What is the National Road Safety Partnership Program?

The National Road Safety Partnership Program (NRSPP) offers a collaborative network for Australian organisations to build and implement effective road safety strategies in the workplace.

The program offers organisations the resources to improve road safety that best fit their individual operations and, at the same time, improve business productivity through less time and money lost through safety incidents.

The program is not a prescriptive approach but aims to complement existing safety legislation  by providing access to a ‘knowledge bank’ from a diverse network of organisations to given them the resources to implement their own initiatives. The tools will help make the business case for organisations shifting their safety focus from ‘having’ to safety to secure a contract to ‘wanting’ to because it is simply good business.

Find out more about current activities. 

Objectives

1. Lead and empower Australian organisations to adopt workplace road safety initiatives, by promoting evidence based information, tools, webinars and resources.
2. Convene collaborations between partners, industry and researchers to deliver workplace road safety and social innovations throughout Australia.
3. Promote and recognise innovative approaches to reducing workplace road trauma.
4. Grow the NRSPP’s partnership base by 20% more than 2022, and strengthen linkages with existing partners
5. Implement good practice approaches to the governance of the NRSPP, which meet the needs of its partners and the sustainabillity of the program.
6. Contribute to the delivery of the National Road Safety Strategy.
7. Fostering a financially sustainable program that continually delivers value through leveraging funding sources and exploring evidence-based road safety solutions and social innovations that align with NRSPP’s direction.
8. Be a strong voice on behalf of partners/members and the common interests of Australian communities relating to evidence-based workplace road safety and trauma.

Our Values

• Integrity
• Trust
• Collaboration
• Learning

Program Aims

The NRSPP aims to help Australian organisations develop a positive road safety culture and, in turn, become an example for others to enhance road safety nationally.

This is achieved by building and sharing knowledge of effective strategies to reduce road-related trauma, and to foster national networks and collaboration for the benefit of improving road safety.

Background

A number of organisations within Australia and internationally have introduced road safety initiatives which result in a safer workforce, and in turn, a safer community. The returns are often also realised in other ways such as customer loyalty, decreased operating costs, a more skilled workforce, overall reduction in corporate risk, and enhanced brand recognition.

In 2011, the National Transport Commission (NTC) began to engage with the Australian business sector about developing a collaborative program which would encourage more businesses to introduce these types of initiatives. The aim was to highlight the role that business sector –  not only the general community and governments – can play in contributing to the National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 objective to reduce Australian road deaths and injuries by 30 per cent by 2020.

This consultation process revealed a desire from Australian businesses for a national collaborative program on road safety that draws on the strengths of existing programs and initiatives, whilst encouraging better practice, innovation and shared learning.

A Steering Committee to guide the development of the program was established in June 2012, involving some of Australia’s leading businesses.  The Steering Committee was heavily involved in the development of a strategy document to underpin the program which was released by the NTC in June 2013.

Program Launch

The NRSPP was launched 5 May as part of the Decade of Action for Road Safety Policy and Donor Forum 2014 by Prince Michael of Kent, Patron for The Commission for Global Road Safety. The forum was a high profile forum which brought together international and domestic speakers to discuss the policy debate surrounding road safety in the Asia Pacific region, outline the issues and suggest possible solutions. Attention was focussed on the road safety problems in low and middle income countries where road trauma is increasing dramatically as these countries experience rapid motorisation.

The program was initially managed by ARRB following its launch in 2014 with funding from NSW Centre for Road Safety, NSW Motor Accident Authority, the National Transport Commission, the South Australian Motor Accident Commission, VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC).

Additional Funders

Funding expanded to include the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), Queensland TMR and Western Australian Road Safety Commission.

Host of the NRSPP

Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) commenced hosting the 1 August 2020. The program formerly started its transition from February when the Program Director shifted to Monash University to assist with the smooth transfer. A huge benefit for NRSPP is its ability to be able to draw on the vast resources of Monash University to help expand the evidence based resources with the program’s knowledge centre. As an example, NRSPP in collaboration with MUARC developed its first two organisational campaigns on driver distraction released in May and aggressive driving released October. The NRSPP has also formed several consortiums and collaborative projects with MUARC and industry in its first year, for example Austroads Suicide in Road Transport Project and Heavy Vehicle Driver Competency.

Past Hosts of NRSPP

The inaugural host of NRSPP was the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) from its launch on 5 May 2014 to the transfer to MUARC. In 2019, ARRB made the decision it no longer wished to host the program and it went for expressions of interest which saw it transfer for MUARC. The NRSPP SC acknowledges ARRB in helping assist in establishing the foundations for the program.