Road Safety and Fleet Management

• November 19, 2020

• Abby Nuttall

According to road safety charity Brake at least a third of road deaths and a quarter of serious injuries in road traffic accidents involve someone driving for work, these include company car drivers, professional drivers of commercial vehicles, or people driving a personal vehicle for business purposes. Which is why, as we are currently in the middle of Road Safety Week, we have decided to take a look at how fleet management can help keep your employees safe on the roads.

Even if your employees don’t drive as part of their job they will usually have to commute so will have some level of work related driving, which is why even if you don’t have a fleet of company cars or run a transport company it’s still worth considering how your business can help keep its employees safe on the roads.

How the Business Can Keep Drivers Safe:

In the current pandemic, we’ve seen the success of digital meetings through platforms like Zoom and Skype instead of face to face meetings and this is something that we expect to see continue post-pandemic. Continuing to use digital platforms for meetings is one way you could reduce the number of work-related journeys and in turn reduce the potential number of accidents your employees are involved in.

There are a number of different ways you can help your employees to stay safe on the roads and these include:

• Encouraging the use of other methods of transport. If staff live close to work and there are safe routes then walking and cycling are greener and healthier methods of getting to the office. Public transport and carpooling were popular methods pre-pandemic and could be again in the future.
• Put in place policies to prevent dangerous behaviours, like banning the use of a mobile phone or requiring regular breaks on long drives.
• There are a number of different driver training schemes you can enrol your employees on if driving is a large or critical part of their job.
• There are also assessments you can ask your employees to take to gage their driving skill and ensure they are safe on the roads.
• Company vehicles should be maintained regularly and serviced in line with the manufacturers to ensure they are in the safest condition possible.
• Additional features like reversing cameras or driver assistance systems can be a great choice if within the budget as they can help prevent an accident whilst being driven by warning of potential hazards.
• Installing telematics on company vehicles can help you monitor driver behaviour like speed, so you can monitor and take action on dangerous behaviour that could be putting the driver at risk.
• Have a clear and easy to understand driver policy and accident procedure in place so that your employees know what is expected of then and any actions they need to take.

Road Safety for Other Road Users:

Although car drivers are the largest group of road users, they are not the only users. You need to be aware of other road users, to help we’ve put together our top tips for all fleet drivers.

• Give them plenty of space, cyclists might need to swerve to avoid a pothole or slow down on an incline and animals are unpredictable and easily spooked.
• Don’t speed as this reduces the time you have to react to potential hazards and other road users. Speeding was a contributing factor in 15% of fatal road traffic accidents in 2019.
• Don’t pressure others to speed, not all vehicles can legally do the same speed limit.
• Be aware that larger vehicles have larger blind spots and have a wider turning circle so need more space when turning and on roundabouts.
• Pay attention, be aware of potential hazards like pedestrians crossing after a stopped bus.
• Be aware of cyclists’ signals, they don’t have the same indicators as motor vehicles and so use their arms to indicate turning and slowing / stopping.
• Learn the rules for pedestrian crossings, cycle tracks and bus lanes.

If you would like to read the full article you can access it here. 

Fleet Management:

If you have a number of company cars or offer them to your drivers through schemes like car allowances or salary sacrifices then you may want to consider a fleet management service.

Managing your fleet and drivers can be time consuming and costly, which is why a lot of companies choose to outsource the management to a specialist third party.

Company vehicles can also be a large drain on the finances if they are not managed correctly, and even if they are the cost of fleet management is often the second largest cost for a business after payroll, as it includes; rental costs, lease invoices, fuel bills and cards, damage repairs, maintenance, tyres, insurance and much more.

Here at Wessex Fleet, we offer tailormade fleet management including; telematics, fuel card management, driver licence checks, vehicle maintenance and servicing, driver training and many more. We like to discuss your needs and make sure that you are only paying for services you really need and to help streamline and improve the process for you and your employees.

If you are interested in fleet management services and how they could benefit your company and drivers please give us a call on 01722 322 888 or take a look at our detailed pages on the services we offer here.