Professor Mark Sullman is a psychologist with more than 20 years of research and consultancy experience in the areas of occupational safety and driving behaviour. In 2017 he received a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for his work on behaviour change techniques with the RAC Foundation and Brainbox Research. 

Professor Sullman is on the Editorial Advisor Board for Transportation Research Part F (Traffic Psychology and Behaviour) and regularly reviews articles for several other international journals. In 2010 he was appointed the European representative for Division 13 of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). He has been on the Scientific Advisory Board for eight international conferences and has authored over 100 journal articles, 24 book chapters, and more than 250 conference papers and industry reports.

Presentation: Reducing risky driving behaviours among sales representatives
It has been estimated that 60% of work-related fatalities in the European Union are caused by motor vehicle collisions, and in the UK four times as many fatalities result from driving during work than from all other causes combined. In-Vehicle Data Recorders (IVDR) are a tool which allows the monitoring, recording and reporting of driving behaviour.

The information collected by IVDRs can generate information that can be used to change driving behaviour, both after the drive and in real time (icons, lights and sounds that signal when risky behaviour has been detected). A number of studies have reported that IVDRs reduce risky driving and collisions, but these studies have substantial methodological short comings, including: non-random selection, no control group, very short and/or unstable baselines, including only volunteers and short study periods.

Furthermore, a recent Randomised Controlled Trial involving Russian sales representatives found no significant reduction in risky driving behaviour using a commercially available IVDR-based intervention (in-vehicle warning devices and weekly feedback). A lack of knowledge regarding behavioural science and how to provide motivational feedback was thought to be one of the main reasons behaviour change was not observed in that trial.

It was therefore hypothesised that using knowledge of behavioural science to improve the feedback delivered to the drivers would be one way to improve the effectiveness of this system. Therefore, the present study shows the results of a longitudinal study to investigate whether this approach could be used to reduce risky driving behaviour among sales representatives.