All eligible installations must participate in the National Safety Council’s Safe Driver Award Program.
The National Safety Council Safe Driver Award is the recognized trademark of professional drivers who have proved their skill in avoiding traffic accidents.
The award plan is more than a means of rewarding drivers with good safety records. The guidelines in the National Safety Council Safe Driver Award Rules establish what is expected of professional drivers in the way of safety performance: the ability to operate a motor vehicle without having a preventable (by National Safety Council definition) accident.
These guidelines constitute a basis by which drivers can measure their own performance and by which supervisors can measure the performance of individual drivers. When this standard of performance is clearly understood by both drivers and supervisors, it becomes a logical, fair, and workable basis for effective safety supervision. These rules are not intended as the basis of disciplinary action.
Postal installations having one or more postal employees operating postal-owned, hired, leased, contract, or private vehicles in conducting postal business must participate in the Safe Driver Award Program. All postal personnel operating motor vehicles on official business are eligible to participate in the Safe Driver Award Program under the rules for administering the National Safety Council’s Safe Driver Award Plan (Postal Service edition). Contractors, contract personnel, supervisors, and personnel who drive sporadically or only during seasonal periods, holidays, vacations, etc., are excluded.
Eligibility for participation is without regard to:
- Race, color, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity, including transgender status), national origin, religion, age (40 or over), genetic information, disability, or retaliation for engaging in EEO-protected activity as provided by law; or
- Other non-meritorious factors, such as political affiliation; marital status; status as a parent; and past, present, or future military service.
After a vehicle accident, a determination must be made by a designated postal official or the Safe Driver Award Committee as to whether the accident was considered preventable for the purpose of evaluating eligibility for the National Safety Council Safe Driver Award.
For details on administering the National Safety Council’s Safe Driver Award Program, see the latest Postal Service version of Safe Driver Award Rules.
Safe driver award records contain information about individuals. As such, they may be handled and disclosed only in accordance with the Privacy Act and its implementing instructions. An individual’s award records and related correspondence are maintained within the Postal Service as the privacy system entitled USPS 120.170, Personnel Records – Safe Driver Award Records.
