ISO 39001: the road traffic safety management system

What ISO 39001 is

It is the international standard for road traffic safety (RTS) management systems. The version in force is ISO 39001:2012, confirmed in 2023 and updated by Amendment 1:2024 on climate change.

Its aim is a concrete one: to reduce deaths and serious injuries in road collisions connected with an organisation’s activity. It applies to any body, public or private, that interacts with the road system — through its own vehicles, its own drivers, or employees travelling for work. It follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act model common to the other ISO standards.

Who needs it, and why

• Transport, logistics and distribution companies, where the vehicle is the tool of the trade.
• Organisations with company fleets, or with many employees who drive for work (sales staff, engineers, maintenance crews).
• Public authorities and operators that interact with the road network.
• Anyone wanting to cut collisions, insurance costs, downtime and disputes tied to road safety.

Is it mandatory? The certification is voluntary. Managing road risk, for anyone with workers out on the road, is not.

The link with occupational safety

Italy’s Legislative Decree 81/08 does not name “road risk” as such, but Article 28 requires the employer to assess every risk to which workers are exposed. And road collisions — commuting and on duty — are among the leading causes of fatal accidents at work: on INAIL figures, roughly half of all workplace deaths happen on the road.

ISO 39001 replaces neither the risk assessment document nor the duties under Decree 81/08 or the Highway Code. What it does is let you manage that risk methodically and demonstrably instead of enduring it: it brings method, indicators and procedures to a corner of safety that is often left aside. It integrates naturally with ISO 45001, of which it is the road-side complement.

The path, step by step

1. Initial review — the free preliminary assessment: where you stand, what you already have, what is missing.
2. Road risk assessment — journeys, vehicles, drivers, routes: the heart of the standard.
3. Planning — objectives, performance indicators (KPIs), responsibilities.
4. Building the management system — procedures, fleet management, driver training, operational control.
5. Training and awareness for the staff.
6. Internal audit.
7. Certification audit — the assessment by the independent third-party body.
8. Maintenance — annual surveillance, renewal on a three-year cycle.

How the cost breaks down

There are two items and they stay separate: our consulting fee and the fee of the certification body, an independent third party. The variables are size, the number of vehicles and drivers, the kind of work done on the road, and whether a safety system is already in place or you are starting from scratch. We discuss it openly at the first contact, on your case rather than off a generic price list.

Why BS & Partners

• First-hand experience of ISO 39001: it is one of the standards on which we have taken companies through in the field, not only on paper.
• An integrated approach: road safety grafts onto occupational safety and onto the management systems already in place, and we set it up to talk to them.
• Ten years in business, 117 projects, work in 9 countries.
• The firm and the way we work: the BS & Partners profile.