We helped distribute the workload of the Rescue Board more evenly by encouraging people to submit their reports earlier.

To ensure fire safety, public building owners are required to conduct annual reviews on how fire safety regulations are being met. These self-inspections must be shared with the Rescue Board. The reporting process brings thousands of reports to the Rescue Board each year.

Although the reports can be submitted throughour the first quarter of each year, the majority of them reach the Rescue Board in the days immediately preceding the submission deadline. This results in an overload for the Rescue Board’s inspectors and databases, which could be avoided if the reports were submitted more evenly throughout the period.

Our randomised controlled trial csuggested that the Praxis Policy Lab succeeded in advancing the average report submission time by three days. We sent an email to those who had yet to submit their report. To one group, we sent a reminder letter that was also used in 2017. To another group, we sent an updated letter. In this letter, we encouraged the readers to submit their reports earlier, explaining that this way they could complete the task sooner and also receive a response from the Rescue Board more promptly.