Vehicles don’t crash… people do

The Driver Safety Theatre from Driving for Better Business

Health & Safety Event 8-10 April 2025, NEC Birmingham

 

This year is the fifth edition of our Driver Safety Theatre – a partnership between the Health & Safety Event and the National Highways Driving for Better Business programme. It is the UK’s largest event for the tens of thousands of health and safety professionals responsible for running a safe and efficient workplace, and the Driver Safety Theatre is where they come for clarity and inspiration about their biggest work-place risk: driving for work

Every year the audience gets bigger and last year saw almost 900 people attend some truly insightful sessions including our famous mock trial. 2025 is set to be our biggest and best yet with a fantastic line up of inspiring speakers, expert panellists and thought-provoking demonstrations already confirmed.

Our theme this year is ‘Vehicles don’t crash… People do’ because more than nine out of ten crashes are caused by human factors rather than issues with the vehicle or road conditions.

We have a full programme of brand-new content for this year including:

 

An in-depth look at driver roadworthiness

Fatigue and impairment are high on everyone’s list of concerns, but what about work-related stress? What about the many personal issues a driver might have to deal with such as finances, health and relationships? All these play into a mindset where your driver may simply not be concentrating on the task in hand, with potentially catastrophic consequences. There are also a number of hidden health issues that are becoming so prevalent, they are akin to a ticking time bomb.

To bring these issues into the open, and give you the tools to manage them effectively, we’ll be running sessions that look at the causes of at-work crashes, the

impact of these incidents on various management roles within your organisation, the hidden medical issues affecting driver safety, and the challenges of managing driver mental health and wellbeing.

 

Practitioner insights into successfully managing driver risk

Creating the right working environment to reduce road risk and improve driver safety isn’t easy. We’ll be hosting a number of panel discussions covering driver behaviour and competence, looking at technology-led, data-driven insights to help monitor and improve behaviour, and the competencies required of drivers, driver safety managers, and senior management. Chaired by an industry expert, each panel will feature experienced practitioners who will talk through how they identify and manage the most complex challenges, how they engage senior managers as well as drivers, and how they learn and improve when things go wrong.

 

Powerful and insightful keynotes on strong safety cultures

Tuesday: Is a lack of motivation destroying your safety culture?

Pete Rushmer, Managing Director of Flagship Partners, author of the acclaimed book ‘The Performance Trifecta’ and TEDx speaker, has 15 years’ experience in the driver safety industry.

Building a successful, high-performance workplace culture is no easy task. It requires developing skills, channelling energy, and establishing clear direction—all of which can transform both your business and its people. This session will examine the significant impact of low engagement on your organisation and provide strategies to energise and motivate your team, whilst improving behaviours and boosting performance. With 15 years of experience in the driver safety industry, Pete will share insights from his acclaimed book ‘The Performance Trifecta’ and TEDx talk, ‘Is lack of motivation destroying your performance?'. While Pete’s book and TEDx talk explore building a thriving culture in a wider business context, Pete’s session in the Driver Safety Theatre will focus on applying those principles to create a safer and more engaged driving culture in your fleet.

 

Wednesday: Beyond perception – Influencing a resilient safety culture

Tim Bradshaw is a former intelligence officer, renowned keynote speaker and co-founder of Sandstone Communications, a unique immersive first aid and safety training organisation specialising in the transport and logistics sectors.

In this thought-provoking seminar, Tim will explore how leaders and teams can break free from the trap of prioritising perception over reality. All too often, organisations focus on processes at the expense of tangible outcomes, and a fear of failure leads individuals to shy away from taking ownership of decisions. Drawing from his unique experience as a Covert Human Intelligence Officer, Tim will share powerful insights into how high-performance teams can be inspired to succeed, rather than paralysed by the fear of failure.

 

Revolutionising first aid training for life-saving confidence

Tim Bradshaw returns for a truly thought-provoking session on Thursday morning. If you've experienced first aid training, it's likely you’ve learned techniques in a classroom setting, perhaps practising skills like placing a dummy in the recovery position on the floor. But have you considered how you would apply that knowledge to an HGV driver experiencing a heart attack in their cab, whilst strapped into their seat, ten feet off the ground? If not, then this unique session is for you. Tim will demonstrate how immersive and engaging training techniques, that reflect the real-world scenarios in which that training will be needed, can give the knowledge, confidence and skills to act quickly and effectively when it matters most.

 

Meet the Driving for Better Business team

Next to the Driver Safety Theatre will be the Driving for Better Business hub with the whole team on hand across the three days and plenty of space for you to come and talk to us about your most pressing driver safety and risk management challenges.

Joining us on the stand will be one of our partners, Samsara, giving visitors an opportunity to sample their HGV driving simulator, fitted with inward facing AI cameras capable of detecting mobile phone use, seatbelt offences and many other safety issues.

“The entire three-day event, packed with inspiring speakers, expert panellists and thought-provoking demonstrations, is designed to give a fresh perspective and unique insight into managing work-related road risk, and to equip health and safety professionals with the knowledge and tools to do so successfully” says Simon Turner, Engagement Manager for Driving for Better Business. “Visitors have often commented that they want their senior management teams to see for themselves the risks and weaknesses in their driver management culture, so we encourage the whole health and safety team, and other interested senior managers to attend. Our aim is to help everyone recognize that legal responsibility for driver safety sits at the top of the company in the same way that any other occupational health and safety issue does.”

 

Click here for an up-to-date schedule of speakers Tickets are available here

Media contact: Becky Hadley 07733 054839 becky.hadley@hadstrong.com