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With Incident Configuration you can:

• Define the incident types your operation tracks (e.g. Maintenance Defect, Mass Infringement, Fatigue Breach)
• Write severity descriptions for each type — the calibrated anchors that turn the abstract 5×5 matrix into consistent, defensible risk ratings
• Set the locations that appear in incident reports
• Set the notifiable authorities that may need to be informed of certain incidents (NHVR, SafeWork, EPA, etc.) </aside>

Step 1 C) of building your SMS in Hubfleet. Sits between Configuring the 5×5 Risk Matrix (which sets the scale) and Setting Up Escalation Rules (which acts on risk scores). This is where you make the matrix real for your operation — by describing what each severity actually looks like for each incident type.

How Incident Configuration fits into the SMS

Incident Configuration is the calibration layer of the SMS. The 5×5 matrix gives you Very Low → Very High bands. Incident Types tell Hubfleet what kinds of events you track. Severity descriptions tell raters what each band means in real terms for that type of event — so two different people rating the same event arrive at the same answer.

Risk ratings feed into:

• The Risk Register — every risk-rated event appears here, ranked by score
• Escalation Rules — the parent item (Hazard, NCR, Fault, Incident), the Safety Category and the overall risk level together trigger notifications and approvals via your Safety Org Chart
• Hazards, Incidents, NCRs and Faults — all four workflows use the same matrix and the same calibration

Without this calibration, risk ratings drift across the team and the Risk Register becomes noisy. With it, ratings are consistent and the audit trail holds up.

How each workflow hooks into Incident Config

At risk-rate time, every parent item (Hazard, NCR, Fault, Incident) gets two selections:

• Potential Incident Type — pulled from Incident Config. Its severity descriptions are what the rater reads to assign Very Low → Very High.
• Safety Category — Fatigue, Maintenance, Mass and Dimension, Safety. Set separately at risk-rate time; Incident Types are not mapped to Safety Categories in the config.

The differences between workflows are mostly upstream:

• Hazards also have their own Hazard Type taxonomy at creation (separate from Incident Type).
• Incidents are raised against a specific Incident Type from the start.
• NCRs and Faults follow the same risk-rate flow — Potential Incident Type plus Safety Category.

What actually drives the escalation

Hubfleet doesn't fire escalations off the Incident Type alone. The triggers are the combination of: