My Small Change

The Safer Essex Roads Partnership (SERP) is relaunching the My Small Change campaign this month, calling on young drivers to pledge to improve a particular aspect of their driving.

#MySmallChange links the latest thinking around public behaviour change declarations and social marketing techniques and is aiming for wide scale engagement.

The campaign calls on young drivers to pledge to improve a particular aspect of their driving, such as sticking to the speed limits and switching their phones to silent whilst driving. Passengers can also participate by making their own pledge never to get into a car with someone they know to have been drinking. These pledges are then shared on social media, which in turn raises awareness and encourages their peers to come up with their own pledge.

As an incentive for making a pledge and making positive steps to become a safer driver, each participant who meets the competition criteria will be entered into a draw to win a Vauxhall Corsa Sting (see www.mysmallchange.co.uk for full terms and conditions).

In the days and weeks following their initial post or tweet on social media, entrants will be given additional opportunities to exponentially increase their chances of winning. Those who watch a short video, make a behaviour change agreement and participate in three short online surveys will be 32 times more likely to win than someone who only made the initial pledge. The competition will run for 12 months with the car visiting all major towns across Essex.

The #mysmallchange campaign offers ten different road safety topics on which to pledge, all of which are known to increase a young driver’s risk of being involved in a crash on the roads. These include seatbelts, fatigue, distractions and speed; relating each driving style to one of the animal images made famous by The Honest Truth road safety charity. For example, the cheetah represents speeding drivers.

Nicola Foster, Chairman of the Safer Essex Roads Partnership said: “Making a pledge is a great start. However, the sharing of this pledge on social media massively increases the likelihood of it being acted upon. By participating in the follow up communications and videos as they progress through the campaign’s programme, entrants are increasing their chances of winning one of the prizes as well as increasing their Road Safety knowledge. The more you put in, the more you get out – everyone wins.”

The #mysmallchange campaign is focused on young drivers within Essex and the surrounding areas, but is open to every road user in the UK. To participate or for more information, simply visit www.mysmallchange.co.uk

Additional note for journalists

The following findings informed the videos to be filmed as part of this campaign.

• Speed related factors attributed to 16% of young drivers involved in collisions in Essex.
• 8% of young drivers involved in serious collisions in Essex impaired by alcohol.
• 21% of young drivers involved in collisions in Essex fail to look properly.
• 31% of serious collisions involving young drivers in Essex also involve a vulnerable road user.
• Tiredness is a factor in 10 young driver collisions in Essex each year.
• Essex Police prosecuted over 300 young drivers for no insurance last year.