Past eco-driving research has looked at the effectiveness of various eco-driving programs, but the role supervisor and organizational support have remained unexamined. This is unfortunate, as support from the supervisor and the organization have consistently been shown to determine whether or not employee interventions (e.g., training, safety) are effective (e.g., Christian et al. 2009; Salas et al., 2012). In other words, supervisor and organizational support are important for translating employee knowledge into actual behavior. Further, organizational resources for interventions such as an eco-driving program may be wasted if supervisors and managers do not demonstrate their support for it to employees. 

In this study we collected baseline measures of driving knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors from employees at three organizations, as well as follow-up data collected at two months (Time 2) and six months post-intervention (Time 3). Implementing a quasi-experimental design with a control group (informational campaign only) and an experimental group (informational campaign combined with supervisor training), we tested the incremental effectiveness of supervisor training compared to the effect of an informational campaign alone.

We found that, in general, participants reported using eco-driving behaviors more often in the follow-up surveys compared to baseline measures. However, we did not find direct support for the supervisor training intervention providing an incremental increase in eco-driving behaviors and attitudes compared to the informational campaign alone. On the other hand, we did find that supervisor support, frequency of communication about eco-driving, and the percentage of employees who viewed the EcoDrive materials were greater in the supervisor training group compared to the control group. Additionally, employees in the supervisor training group rated the EcoDrive materials as more useful compared to the control group.