Ethics
Scania shall create lasting value for its customers, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. Sound ethics and high moral standards are preconditions for winning and maintaining trust and respect – and thereby also for profitable long-term operations. Scania takes an active part in clarifying ethical and social values within the organisation. There is a strong connection between business ethics, social commitment and the Scania brand.

Scania’s procurement policy specifies standards for suppliers in terms of quality, environmental impact, business ethics and social aspects.

Assuming social responsibility
Scania benefits society by generating profits, creating job opportunities and investing in innovations as well as by providing competitive transport solutions to customers. Scania takes an active role in local communities and sees benefits in managing operations in a sustainable way.

Scania strives to minimise pollution and waste from both production and vehicles in use. Products and systems are designed to provide optimum safety and security.

Scania works actively to emphasise ethical and social values within the organisation. Scania recruits personnel based on competence, always with its core value respect for the individual in mind. There is a strong connection between business ethics, social commitment and the Scania brand.

The purchasing organisation at Scania shall oblige our suppliers to follow the UN universal declaration of human rights concerning employee health, safety, wages and working conditions.

An ethical approach to work and business is the responsibility of every employee in the global structure. Respect for the individual is one of the core values that define how Scania’s employees should behave towards their surroundings and their fellow employees. Each manager is responsible for communicating and ensuring that the ethical guidelines are respected.

Scania agrees with the OECD for multinational enterprises.

Freedom of contract and co-determination
All employees throughout Scania’s global organisation are fully entitled to participate in trade union work, and a majority of employees belong to a union. The level of union affiliation varies in response to local conditions and is lower in France and the Netherlands than in other countries where Scania has production.

In all countries where Scania does business, employees have access to company information and the right to co-determination, as provided by national legislation.

The Scania European Committee is a forum for consultation and information where Scania employee representatives from EU countries meet.
Every manager at Scania is responsible for ensuring compliance with the OECD Guidelines.

Road safety work
A commitment to improving road safety is part of Scania’s heritage and an integral part of its product identity. This approach is implemented in all its operations throughout the world.

To improve road safety it is an important task. Every year there are almost 50 000 deaths from road accidents on the European roads. To tackle this, the European Commission has set a target to halve the number of fatalities by 2010, which Scania strongly supports. On a global level, Scania co-operates with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its worldwide road safety work.

In the efforts to help reduce road accidents involving heavy trucks, Scania works towards raising awareness of the importance of road safety amongst the public, regulators, customers and drivers. To Scania, product development work and training of drivers and customers are the best ways to influence road safety.

Since 1999 Scania has organised bi-annual high-level conferences in Brussels, gathering representatives from the EU institutions, opinion leaders, international and national transport experts, industry representatives and media. In October 2005 the fourth conference was held and the focus of discussion was how to achieve a competitive and sustainable European transport industry, where road safety and environmental issues play a fundamental role.

At each conference Scania has introduced two initiatives to improve road safety. In 2005 these were to support the WHO and to offer the supplementary driver training that will be mandatory for professional bus and truck drivers in the European Union from 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Young European Truck Driver
In 2005 Scania’s Young European Truck Driver road safety competition attracted 13,000 entries – twice as many as the last competition in 2003. The competition took place in 28 European countries. The competition is endorsed by the European Commission and IRU, Shell and Michelin are our main sponsors.

Scania firmly believes in the positive contribution of the Young European Truck Driver campaign as well as of other Scania initiatives and activities in the road safety area, in reaching the aims of the Commission’s road safety work. One of the most effective ways of reducing road fatalities involving heavy trucks is to continue to develop the skills of the drivers.