New Year’s Resolutions, carrots and sticks part 2!

The carrot and stick principle represents a theory towards behaviour and its drivers. Just recently I have read Freakonomics (freakonomicsbook.com); a book that tries to explain human behaviour and riddles of everyday life with economical theories, strongly supported by statistical analyses. It clearly denominates the importance of incentives (i.e., the carrot) and disincentives (i.e., the stick). Next to being a great read it also sheds insight on incentives in daily life, dividing (dis)incentives into the economic, social and moral subgroup. To translate this to road safety, let us use the example of drink and driving. The moral disincentive here is that it has clearly been proven that too high a blood alcohol content will result in a higher probability of accidents. The social disincentive to drink and drive can be found in the strong public opinion against drunk drivers; in current society (at least in most of the developed world) driving drunk is not just frowned upon, but it is seen as a very serious offence. Lastly, the represented economical disincentive of getting behind the wheel after some drinks; in The Netherlands the fine is at least 137.50 euro and the maximum fine can go up to thousands of euro’s depending on the actual blood alcohol content. In India the fine is a maximum of 2000 rupees, the equivalent of just over 30 euro. Although purchasing power parity between The Netherlands and India might not be equal to 1, the economical disincentive in India is significantly smaller.

The question is; how big is the stick in India for malpractices in road behaviour and with what force does it strike? Regarding the moral and social disincentive, education and awareness is not yet up to par. The advantages of adhering to speed limits, not using the mobile or wearing a seat belt are being played down or are unknown to the average Indian. However, the government and different not for profit parties have launched awareness campaigns on these issues. A good start, but in my opinion the best way to increase the striking power of the stick is to seriously increase the economical disincentive. Take Singapore for example; due to aggressive law enforcement efforts it has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. I would therefore say that not only the height of fines is an issue in India, but proper enforcement is also seriously lacking. Traffic police is hugely understaffed, seems to be inapt and corruption is still a major issue (India scores worse on corruption than for instance China, Brazil and Columbia).

To showcase some of the issues facing proper enforcement of road safety rules, an example. A Dutch friend in Delhi had decided to get a car but he does not have an international driver’s license and he has been asking around where to get one. He has decided to use his car regardless (I disapprove of this behaviour, of course) and he was driving around in New Delhi, when stopped by traffic police. Police checked his vehicle and they ended up conversing with my friend. In a momentary lapse of sanity he asked the traffic police where he could get his driver’s license in India, because he did not yet have one.............For any other policeman that remark would set off alarm bells; somebody driving a car (accidentally) admitting that he does not have a driver license. However, Delhi traffic police seemed not to be bothered and half a minute later the Dutchmen was on his merry way!

With our organisational implementations The Fleet Forum tries to combine these three incentives. Take for instance the WHO National Polio Surveillance Project. The awareness sessions and continuous sensitization to the issue leads to the moral incentive to stick to the rules for their fellow passengers and road users, as well as the responsibility to lead by example; their social incentives come from peer pressure in the organisation. But most important, with the new in-built GPS system, there is a strong economical incentive; breaking rules will be monitored and repercussions will follow accordingly. With recurrence of rule breaking not only drivers can lose their jobs, but also the passengers that allow or even instruct the driver to speed or drive late at night. If the government, at this point in time, does not improve enforcement, luckily front runners such as WHO do.