Arriva receives royal recognition for ground breaking safety initiative

Arriva's UK Bus division has been awarded the Prince MichaelInternational Road Safety Award in recognition of the company'sefforts to continually improve safety and driving standards.

Nomination for the award came from Dr Lisa Dorn, an expert inthe field of driver behaviour, based at Cranfield University. DrDorn has been instrumental in working with Arriva to develop a busdriving simulator, psychometric measures of bus driver behaviourand the design of a training programme designed to support Arriva'ssafety culture.

Dr Dorn stated she nominated the business because of thecommitment shown by Arriva in terms of time, money, and strategicsupport. It is hoped and expected that the company will begin tosee significant reductions in road traffic incidents as a result ofthe project.

Richard Bowler, director of finance at Arriva's UK Bus divisionsaid:

Arriva has worked very closely with CranfieldUniversity and representatives of the TGWU over the last threeyears on this project and are delighted to receive this prestigiousaward. We are grateful for this recognition of all the hard work wehave put into ensuring we continue to improve our safetyrecord.

Bus drivers can face difficult situations over whichthey have little control – for example heavily congested traffic –and by assessing the ways in which different personality typesreact to different circumstances we can devise training that helpsall our drivers to competently meet the increasing number of safetychallenges they face.

The Prince Michael Road safety Awards were set up in 1987 by HRHPrince Michael of Kent with the aim of highlighting the need forvigilance on the roads and to drive home the road safety message toall road users. Of the many submissions received by the charityeach year, only the very best are selected to win one of thecoveted Awards.

Dr Dorn is an Associate Fellow of the British PsychologicalSociety, a Chartered Psychologist and a member of the ParliamentaryAdvisory Council for Transport Safety and the InternationalAssociation of Applied Psychology: Traffic and TransportationPsychology Division.

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Notes to editors

• Arriva's bus driver simulator is based at the company's Luton offices and is made up of a replica driver's cab complete with steering wheel and controls combined with a six feet high circular screen on to which the road is projected. The 'driver' is given the same view as they would have in a real bus and can test their skills on very congested roads, react to situations such as children running out on the road, and get an idea of the challenges faced when taking a bus out in service.
• The Psychometric questionnaire was filled in by bus drivers from all depots, of all ages and backgrounds and with various levels of experience in bus driving.
• The following photograph of Richard Bowler of Arriva, Dr Lisa Dorn and Adrian Walsh, Director of the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards is available electronically from Kate Flint.