
HGV: 3,684 owned plus contractor vehicles
LGV: 6,114 owned plus contractor vehicles
Company Cars: 4,579 owned plus contractor vehicles
Motorcycles: 351 owned plus contractor vehicles
Private vehicles used for business purposes: Unknown

Company Overview

TNT’s Express division is one of the world’s leading business to business express delivery service providers. It delivers 4.4 million parcels, documents and pieces of freight a week (142,130 tonnes) to over 200 countries using its network of over 1,200 depots, hubs and sortation centres. The division operates over 23,400 road vehicles and 47 aircraft and has the biggest door-to-door air and road express delivery infrastructure in Europe.

TNT’s Express employs over 75,000 staff worldwide (as per the end of 2007). TNT Express provides businesses and consumers worldwide with an extensive range of services for their express delivery needs. Headquartered in the Netherlands, TNT offers efficient network infrastructures in Europe and Asia and is expanding operations worldwide to maximize its network performance.

Nature of Operation and Driving Activities

TNT has always focused on embedding a strong safety culture top down and bottom up. We recognise that managing health and safety risks cannot be treated in isolation from other company processes and must be seen therefore as an integral part of our activities. As such, managing health and safety is a primary responsibility of all TNT managers; from the most senior executives to first-line supervisors throughout the company. Specific responsibilities for health and safety are delegated company-wide using the cascade principle and these duties are formally recorded in job descriptions.

To support its global networks and local collection/delivery activities TNT Express operates a wide range of vehicle types and sizes within the 23,400 vehicles operating on behalf of the business.

14, 728 vehicles are owned by TNT Express but an additional 16,000 vehicles are supplied through contractors allowing TNT Express to be operationally flexible to seasonal demands while also in several countries following traditional practices of using local service providers.

TNT Express global networks is provided through a hub and spoke operation with its main air express sorting hub located in Liege, Belgium which branches out to:

  • Europe
    • 10 main European road hubs
    • regional domestic hubs and local depots
  • Asia network
    • south east Asia road network currently connects Singapore to Vietnam with plans to connect to china during 2008
    • China – Shanghai air hub connects to 56 domestic hubs and 1,250 depots
  • India
    • 24 main hubs
    • 180 regional hubs
  • Australia
    • Australia has a road, rail and air network which connects its 55 regional domestic hubs and local depots
    • New Zealand and Fiji domestic operations are supported with road networks which link to the wider regional international network
  • South America
    • road and air network being developed during 2008 utilising 104 locations in Brazil alone

Distribution of TNT Express customers consignments by road between our hubs and depots are undertaken by vehicles in excess of 7.5 tonne of which TNT Express own 3,684 and supplement these through utilisation of contracted services. These journeys can exceed 40 hrs depending on local conditions and distances with road risk increasing in proportion to the length of journey which may include difficult road conditions, both urban and rural driving and extremes of weather conditions.

Local pick up and delivery activities operate through local depots and branches and typically are undertaken by vehicles of less than 7.5 tonne and may include motor cycles 351 owned), 3 wheel vehicles and a range of van sizes (6,114 owned) . Driving times and distances are generally much lower but due to a large proportion of urban driving have a large vehicle / pedestrian interaction.

To support our day to day operations TNT Express also operates a fleet of company cars (4,579) as well as airport and depot service vehicles including shunters and tugs all of which are included within the road safety management practices due to there interaction with people and the potential risks.

Organisational Structure

 

TNT Express operates in over 200 countries of which it has fully owned and operational facilities within 64 countries comprising a net work of over 2500 offices, depots, hubs and sortation centres

For operational control and efficiency TNT Express is segregated into 8 business units. These business units may be chosen for there operational size, geographical location or function although all of these are supported by the 8th business unit which is the road and air network in addition to the divisional head office functions based in Amsterdam, Holland and Solihull, England

Work Related Road Safety Policy and Procedures

TNT Express introduced its divisional road safety management system in May 2006 which was cascaded to each of its business units identifying global minimum standards for road safety management.

Each business unit was responsible for translating and implementing the divisional road safety management system into each of their reporting countries and were actively supported by the divisional health and safety department.

2006 saw significant growth within TNT Express but even with this growth road traffic accidents and fatalities were reducing until 2007 saw a reverse in this trend with road traffic fatalities increasing throughout the year.

The majority of these fatalities occurred within our three major acquisitions in the emerging markets of India, China and South America. Operating in these markets with immature road infrastructures, exponential growth and less stringent government policies on road safety presents us with unique challenges and contributed significantly to the increase in road traffic fatalities, particularly with our contracted delivery service.

We were confident that accelerating the implementation of our existing health and safety programmes into the acquisition integration programmes alongside focused management attention would harness effective sustainable solutions, particularly on road safety as described above.

TNT recognised 2007 as a year in which it came to realise the consequence of operating on a much larger scale in emerging markets with little known infrastructures and safety challenges. 2008 would be the year in which TNT took the lead in lobbying in some of these geographical areas such as China, South America and India to improve legislation and infrastructure. TNT will focus relentlessly on a zero tolerance policy for the loss of human lives in respect of employees, contractors and third parties

The effect of these acquisitions and the differences imposed by operating in emerging markets prompted an overhaul of the divisional road safety management system to address these areas, as well as, another area which the first road safety management system had failed to have positive impacts on, that of contracted vehicles.

In reviewing its road safety TNT Express included best practice from within its own global operations but also reviewed best practice from a wide array of fleet operators and packaged and presented this as a road safety management system to support and enhance its overall health and safety system which is accredited to OHSAS18001 at country level within all its operations.

TNT Express sees and promotes road safety as an integral part of its health and safety philosophy but chose to produce a road safety management system separate from but supporting its health and safety systems to maintain a high profile level of importance for what is ultimately the businesses most significant risk.

The road safety management system builds on and promotes equally each of the 3 elements which the business has complete control over to effectively manage road safety.

The 3 elements which TNT Express considers as equal are:

  • driver management
  • road safety management
  • vehicle management

These are supported in turn with more specific standards and supporting guidance which can be seen below.

To ensure road safety receives a high profile within the business and to raise overall employee awareness, TNT Express launched its repackaged road safety management system accompanied by:

  • Director level road safety charters
  • Voluntary driver road safety charters
  • Voluntary contractor road safety charters
  • Road safety management system self assessment / gap analysis tool
  • Divisional road safety intranet page
  • TNT Express road safety posters
  • Library of posters and media accessible by all employees

This high profile and increased employee awareness will be sustained through the ongoing development and use of road safety posters and media commencing with a global road safety week through out its operations.

In addition TNT Express has developed a 1 day training event for its managers with responsibility for vehicles or drivers which it is piloting prior to introducing this as a requirement for its global infrastructure of managers.

TNT Express also appreciates a 4th element of road safety which is not within its road safety management system, but is equally important, that of road conditions, infrastructures and the actions of other road users. This area is of high importance to TNT Express as many of our accidents involve third parties and therefore active participation in action groups and both local and global organisations is promoted at all levels of the organisation and within each country.

At a divisional level TNT Express forges many global partnerships to influence road safety beyond those areas within its direct control and has strong links with the Global Road Safety Partnership as well as having signed up to the European Road Safety Charter.

To support this and to encourage improvements within road safety TNT Express operates a fully transparent approach and will readily share all elements of its road safety management system and materials with third parties, providing support where considered practical as sharing best practice is mutually beneficial to all road users who ultimately share a common road network with a great deal of daily interaction.

Work Related Road Safety Guidance for drivers

All persons driving on behalf of TNT Express are responsible for upholding its road safety values whilst ensuring they maintain the highest levels of road safety. TNT Expresses driver guidance is aimed at developing a positive road safety culture and promoting safe driving behaviour during and outside works hours.

Driver guidance includes:

  • Initial training and development programmes
  • Routine on-going periodic training, assessment and development programmes
  • Posters
  • Media
  • Video material
  • Driver handbooks

Specific examples of procedures

Auditing and review

TNT Express operates an auditing and review process of its road safety management system in line with that of its OHSAS18001, ISO9001, ISO14001, SA800, investors in people and wider general management principles with several levels of auditing and review performed.

Country and Business Unit level

  • Internal compliance audits
  • External compliance audits
  • Measurement, monitoring and review of key performance indicators
  • Safety improvement groups
  • Self assessment and gap analyses

Divisional level

  • Measurement, monitoring and review of fatal and serious road traffic accidents
  • Compliance audits of individual countries
    • random audit
    • triggered resulting from concerns or similar
  • TNT Express Managing Director telephone conference reporting of road traffic accident fatality investigations by Business unit managing directors
  • Corporate service audits

Group level

  • Independent audit by Price Waterhouse Cooper

Performance measures

Mandatory Divisional Reporting Requirements
TNT Express Blame worthy road traffic accidents Number of
Incident rate per vehicle
Fatalities
Non Blame worthy road traffic accidents Number of
Fatalities
Vehicles Average number used
Sub contractor Fatalities Number of
Optional local / regional and/or BU KPI’s
TNT Express Blame worthy road traffic accidents By vehicle type
By time of day
Non Blame worthy road traffic accidents By vehicle type
By time of day
Incident rate per vehicle
Vehicles Average number used by type
Number of miles covered
Number of hours driven
Sub contractors Mirror TNT Express KPIs

TNT Express operates mandatory reporting requirements to divisional head office for all fatal and serious accidents resulting from its global operations which are analysed monthly to identify trends and potential actions within the areas of:

  • driver category (own or contractor).
  • monthly significance.
  • time spread.
  • by country.
  • driver type (line haul / pick up and delivery).

These confirm many of the accepted facts including higher accident rates in the winter months with worsening road conditions and shorter days and during the early hours of the morning, but the review also identifies:

  • Higher accident rates during monsoon months in those countries affected.
  • Higher accident rates immediately following the circadian rhythms slowed state which coincides with morning rush hour (6 – 9 am) and mirrored during the end of day rush hour (4 – 6 pm) both periods coinciding with not only more vehicles using roads but also an increase in pedestrian and cyclist activity.
  • Linehaul drivers at greatest risk due to the acceptance of driving for excessive time periods in some countries leading to high levels of fatigue.
  • Contractors road traffic accident rates are higher than own driver.

Accident reduction

Excluding acquisitions made in 2007

2004 19 fatalities
2005 17 fatalities
2006 14 fatalities
2007 11 fatalities
2008 (1st 5 months) 4 fatalities

Financial and other benefits

TNT Express does not measure the financial impact of road traffic accidents as its primary reason for enhanced road safety performance is the moral benefits to society as a whole and feels that to proportion costs is inappropriate compared to the cost to human life and a families suffering. In addition to this the business as whole is already aware of the costs and business implications of accidents within an express delivery business and therefore it is considered unnecessary to identify costs.

Additional benefits which TNT Express sees from promoting a proactive road safety management approach is the wider influence its awareness raising activities have on employees and there families none work related driving.

TNT Express is a global transport company operating thousands of vehicles in local communities around the world and fully recognises the global challenge relating to road safety and the positive role as a business TNT Express can play to reduce risks.

Lessons learned

3 key lessons have been learnt by TNT Express since raising standards in road safety:

  1. Contractors are a key area to the TNT Express business and must be actively involved in and encouraged to adopt sound and practical road safety standards.
  2. Management globally need to be encouraged to accept that road safety management does not start and finish with the driver and his vehicle but that management practices can positively and negatively impact performance.
  3. Emerging markets provide different challenges to each other and to those of existing mature markets.

Current and future developments

  • Continue to focus on embedding a strong road safety culture.
  • Continue to sustain the momentum for road safety throughout the global operation.
  • Continue to raise awareness to and knowledge of good road safety throughout the global operations.
  • Continue to support the emerging markets in improving road safety and related areas which have an impact.
  • Develop a road safety academy of best practice in India and China.
  • Identify requirements for supporting the less mature operations in advancing road safety.
  • Roll out the divisional managing road safety training package.
  • Continue to participate in and search out new global and local action groups and organisations which can enhance both the businesses and others road safety.

Additional information

TNT Express will actively work in partnership with similar minded organisations that have an interest in road safety and will make available any of its material and media to support improvements within road safety.

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