Road safety awareness campaign calls on companies to let their employees start later on September 15

September 9, 2020 - With the start of the new school year, a road safety awareness campaign initiated by Volvo Cars is calling on employers to be more flexible in their work schedules on September 15, the first day of the new school year, to reduce stress behind the wheel. With 'Be Safe Be Late', the car manufacturer wants to make September 15 a key day for road safety and at the same time introduce Omtanke - a Swedish vision of life that invites people to pay more attention and look at things from a different perspective.

Stress, the worst of co-pilots

The first day of school: the day when many families' morning routine shifts from first to sixth gear and the roads turn red during rush hour. We will all once again be in a hurry to drop our children off at the school door, all to start working on time. In our heads, September 15 is synonymous with rush, emotion and stress. And that can have disastrous consequences for road safety.

A Belgian study  carried out by research agency iVOX at the request of Volvo Cars confirmed that the start of the school year is a particularly stressful day for parents, and that these emotions can have a negative impact on the way they drive:

The first day of school is synonymous with great emotion, and we take all this emotion with us in the car. As if that isn’t enough, we are also under pressure because of the working hours. To be safe on the road on a special day like the first day of school, it is important to take the pressure off and give employees more breathing space. ​ 

More margin, less risk on the road

Employees with children in kindergarten are the most anxious about starting work late on the first day of school. And yet, no special measures are taken in a majority of companies on that day. Employees who do not have flexible work schedules are more likely to feel stressed than employees with flexible work schedules. With 'Be Safe Be Late', Volvo Cars is appealing to companies and wants to make them aware of this problem. Shifting working hours reduces the feeling of stress and helps to distribute traffic more evenly and promotes greater safety on the road. So don't pay attention to the time, but to the road.

 "Now more than ever we need to think about how we look at the first day of school and how we combine our work with it," says Wim Maes, Managing Director of Volvo Cars Belux, "In Sweden they have a nice word for this: 'omtanke', a vision of life that invites us to be more attentive and look at things from a different perspective. Omtanke is at the heart of everything we do at Volvo Cars and road safety is a major part of it. With this in mind, I can say that 'the more cars, the better' is not our priority at Volvo Cars. As an employer, we can't take away the emotions and stress that parents experience on the first day of school, but we can definitely take them into account. We have to approach the start of the new school year in a different way - it's a shared responsibility."

September 15: a new start towards more flexibility?

September 15 should be first and foremost the day that children can safely start their first day of school. In the current context, it is new habits that need to be put in place and getting back on track after several months without school may turn out to be more complicated than expected. Employers can play a soothing role, with a focus on road safety. And they can do this by bringing more omtanke into the day, giving employees more flexibility to start the day in less of a hurry. Flexible working hours mean less stress and nervousness on the road.

“Why don't we look at other ways to get our children to school? For example, we can take a pleasant morning walk with them, which also allows us to arrive relaxed at the office. Or take the time to show our children the best route to drive to school by bike," continues Wim Maes. "Companies need to give parents the time and opportunity to plan their day more flexibly, so that they don't have to start their working day at a specific time, just after the morning rush to get to school on time. In other words, stop putting pressure on yourself to get to school on time and focus instead on safe driving. On September 15, every parent should be able to start their workday a bit later.”

Since the coronavirus crisis, flexible working hours and telecommuting are on the rise. As a result, employees have experienced less stress. However, according to the Belgian survey, employers and employees do not always seem to agree on the efforts made by companies regarding measures to enable flexible working. Isn’t it time for a thorough reflection and to continue what has been set up in terms of flexible working in the wake of the coronavirus crisis?

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^{About Be Safe Be Late
​Be Safe Be Late' is a back-to-school awareness campaign run by Volvo Cars. A number of studies around the world have shown the link between emotions such as stress and road safety. The increase in traffic at the beginning of the school year goes hand in hand with an increased risk of accidents. With this campaign, Volvo Cars is calling on companies to introduce flexible working hours to make the start of the school year the safest day of the year. For more information, visit https://www.volvocars.com/lu/c/besafebelate.}