March 31, 1998

ASU study to promote driving safety

Ric Beard, Staff Writer

Prompted by the Appalachian State University Department of Psychology, several local pizza franchises have made efforts to increase delivery driver safety and awareness.

Dr. Timothy Ludwig, assistant psychology professor, has headed  a research team that has collaborated with local branches of major pizza delivery chains to improve the safe driving practices of their delivery drivers.

The main focus of Ludwig’s research has been turn signal usage. According to Ludwig, the average Boone driver uses his or her turn signal 40 percent of the time.

The baseline for Ludwig’s research showed that drivers from Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and Domino’s used their turn signals the same percentage or less than the average Boone driver at the beginning of the research.

Ludwig said there were multiple reasons for the research, citing the pizza chains’ wishes to ensure the safety of their drivers. Ludwig’s staff of graduate and undergraduate students worked with a different chain every semester.

The work is funded by a division of the Centers for Disease Control called the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), said Ludwig.

According to Ludwig, “Over the past years, the deliverers have engaged in a project every semester focusing on goal setting and feedback to improve their driving behaviors.”

He said that the delivery drivers were given feedback by other drivers in reference to their driving practices.

Ludwig said that there are many variables that affect delivery driver safety.

 Each store employs an average of 16 drivers who make 12 deliveries a night, said Ludwig.

Insurance companies tend to charge a higher rate, as the majority of the deliverers are males, ages 18 to 24 years old, who spend the most time in traffic during peak traffic hours and late at night when “partiers” are out, Ludwig said.

According to those statistics, delivery drivers are four times more likely to have traffic accidents than the average driver.

The data of the research show great increases in safe driving practices by the delivery drivers.

Pizza Hut drivers used their turn signals an average of 40 percent of the time when their research started in the Fall 1997 semester.

According to the results, they improved their turn signal usage by 100 percent during the intervention by the research team, said Ludwig.

Papa John’s started at 35 percent usage and ended at 80 percent. Papa John’s also did an intervention on complete stopping and increased their numbers from 95 percent to 65 percent.

Domino’s increased its drivers’ usage of turn signals from 20 percent to 80 percent.

While these numbers are impressive, a shift runner at Papa John’s isn’t so sure that the effect of the interventions by Ludwig’s team have been long-lasting.

 As well as being a shift runner for Papa John’s, Craig Rifkin was also the main data collector for some of Ludwig’s research.

While he did not deny the validity of the numbers in the research, he cited the rewards that the drivers would receive each semester, such as free oil changes, as the motivation for their compliance with the studies and their efforts to increase their turn signal usage.

Rifkin said that when the study stopped at Papa John’s, there was no further motivation to pay any attention to safe driving practices the drivers would usually employ. “Very few drivers do it unless they know they can get something out of it,” he said.

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