Features
12 Feb 20

Assuring fleet safety at AB Inbev Latin America

Considering precarious road conditions, incidents of theft and other issues, operating a large vehicle fleet in Latin America requires a strong safety policy and this is something that Adriano Negrao from international brewing company AB Inbev is highly focused on.

According to Mr. Negrao, who is VP of Logistics in the Middle Americas for the company, safety is at the heart of the company’s culture and it comes before anything else. 

Name Adriano Negrao
Job Position VP of Logistics, Middle Americas region
Number of countries responsible for 15+ (Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Honduras, El Salvador, Dominican Republic and others within the Caribbean Islands)
Number of vehicles in fleet 10,000+

 

"Nothing should compromise safety and our dream is to achieve zero accidents in our fleet. "Although this has not yet been achieved, we are getting closer,” Mr. Negrao told Fleet LatAm, explaining that improving safety stems from strong leadership and better processes in operations and technology.

Management needs to push accountability and make sure that the right decisions are made to ensure the utmost in safety at all levels of operations. In other words, leadership must drive the right behavior throughout the organization, the executive says.

Implementing standard processes throughout the company’s operations guarantees high safety standards at each and every AB Inbev site. And, according to Mr. Negrao, all of these processes need to be built around guaranteeing the operators well-being.

To ensure that employees know how to conduct themselves in all possible situations, they are constantly trained in these processes. All unsafe conditions, acts and incidents (e.g. abrupt acceleration and speeding, harsh braking, and taking hard turns) are reported by way of a strict protocol in order to ensure that all corrective actions are put in place, and to enrich the company’s future safety training programs.

Adriano Negrao speaks and Fleet LatAm Conference 2019 in Mexico City (source: Fleet LatAm)

AB Inbev provides driver training through a complete program divided in theoretical and practical modules. The training focuses on offering the basis for decision making and how to act in adverse situations and different scenarios.

It helps drivers to be aware of their surroundings and to identify important health alerts so that they know when they should stop driving and have better time management. They are also given training on the effects of drugs and the impact on their health.

To maintain performance, good driver behavior is enforced through a trained monitoring team which is responsible for the tracking and evaluating the drivers on a daily basis,” the executive said.

As for results, implementing the company’s safety culture has enabled AB Inbev to reduce long time injuries in Mexico by approximately 86%. Moreover, the company is seeing positive results in other countries such as the Dominican Republic.

As road traffic fatalities in Cotui dropped by 44% year-over-year in 2018, AB Inbev – in collaboration with local governments - is working on implementing its program in other cities. Among the ones in the Dominican Republic are Santiago De Los Caballeros and La Vega.

This is just one of the many Case Studies planned by Global Fleet this year. Remember to keep an eye out for our next one, to be published soon.

 

Authored by: Daniel Bland