Risky business

Corporate focus on containing and cutting costs is at a level not seen since the recession of the early 1990s so a boardroom occupational road risk management action plan is a business essential

As organisations large and small grapple with the impact of the credit crunch, the slump in consumer spending and the overall economic downturn, ensuring management and director buy-in to a comprehensive at-work driving safety strategy makes financial as well as legal and moral sense.
    
More people are killed and seriously injured on Britain’s roads while driving on behalf of their employer than in any other work-related activity.
    
It is estimated that 200 deaths or serious injuries a week in road crashes involve someone while driving a car, van or truck on business, which is why the government has identified managing occupational road risk as a key issue within its road safety agenda.
    
Consequently, the government launched its ‘Driving for Better Business’ initiative, which has seen companies running many of Britain’s most safety-focused fleets recruited as ‘business champions’. In turn, these companies are being used as beacons of best practice to spread the benefits gathered of running a world-class occupational road risk management programme nationwide.

Establishing a network
The initiative is being managed by automotive-led road safety charity RoadSafe and programme manager Caroline Scurr said: “The establishing of a network of road safety at work champions with a proven track record of promoting occupational road risk management in their business, has sparked significant interest from other organisations that have historically turned a blind eye to the issue.
    
“While many organisations are aware of the raft of health and safety legislation, road traffic laws and most recently the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act that firms that expect staff to drive on business must abide by, they are often unaware of how to implement a safe driving strategy and often only see it as a cost.
    
“Not only does RoadSafe and the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme highlight action steps, but we can prove through our ‘business champions’ that a safety-focused driving at-work strategy significantly cuts costs.”
    
An initial business-wide risk assessment resulting in an audit trail of employees and the company leading to a cultural change through the implementation of an occupational road risk management action plan is essential.
    
The plan should focus on improving driver safety, ensuring vehicles are fit for purpose and journey planning and scheduling as well as rules on drink and drug-driving and particularly advice on the morning after - many drink-driving offences are committed on the drive to work the next day following a previous night out.
    
Drivers should also be made aware of company rules relating to issues such as mobile phone use - RoadSafe recommends that hands-free phones are not used while driving in addition to hand-held phones, use of which is against the law - and driving while tired with 15-minute breaks recommended every two hours.

Company responsibility
Crucially, the action plan and subsequent audit should focus not just on employees at the wheel of company-provided vehicles, but also staff who drive their own cars and vans on business. In the eyes of the law, companies are responsible for all staff and vehicles driven on business, irrespective of the ownership of the car or van.
    
Checking the validity of employee driving licences is a suggested starting point. This can then be followed by individual risk assessments being undertaken on each driving member of staff and their vehicle with many companies turning to online profiling of at-work drivers.
    
While there are a myriad number of web-based risk profiling systems on the market, most will result in staff being given a ‘low’, ‘medium’ or ‘high’ risk rating. Those in the latter two categories will undoubtedly need additional training, invariably on-road.

Recording driver details
As well as recording driver licence documentation details, the recording of comprehensive vehicle-related details is also essential. While organisations are likely to be able to access insurance and maintenance records for company-provided vehicles, the same needs to be true of privately-owned vehicles driven on business.
    
While administratively cumbersome it is essential that companies have detailed records of all vehicles driven on business covering: insurance, Vehicle Excise Duty renewal dates, servicing and maintenance schedules as well as MoT certificates if over three year sold.
    
With employees also feeling the financial pinch, staff who drive their own cars on business may look to ‘cut corners’ in terms of saving on vehicle insurance, servicing and maintenance costs.
    
Coupled with the onerous administrative burden, the net result is that some companies are turning to car rental as a viable safety-focused alternative to staff using their own cars on business.
    
Invariably, amongst the newest vehicles on the road and maintained in accordance with manufacturer schedules, rental can make economic as well as legal sense for companies. It also saves on mileage reimbursement charges.
    
“While there is an upfront cost to introducing risk management measures and establishing policies and procedures, the spin-off benefits and financial savings are numerous,” said Ms Scurr.
They include:

• 20 per cent reduction in crashes and related costs in the first 12 months with additional savings in future years
• saving in ‘hidden’ costs - lost orders and output, administration costs, legal fees and general business interruption - of around three times the cost of a crash 
• five per cent vehicle wear and tear saving due to drivers adopting a more sympathetic style of driving
• 5-7 per cent fuel economy improvement
• four per cent improvement in vehicle residual values
• Significant reductions in insurance premiums and excesses.

She added: “The overall savings per vehicle will more than cover the cost of any driver assessment and training required to both improve employee safety and comply with a company’s duty of care responsibility.
    
“Additionally, our ‘business champions’ also report many other benefits such as improved staff morale and improved public image. Legal action as a result of a court case resulting can be both publicly embarrassing and very damaging to any business.”

Police investigation
In the event of an at-work driver being involved in a road crash, investigating police officers will want to question not only those involved in the incident, but company managers.
    
They will want questions answered in relation to the driver, the vehicle and the journey. A carefully compiled ‘live’ audit should be able to provide the required answers. However, the inability to provide information will result in the investigation gathering momentum.
    
Instead of focusing on the business, management and director time will be spent on answering police questions. Ultimately, the business and individual managers/directors could face cou­rt action - in addition to the rogue driver.
    
That is not a legal, financial or moral price that any company should want to pay, which is why organisations such as Bury St Edmunds-based brewer Greene King has become a ‘business champion’ after putting in place a raft of measures that saw it slash its road crash costs by more than £150,000 in 2006/7 as its in-house developed safe driving initiative continued to pay dividends.
    
In the last four years more than 500 members of staff - HGV, LGV and company car drivers as well as occasional pool car drivers and employees who drive their own car on business - have all completed individual three-hour driving assessments under the eagle eye of the company’s driving safety advisor Paul Blackman.
    
He said: “Not only does Greene King have a duty of care towards its employees, but as a business we want to make sure our staff are safe on the road at all times.
    
“By highlighting the dangers of work-related road risk and recognising the financial costs of accidents, Greene King has been able to improve profitability and contribute to the safety of staff by making them more risk aware. I would advise all companies not to bury their head in the sand.”

Financial savings
Mobile services phone and data providers T-Mobile has seen huge financial savings and improved the safety of its employees after equipping 250 vehicles with technology to monitor driver behaviour.
    
The installation of GreenRoad Technologies’ Safety Center’s dashboard-mounted display with green, red and yellow lights is an in-vehicle sensor that monitors 120 driver actions involving speed, braking, acceleration, lane handling and turning.
    
Nigel Wilkinson, T-Mobile’s head of health, safety and environment, said the technology had more than paid for itself as the company has witnessed a £417,000 saving in bent metal costs and fuel savings of around £20,000 (a three per cent saving) in just 12 months as well as huge reductions in staff sickness rates and administration relating to road crashes.
    
Hatfield-based T-Mobile is another ‘business champion’ and Mr Wilkinson added: “T-Mobile wants to be leaders in the health and safety protection of employees and becoming a ‘business champion’ is helping us to do that. The government is right to encourage employers to take steps to protect their at-work drivers and hopefully we will see a reduction in road traffic accidents.”