SAFED (Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving) scheme aims to improve the driving techniques of drivers of heavy goods vehicles through training. This will result in improved fuel efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. Databuild has been commissioned by the Department to evaluate the impact of SAFED, in particular to measure the cost effectiveness and potential of the programme in England.

1,558 telephone interviews with hauliers were undertaken during February and March 2007. The sample was structured to take account of:

• Registered users and non users of Freight Best Practice programme (FBP)
• Registered users and non-users of SAFED
• Type of operation (either own account or hire and reward)
• Size of fleet (single vehicle, 2-14 vehicles or 15 plus vehicles).

Download impact assessment

• SAFED impact assessment 2007 (PDF 335 – KB)

Key findings

The key findings from the evaluation are summarised below.

Awareness and use of SAFED

25% of fleets are aware of SAFED. Of those aware of SAFED, 12% had gone on to use the training (3% of all fleets). The following table summarises key factors associated with awareness and use:

		Aware	Use
Size	Single vehicle	16%	<1%
	2-14 vehicles	30%	3%
	15+ vehicles	59%	12%
Job role (acquiring training)	Transport manager	37%	5%
	Non-transport manager	23%	2%

Table 1: Segmentation of awareness and use of SAFED

Satisfaction with SAFED

SAFED users are on the whole very satisfied with the training scheme. In particular they are satisfied with the:

• Funding for the training
• Real, tangible results that are derived
• Other benefits gained in addition to fuel efficiency.

Attitude towards fuel efficiency

Using responses to a series of statements, a score was calculated to provide an indicator of respondents’ overall attitude to fuel efficiency. Respondents were then assigned to one of four groups:

• Very positive
• Positive
• Negative
• Very negative.

On the whole the following groups tend to be more positive:

• Large fleets (59% very positive)
• Users of SAFED (63% very positive)
• Transport professionals (45% very positive).

Action taken

Overall, 54% of fleets have taken action over the past two years to improve their fuel efficiency. The key variables that correlate with this are:

Fleet size

• Nearly all large fleets (92%) have taken action compared to 68% of medium and 37% of small fleets

Attitude to fuel efficiency

• Higher proportions (65%) of fleets that have a very positive attitude to fuel efficiency have taken action compared to those with positive (52%), negative (36%) or very negative (0%) attitudes.

Impact of SAFED

Overall, 84% of users found SAFED helpful in some way. The programme had most impact on providing fleets with information on how to make changes and giving them the idea for the change.

SAFED users have achieved £36m savings over the past two years. On average, fleets that use SAFED saved £24,500 compared to £2,000 saved by fleets that do not use SAFED. Users also achieve at least double the savings per vehicle than non users.