Using Public Feedback and Competitive Rewards to Increase the Safe Driving of Pizza Deliverers

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of a safe driving competition facilitated by publicly-posted individual feedback. The turn-signal use, safety-belt use, and complete intersection stopping of 82 pizza deliverers were observed at two experimental and three control stores, as well as among the civilian population. After baseline observations, pizza deliverers received posted weekly individual feedback on their turn-signal use (at Store A) or complete intersection stops (at Store B). The deliverers' safe driving scores were posted individually on a vertical scale along with their names. Each week the deliverer with the highest average performance was rewarded with a free vehicle-maintenance coupon. Turn-signal use among drivers at Store A (n = 24) increased 22 percentage points from baseline to the intervention phase which was maintained into the withdrawal phase. Complete intersection stopping among drivers at Store B (n = 21) increased 17 percentage points from baseline to the intervention phase and was maintained into the withdrawal phase. Although the winners of the weekly competitions had the greatest increase in performance, non-winners also increased their instances of safe driving during the competition.

Managing Distribution Quality Through an Adapted Incentive Program with Tiered Goals and Feedback

“…The results demonstrated that this type of normative feedback is more effective than averaged group feedback. In another study, Ludwig, Biggs, Wagner, and Geller (2001) paired normative feedback with an individual competition among pizza deliverers and demonstrated that even deliverers who did not win an award for their safe driving still changed their behavior during the program. However, there have been no individual monetary incentive program studies that allowed employees to see their peers' performance and incentives gained.…”

Preventing Back Injuries in Hospital Settings: The Effects of Video Modeling on Safe Patient Lifting by Nurses

“…Behavioral safety interventions have been successfully implemented with a variety of worker populations, including roofers (Austin, Kessler, Riccobono, & Bailey, 1996), bus drivers (Olson & Austin, 2001), industrial plant workers (Sulzer-Azaroff, Loafman, Merante, & Hlavacek, 1990), and pizza deliverers (Ludwig, Biggs, Wagner, & Geller, 2001;. In a meta-analysis of 73 applications in a wide variety of industries, Krause, Seymour, and Sloat (1999) reported a 20% to 25% year-over-year decrease in injuries for the first 5 years after implementing a behavioral approach to safety.…”

The Additive Impact of Group and Individual Publicly Displayed Feedback: Examining Individual Response Patterns and Response Generalization in a Safe-Driving Occupational Intervention

“…In contrast to Ludwig and Geller (1997), where pizza deliverers received group feedback, Ludwig, Biggs, Wagner, and Geller (2002) posted weekly individual feedback on either turn-signal use or complete intersection stops across different sites. Deliverers' percentages were posted individually on a vertical scale along with their names.…”

“…There have been debates over the definitions and functions of response generalization (Austin & Wilson, 2002;Nouchins & Boyce, 2002). Because of this, Ludwig and Geller (Geller, 2002;Ludwig 2002;Ludwig & Geller, 2000) called for broadened ecological observations of both nontargeted behaviors and concurrent contingencies in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) studies to build more databased examples of the phenomena. Accordingly, another objective of the current study was evaluating response generalization by observing nontargeted behaviors along with the behaviors targeted by the intervention.…”