Safety culture, safety management and risk in road goods transport companies

In the present study we examine the relationship between safety culture, safety management and risk in four groups of road goods transport companies, which to different extents have implemented measures directed at organisational safety management. The four groups represent different steps on the Safety Ladder for goods transport. Survey results indicate that safety culture scores increase at each level of the Safety Ladder, while the accident risk decreases. We argue that this is due to increased focus on safety management at each level, and we discuss thoroughly what this focus involves. We use interview data, survey data and the literature review to analyse good safety management practices at the different levels of the Safety Ladder for safety management in goods transport.