Road Safety Week is an ideal opportunity to promote corporate social responsibility and life-saving messages among employees and their families, customers, suppliers and your community.  Click here to find out about great sponsorship opportunties!  

Many companies use the week as a springboard to launch year-round road safety programmes. Chris Hughes, risk manager, Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions, says: “Getting involved in Road Safety Week really helps us  generate awareness about road safety year-round and get the message across to employees and our community. There are so many ways to take part - we would urge all companies to do so and help make roads safer.”

Here's our 10 point plan on how to take part...

Step 1: Order your free RSW posters!
Order free Road Safety Week posters by clicking here to fill in a quick online form. Your posters will be issued from July onwards.

Step 2: Read our campaign guide for companies 
Brake has produced a great campaign guide to help you get started. To download your copy, click here. This guide tells you how to get involved in the Week and gives you risk management ideas on the theme of Road Safety Week, including photocopiable tips for drivers.

Step 3: Buy low-cost promotional RSW resources to brand your RSW activities 
By spending a little money on RSW resources, such as banners, T shirts or balloons, you can really help drive home the RSW message to employees and your community through displays and events. NB: With enough advance notice, we can brand RSW resources with your logo or create specific resources of your choice. Click here to view and order resources. You can order additional posters at the same time, with a small charge for P&P.

Step 4: Work with local schools and colleges
Help educate local children and young people by visiting local schools and colleges. If you run a fleet of trucks or buses, you could give a demonstration to young children using a safely parked vehicle about driver black spots and the dangers of getting too close to large vehicles. Click here for an information sheet on working with local schools. If you or another employee feels they could talk passionately in front of groups of 15-21 year-olds on the dangers of driving, attend a free one-day Brake training course on how to give workshops to young people in schools and colleges. Click here for course dates.

Step 5: Run a community ‘roadshow’
Run a stand or ‘roadshow’ at a community event or in your town centre. Include interactive activities such as ‘mini theory tests’ for drivers (based on the Highway Code) or mock eyesight tests using a numberplate. Hand out road safety resources such as leaflets. Collect donations for Brake by ‘bucket shaking’ (available from Lisa on 01484 683294). If your customers are the general public, then consider putting road safety messages on till receipts, retail items, or in stores. Consider working in partnership with other local agencies - your local authority’s police or fire service, road safety unit, or hospital health promotion team may be able to help you create a more successful event that pools resources.

Step 6: Gear-up your internal comms
Let your employees know it’s Road Safety Week and give them key road safety messages using email, intranet (pop-ups can be effective), messages on payslips and articles in staff magazines. You can give them road safety messages around Brake’s chosen theme for this year’s RSW or on a road safety theme of your choice. Road Safety Week is a good time to encourage everyone at your company to make Brake’s Pledge to Drive Safely - a 12-point plan with simple safe driving advice.

Step 7: Get the message across to customers, clients and suppliers Send your customers, clients and suppliers a link to this website, encouraging them to also get involved, and demonstrating your CSR programme at the same time. Use it as an opportunity to explain what you are doing in RSW.  Click here to find out about great sponsorship opportunties available!

Step 8: Sign up to Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum If you are not already a subscriber, and if you only do one thing in Road Safety Week, make sure it is to sign up to Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum. This important educational service gives you year-round best practice information about road risk management, and is low cost. Click here for details.

Step 9: Fundraise for Brake and help team-build and raise awareness of road safety at the same time!
A great way to get your team behind road safety and support Brake’s work,is to combine road safety educational activities with fundraising in aid of Brake. Brake campaigns to stop road deaths and supports families bereaved in road crashes. There are endless ways of fundraising, from holding a BrakeBright! Day, to running a car wash in aid of Brake, to nominating Brake as your charity of the year and using Road Safety Week to launch year-round fundraising activities such as team cycle rides or mountain climbs. If you plan to fundraise for us in RSW, we can send you a free pack, including a banner and balloons, to brand your event and help you raise more cash. Click here to order. For loads more fundraising ideas, click here.

Step 10: Get your company and road safety in the news
Whatever you’re planning, tell your local (and trade) media about it! Linking your road safety activities to a national event like Road Safety Week can be a really effective way to raise awareness about key road safety issues in the wider community, as well as showing your company’s commitment to safer roads. Click here for general advice on gaining media coverage in RSW or call Katie at Brake on 01484 559909 to issue a joint press release with Brake. We are happy to do this if you already donate to Brake or make a donation to cover our costs.

And finally.... Tell us what you’re doing!
Whatever you’ve got planned, please take a moment to tell us about it using our online form, either before RSW or afterwards. This helps us to monitor the success of RSW and helps us develop this important project, so thank you in advance.

Still not convinced? Click here to see the comments of supporters of Road Safety Week, including from Traffic Commissioners.