I’m driving right now; can I call you back later?

Our fleet management clients are increasingly concerned about how to create and promote a cultural shift towards not using hands-free phones while driving among their employees. We have written this blog to summarise the most recent evidence and arguments in support of such a shift.

Consider which of the following tasks you think people could do properly if they were having a conversation at the same time. If you have time, pause after each, and note down either yes or no for each one.

1. A family member poaching you an egg while chatting to you about their day
2. A surgeon performing your keyhole surgery while asking their colleague about their weekend
3. A traffic officer directing the flow of road traffic while taking a phone call
4. A pilot landing a plane while planning a stag do with their co-pilot
5. A dentist pulling out your wisdom tooth while asking their assistant what they thought about last night’s football game

I could go on, but I imagine you will have said no to the majority of these¹. Another question for you, why did you respond in the way you did? Was there a criterion you were using to answer each question, consciously or not? Was it because of the level of risk or complexity of the task? The scenarios above are examples of multi-tasking, or the endeavour of trying to give two tasks the same focused attention. The thing about multi-tasking is that it’s a myth. While some people might be good at switching attention between tasks, the idea of dividing your attention equally across two tasks is biologically impossible to do, so says the science².

Driving is a task that requires a withdrawal of attention from other things so that it can be handled effectively, and if attention is diverted away from the driving task, performance and safety will suffer. It might not be the end of the world if your family member over-poaches your egg, but it might be the end of someone else’s world if drivers try to speak on the phone while behind the wheel. In 2020, 55 deaths and 3,119 injuries occurred where ‘distraction in vehicle’ was recorded as a contributory factor. Given the difficulty of assessing crash causation accurately, it’s also probable that these figures are underestimates³.

There are four types of distraction – manual, visual, auditory, and cognitive. When a driver is talking on a hands-free device, they are distracted in all four ways, but we want to zoom in on cognitive distraction. This type of distraction, caused by engaging in a conversation, diverts the driver’s attention from the road, compromising their ability to perceive and respond to potential hazards effectively. Cognitive distraction can still have a dangerous effect even after the call has ended, with research suggesting that the effects of cognitive distraction can linger for up to half a minute before regaining full attention⁴.

In recent years, we have seen rapid evolution of technological features in vehicles such as large infotainment screen sizes, curved screens and voice recognition. On top of this we have also seen significant changes in the role of mobile phones across society. The integration of mobile phones with calendars has created a seamless shift towards using a mobile phone device when on the move, instead of being tied to a desk or landline. While these changes improve our ability to connect with others, they raise significant dangers for road safety.

A common counter to the evidence is that talking on the phone is no different to talking to a passenger. However, experimental studies⁵ have been conducted which demonstrate that passengers tend to go quiet when their drivers are encountering a situation which requires more concentration. Given that those on the other end of the call (and the blindfolded controls) can’t see such hazards develop, they fail to behave in the same way, and fail to give the driver the space for the selected attention they require.

The truth is, we humans aren’t very good at thinking statistically; we’re prone to heuristic biases, which in English means that we tend to use our own experiences to estimate what we think the average experience is⁶. While drivers may use their collision-free anecdotal experience of using a hands-free device while driving to inform an opinion that it’s safe to do so, they might not be aware that they’re still four times more likely to crash⁷, and their reaction time is 30% slower than if they were drink driving⁸. Another thing we’re pretty rubbish at is intuitively judging how speed impacts distance and stopping distance. Drivers might well have lightning-fast reactions and be able to slam on the brakes, but until they do so after glancing at their phone to answer a hands-free call for 2.3 seconds, their car is going to travel the length of a Boeing 737-500 aeroplane (100 feet) at 30pmh⁹.

In the UK, it is illegal for a driver of a vehicle to “hold and use a phone, sat nav, tablet, or any other device that can send or receive data”, with penalties of 6 points and a £200 fine if caught¹⁰. However, the rules around hands-free devices are lax, with the law stating that drivers can “use devices with hands-free access, as long as you do not hold them at any time during usage”. Despite a substantial body of literature demonstrating that cognitive distraction is detrimental to driving performance, it is still legal, and acceptable, to many to use a hands-free device to chat to a friend or colleague while being responsible for moving tons of metal through space at a high rate of speed (driving, obviously). In 2019, the Government were advised to explore options for extending the ban on driving while using a hand-held mobile phone or other devices to hands-free devices, but the suggestion was rejected¹¹. The Transport Select Committee stated that “the evidence shows that using a hands-free device creates the same risks of a collision as using a hand-held device, and it is therefore inappropriate for the law to condone it by omission”. A take-home message here is that just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s safe. We have seen instances of things that posed significant risk to humans like smoking indoors and lack of seat belts, and then were subsequently made illegal. What is to say this isn’t the same?

With an aim of mitigating the risks associated with mobile phone use while driving and striving for legislative change, numerous public awareness campaigns have been implemented. One familiar example is ‘THINK!’¹², which has been delivering road safety campaigns since 2000 – prominent examples including ‘Travel like you know them’, ‘Party car’ and most recently, ‘Is pushing it worth it?’. ‘THINK!’ has also launched a campaign focussing on reducing handheld phone use amongst young drivers, called ‘Hands on the wheel? Hands off your phone’. Their campaigns use powerful and thought-provoking messaging, aiming to hit home to help shift behaviour towards safer driving practices. If you haven’t watched them already, we think you might like to! Road safety charities like Brake are also heavily involved in striving for policy change around banning hands-free phone use¹³, highlighting and spreading awareness about the risks associated with using hands-free while driving.

In conclusion, the evidence is clear: driving while talking on the phone is a hazardous behaviour that significantly increases the likelihood of accidents and injuries. Drivers and fleet managers alike have a personal and corporate responsibility to recognise the risks and take responsible actions to prevent distracted driving to ensure the safety of all individuals on the road. A cultural shift isn’t going to happen overnight, but our behavioural scientists and road safety experts at TRL are equipped to help fleet managers work towards a safer driving environment and reduce the tragic consequences associated with phone use behind the wheel.

Some things to remember, try, and think about:

• Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s safe
• If you are responsible for a fleet, explore your fleet’s attitudes towards hands-free mobile phone use while driving – what safety messages can you send? What barriers can be targeted to break down?
• If you are a friend or family member on the other end of the phone, think about how you would feel if the driver was involved in a fatal collision. Could the conversation have waited?

Taking action at work

Using decades of experience in the field of safety and a deep understanding of behavioural science, TRL can tailor a bespoke action plan for your workplace including:

• Analysis of data from telematics systems
• Drafting of mobile phone policies and creation of mobile phone guidance packs to support training activities
• Design of training and behavioural change interventions targeting fatigue, distraction, speeding behaviours
• Reviews of all work-related driving policies and procedures, including on-boarding processes
• Reviews of current driver training process and ongoing support, incorporating the latest best practice in hazard perception training
• Delivery of a Risk Profiling tool to understand risk across different types of drivers and driving tasks across different operations, or different countries, to guide the ongoing development of training.  

Click here to download a PDF version of this article to share with your employees.

References 

1.  There’s no shame in wanting that egg perfectly poached – we also would have said no to this one!
2. Kinnear, N. & Stevens, A. The battle for attention. Driver distraction – a review of recent research and knowledge.
3. Mobile phone use by drivers: Great Britain, 2021. Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seatbelt-and-mobile-phone-use-surveys-2021/mobile-phone-use-by-drivers-great-britain-2021
4. Hill et al. (2020) Distraction ‘hangover’: characterisation of the delayed return of baseline driving risk after distracting behaviour.
5. Drews, F., Pasupathi, M. & Strayer, D. (2008) Passenger and cell phone conversations in simulated driving. Journal of experimental psychology: applied.
6. Thinking Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman (2011)
7. Mobile phone use while driving: The risks, the law and the penalties. Retrieved from: https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/mobile-phone-use#:~:text=The%20only%20time%20you%20are,unsafe%20or%20impractical%20to%20stop.
8. https://www.drivermetrics.com/blog/research-evidence-dangers-hands-free-mobile-phone-driving/
9. THINK! Road safety laws. Retrieved from: https://www.think.gov.uk/road-safety-laws/#mobile-phones
10. Using a phone, sat nav or other device when driving. Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law#:~:text=It's%20illegal%20to%20hold%20and,videos%2C%20or%20browse%20the%20web
11. Road safety: driving while using a mobile phone: Government Response to the Committee’s Twelfth Report of Session 2017-19 (2019). Retrieved from: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201919/cmselect/cmtrans/237/237.pdf
12. Welcome to THINK! Retrieved from: https://www.think.gov.uk/
13. Banning hands-free phone use: The change that we want. Retrieved from: https://www.brake.org.uk/how-we-help/national-campaigns/the-change-we-want/drivers/hands-free-phones