Fleet risk management and safety survey

The findings were just a small part of a major study into fleet risk management carried out by Fleet News and sponsored by Nissan.

Decision makers for both large and small fleet were questioned for the research. The size of fleets covered ranged from three vehicles to 6,300 and the overall fleet size of the companies questioned was 36,847, with a total of 27,590 cars and 9,257 vans.

The study revealed that just over 28% of drivers had been absent from work due to discomfort suffered behind the wheel. Fleet News said it was surprised that companies were losing productivity because of the problem and urged fleet decision makers to assess driving posture in the same way that office workers are assessed when sitting at the desk.

Accident ratio

Overall, the survey showed that fleet drivers average around 20,000 business miles a year, although some fleets averaged 50,000 business miles over 12 months.

The fleets covered in the survey had 11,897 accidents in the past year, with an average ratio of crashes to fleet size of 28%. This ratio is low compared to previous studies, suggesting that those questioned had a better than average accident record.

The survey also revealed the total number of miles covered by the fleets between each accident was 114,000. Putting this into perspective, a 100-vehicle fleet with drivers covering 100 miles per day would have one accident every two weeks on average.

Fleets were also asked to estimate the financial cost of accidents in the past year. In total, this was £13,592,675, with the highest bill topping £4 million a year and the average put at £123,570.

Safety checks

Driving licence checks were very common among the fleets surveyed, with 95% of those questioned carrying these out. However, the study neglected to find out how frequently licences were reviewed.

The study showed that other basic requirements were being ignored, with a fifth of fleets not bothering to explain company policy on issues such as drink driving and use of mobile phones. Nearly half did not carry out tyre checks, almost 70% had no penalties in place following accidents or fines and more than 70% had no eye test policy in place.

Fleet News added the fact that just over 12% of fleets offered remedial training following accidents was a cause for concern.

Expert advice

Even more surprising was the attitude of fleet decision makers to external advice. When asked if they would be interested in risk management advice from an accredited training provider, 72% said no.

When seeking advice from other parties Fleet News itself ranked highly (42%) - hardly surprising as the study involved readers of the publication. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) also faired well at 19%.

Government and insurers were less likely to be used with the Department for Transport being a source of advice for only 7.5% of fleet decision makers, the same figure for insurance companies.

Only 6% turned to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for advice.

New laws?

It would appear that fleet managers would rather be forced into a more positive approach to risk management, according to the study. Over 64% said they would welcome more laws requiring fleets to take action to improve driver safety.

Fleet News said that this result suggested a need for clearer guidance on which safety issues fleets should be focussing on. "Fleets don't know where to turn," it said. "What they want is clear guidance from the Government telling them what they have to do."

However, Fleet News conceded that steps had already been taken in this area, without a need for new legislation. Last September the Health and Safety Executive published its "Driving at Work" guidance, the first major step taken by the organisation in the area of road safety.

This latest survey found that nearly 61% had seen the publication, an improvement on the 50% level of awareness uncovered around one month after the document was first published.

However, Fleet News commented: "That still means more than one-third of fleets do not understand the official view of their responsibilities to drivers. After all the publicity on the document, there is really no excuse for ignorance."

Legal responsibility

Fleet decision makers were also asked, rather ambiguously, whether or not they knew who would go to court if one of their drivers was killed or seriously injured.

Only 36% of decision makers believed that they would end up in the dock. Instead, the vast majority (78%) believed the managing director of the company would end up in court.

Proposed corporate killing legislation may clarify this legal aspect in due course, however the only definite position currently, according to Fleet News, is that "no one is immune".

It said: "The truth is, they (driver, manager, company boss) all face potential legal action if their failures lead directly to a driver being involved in a fatal accident while carrying out company business."

Useful benchmark

John Maslen, editor of Fleet News, claimed the survey would provide a useful benchmark on safety and risk management for fleet managers across the UK.

He added: "Fleet decision-makers have put health and safety at the top of their agendas for 2004 as they battle with growing demands to meet their duty of care to drivers and the threat of new legislation.

"From the ban on the use of hand-held mobile phones while driving to looming corporate manslaughter legislation, no company can afford to ignore the safety of its drivers any longer.

"The importance placed on health and safety shows the impact Government initiatives have had on fleets during the past few months.

"Many of the results are encouraging. But it is still clear there is a lot of work to be done if employers are to avoid their drivers becoming a statistic on Britain's increasingly congested roads.

Johnny Thomson