Safety

The safety of our customers and employees is our primary concern. It is at the core of our values and is built in to all our operating procedures.

Management

Safety practices are reviewed regularly by the Board Safety Committee. The committee monitors all aspects of safety in our operations, reviews and reports to the Board on the company's internal safety management system, and oversees the group safety policy and the arrangements for its implementation. For more details see the full health and safety policy.

Compliance auditing

Each operating company is accountable for its own safety performance, and follows self-certification and self-auditing processes which reflect best practice.

Every operational location is subject to internal safety and standards audits every six months. Audits are completed by trained and experienced safety auditors who will make recommendations and prepare action plans in the event of non-compliance. Arrangements are subject to periodic quality assurance audits. This process ensures that safety is regularly reviewed by senior management.

Training

Our approach to safety management includes specific training for senior operational managers, employees and supervisory staff. Much of the training is externally accredited by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), Europe's leading body for health and safety professionals. We work with other members of our industry to share best practice and reduce risk, and believe, from the limited industry comparative information available, that our safety record represents best practice. We are also recognised as being at the leading edge of road risk management in the UK bus and coach industry.

Our policy is for each of our transport businesses to provide employees with training including a safe approach to driving, customer care and conflict management.

External initiatives

We were the first public transport company to sign up to the European Road Safety Charter, which aims to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in road accidents by 2010.

Over the past few years, we have won several safety awards:

• The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) gold awards for 'Managing Occupational Road Risk' and 'Management of Health and Safety'
• The RoSPA merit award for 'Occupational Health and Safety'
• The Institute of Transport and Logistics 'Excellence in Safety' award
• The Brake 'Best Risk Managed Company of the Year' supported by highly commended rankings in the 'Safety in Vehicle Maintenance' and 'Road Safety in the Community' awards
• The Knowledge Transfer Partnership Award for 'Best Application of Management or Social Science' following a four-year programme by Arriva and Cranfield University to reduce accident rates
• The Brake 'Road Safety in the Community' Fleet Safety Forum Award for Excellence for its Innovative 'Getting to School' pack.

Accreditation

Across our businesses we work to recognised codes and standards. For example, in Denmark, we achieved accreditation under the European Certificate of Working Environment - DS/OH 18001 – for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, at our facilities in Aalborg and Hjørring. We plan to have all facilities in Arriva Scandinavia achieve DS/OH 18001 accreditation by 2009.

Accessibility

We want customers with disabilities to be able to use our services with confidence. We are achieving this in a number of ways:

• UK – As part of their induction, all bus operations employees receive a training manual which gives information on helping passengers with disabilities and special needs. An external consultancy has assessed the accessibility of all our public access properties.
  
  Arriva Trains Wales/Trenau Arriva Cymru and CrossCountry operate a Disabled Persons Protection Policy approved by the Department for Transport.
• Germany – Our rail operations actively consult disability groups to help us improve the accessibility of our train services and stations.
• Netherlands and Denmark – Working in partnership with local authorities, we provide demand-response transport for disabled customers.

Arriva across
Europe

View a Flash interactive map of our operations across Europe