With billions of dollars’ worth of assets and the lives of employee drivers (and those they share the road with) on the line every day, safety must always be a top priority in fleet operations. For professionals ready to kick safety up a notch in their organizations, Bobit Business Media (BBM) will be starting off the summer with a lineup guaranteed to add value to fleets of all sizes and professionals, both seasoned and brand-new.

Now in its second year, BBM’s 2013 Fleet Safety Conference will be addressing the top safety issues impacting the industry. The only conference designed specifically for fleet and risk managers that offers targeted education on fleet safety, this year’s event is set for June 25-27, 2013, and will once again be located at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg, Ill.

Maintaining the Momentum

For 2013, the Fleet Safety Conference agenda builds on the success of last year, with a strong lineup designed to target the needs of attendees and provide strategies to help improve safety.

Adding an extra day to provide even more value, the three-day conference starts at 4 p.m. on June 25. Attendees will have a chance to hear how Abbott, one of Automotive Fleet’s Top 300 Commercial Fleets, successfully implemented and developed a comprehensive set of global cell phone expectations in its organization. Abbott’s Joe McKillips CSP, manager of commercial program support, global environmental, health & safety, will present.

Distracted driving, a topic making headlines even more in recent years with the advancements in mobile technology, will be taking center stage on day two, June 26.

David Teater, senior director of transportation initiatives for the National Safety Council (NSC) will deliver a keynote on the impact of distracted driving on employee safety, productivity, and employer liability.

Following Teater’s keynote will be a general session on how to avoid violating federal and state law when conducting motor vehicle record checks, presented by Art Liggio, president of Driving Dynamics.

Day two’s concurrent morning session topics will include a workshop on conducting a fleet safety audit and an assessment of driving history in the pre-hire process. Attendees will also be able to hear from the editors of AF’s sister publication, Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT), which covers heavy-duty fleets and the over-the-road trucking industry.

The American Automotive Leasing Association (AALA) will host a two-hour luncheon, where the winner of the 2013 Fleet Safety Award will be announced. AALA Executive Director Pam Sederholm will be the emcee.

In the afternoon, attendees can select from several concurrent sessions, with topics to choose from including technology to increase fleet safety, a case study on UC Davis’ safe vehicle backing program, tips for getting management engaged, and legal pitfalls to avoid when using telematics to monitor drivers. The day’s sessions will conclude with a general session presented by Vikas Jain of FleetRisk Advisors, who will highlight how one of the company’s clients has used predictive analytics to identify at-risk drivers. An evening reception with sponsors will follow.

Jack Hanley, executive director of the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), will kick off the final day of the conference with a keynote speech on “Fleet Safety: Benchmarking, Collaboration, and Best Practices.”

Concurrent sessions for the final day will cover the business case for fleet safety, safety in personal use of company-provided vehicles, turning fleet safety policy into a strategic document, and the impact of IIHS revisions to 2014-2015 Top Safety Pick requirements. After lunch, the conference will close with a general session on leveraging internal partnerships for successful fleet safety programs.

For more details and updates, stay tuned to www.fleetsafetyconference.com.

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In Case You Missed Last Year’s Fleet Safety Conference

In May 2012, more than 230 fleet professionals gathered for the first-ever Fleet Safety Conference, which garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees. (See below for details.)

You can also check out photos from last year's inaugural event in our 2012 Fleet Safety Conference gallery.

Endorsed by the American Automotive Leasing Association (AALA), the National Safety Council (NSC), and the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), the two-day conference covered critical safety topics for today’s fleet manager. 

Conference highlights included a keynote address by Maggie Cole, director of Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) for Monsanto and Fleet Financials’ 2012 Fleet Executive of the Year. Day-one sessions ranged from distracted driving and federal regulations for medium- and heavy-duty trucks to coping with a fleet fatality or serious injury among drivers.

In addition, attendees had the opportunity to learn about preparing for a safety-related lawsuit, safety issues tied to maintenance of alternative-fuel vehicles, minimizing risk exposure when expatriates drive company-owned vehicles, ways to encourage safe driving of company-owned vehicles by non-employees, and how to make safety a top-down effort.

Industry suppliers also had opportunities to share their expertise and latest solutions with attendees during networking breaks and a panel discussion covering the latest fleet safety technologies.

Ford’s Louis Tijerina, Ph.D., senior technical specialist of Research and Advanced Engineering, kicked off day two with updates on the automaker’s technologies to improve driver focus.

Session topics on the second day included liabilities associated with negligent entrustment, best practices for establishing successful fleet safety policies and programs, comparing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) safety ratings to real-world experience, effectively communicating policies to company executives and to fleet drivers, and benchmarking safety metrics to reduce costs and improve safety.

The first Fleet Safety Award luncheon was another highlight in 2012. Pam Sederholm, executive director for AALA, emceed the event and presented the award to Tammy Evans, VP of fleet operations for transportation and logistics company Modern Transportation Services.

Day two also featured a panel of OEM representatives discussing current and upcoming safety technologies in late-model vehicles. Other session topics included developing a driver safety accountability program and predicting and preventing at-fault crashes using driver profiles. 

The conference ended with a “town hall” discussion, moderated by Automotive Fleet Editor & Associate Publisher Mike Antich. Panelists from VPSI Inc., NHTSA, Corporate Claims Management, Eli Lilly and Co., and Ford answered audience questions.

Fleet Managers Rave About 2012 Conference

The inaugural 2012 Fleet Safety Conference was a crowd pleaser for the fleet professionals who attended it. Industry veterans and newcomers alike had great things to say:

“The best thing about this conference was that it was content-specific, rather than fleet-specific, so it was appropriate for any fleet.”

– Jim Short, regional garage supervisor, Integrys

“I felt the conference was very relevant — appropriate for any size and kind of fleet. I don’t feel that way about a lot of the fleet conferences that are put on.”

– Kristin Stauffer, fleet manager, United Fire Group

“There were many sessions that were excellent and, in fact, I had difficulty on some occasions making a decision to go to one or the other. Most were over-the-top good. I would highly recommend this to others.”

– Bridget Clark, fleet & travel manager – USA, Alstom

“As a new fleet manager, I found this conference excellent. Everyone working toward the same goal: safety in our fleets, communities, and homes. Speakers were excellent, informative, and interesting.”

– Christine DeNome, national fleet manager, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc.

“I have been involved in fleet for more than 20 years and I still feel that I learned something from this conference.”

– Rita Harris, fleet operations, fleet & field services support, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

“It was a really great conference! The sessions were great and the material was right on target.”

– Julie Bromley, fleet director, Reedy Industries, Inc.

“Getting the top-down support [for safety efforts] is critical and the 2012 Conference went a long way in addressing that. Thank you again for an awesome conference! Your hard work went a very long way!”

– Elena Van Schaack, executive assistant/fleet manager, Konica Minolta Medical Imaging USA, Inc.