I believe one of main reasons that companies, who choose not to implement any form of driver risk management, do so, is not because of the costs. The costs of providing a robust driver assessment and training programme is tiny in comparison to doing nothing to meet your duty of care obligations. One of the main reasons is managers are worried about how their drivers will react to assessments and training.

Drivers can be obstructive if the reasons are not explained to them, telling a driver he/she has to complete an online driving assessment because it is now company policy, won’t alleviate their fears. However, telling your drivers that the reason is because the company is looking to comply with Health & Safety requirements and because it values its staff, will get a better response. Remember a risk management programme should involve all staff and directors that drive on company business and we always recommend that directors should be the first to do their assessments and training if required.

It is also worth informing drivers that the company recognises that vehicles crash for many different reasons, not always because of a lack of skill by the driver, other reasons include for example fatigue. The risk assessment will highlight any areas for improvement; this could be the driver or management such as scheduling if fatigue is a factor.  If your drivers are still resisting the process, ask them if they would be happy boarding a jumbo jet, where the pilot learnt to fly a 2 seater light aircraft 20 years ago and hasn’t had any refresher training. Remember we can all learn more about driving every day, if that’s not true why do F1 racing drivers have coaches telling how to knock off ½ second from their lap time.

At E-Training World we often notice negativity from drivers at the start of a new contract, normally because managers haven’t explained the reasons why the company is using our systems. However, the good news is, in nearly all cases drivers soon see the benefits and embrace the programme. So managers don’t be scared of your drivers, the alternative could cost you personally and your company dearly.

The UK is always looking for ideas to reduce casualties on our roads, so I thought I would take a look at just three ideas from America.

Idea No 1:  Undertaking, in American drivers are allowed to pass other vehicles on either side. This you might think is dangerous, but we in the UK have the same rules for a one-way street. What is a motorway? In my opinion it is a one-way street, except it has better visibility with fewer hazards such as bicycles, pedestrians, parked vehicles etc, yes I know you will say the speeds on a motorway are higher than on one-way streets, but it is all relative.

In my opinion this is an idea we should adopt in the UK, it would help to reduce congestion.

Idea No 2:  School buses, in America school buses are very distinctive and have one special rule. ‘Vehicles must not pass a school bus whilst children are boarding or getting off’,  all traffic on both sides of the road must stop’ The other good point is children receive training on topics such as evacuating the bus in an emergency.

In my opinion, the UK should adopt this idea and get rid of the practise of the cheapest bidder winning the contract. Giving the contract to transport children to and from school to the lowest tender, results in the coach company using its oldest vehicles on the contract and with margins low, there is often no money for either driver training or training the children.

Idea No 3:  Turning left on red traffic lights. The Americans are allowed to turn right (they drive on the right, UK drives on the left) when the traffic lights are red. This appears to work well.

In my opinion, although this works well across the pond, it would be a disaster in the UK. We have very different roads in the UK e.g. we have roundabouts many also have traffic lights on them. Just imagine the chaos if we all turned left on red, well don’t we all turn left when we enter a roundabout? Then there is the problem that a lot of pedestrian crossings are located at junctions, imagine trying to cross a busy road when drivers are turning left on a red light and would it mean that at a Pelican crossing (pedestrian crossing controlled by traffic lights) a driver could turn left if the red light was showing and whilst pedestrians were crossing?

We can learn from other countries, but I believe we have some of the best road safety experts here in the UK, it’s just a pity that our political masters don’t always listen to experts.

So why will this year be harder for the traditional fleet training companies, when business is better? The answer is simple; traditional driver training relies on trainers, some of these trainers would have found other jobs during the recession, but more of a problem for the training company is cash flow! The trainers will all want paying at the end of the month for work completed that month, but the training company will have to wait 60 days or more to be paid. Even the largest companies in the fleet driver training industry would have seen their cash reserves dwindle in the last 12 – 18 months.

The other problem for the larger traditional companies is the popularity of online driver assessment and training systems, partly because they are much cheaper than traditional training and partly because with modern computer technology the e-learning systems are very good, resulting in crash reduction statistics which compare very favourably with on road driver training.

Now I am not against on road training, but I also live in the real world and understand that with limited budgets companies want more value for their money. For that reason E-Training World developed the e-60 package. This combines online solutions with on road training for those drivers who would benefit from that type of training and for a single payment of £60 per driver. That’s another reason why traditional driver training companies will find it harder this year, but that’s their problem, we at E-Training World are only concerned with providing the best on & off line systems / services at affordable prices.

Due to the current economic climate managers are asking drivers to do that bit more: driving home, when in the past they would have stayed the night in a hotel, or making that extra delivery / meeting. This results in drivers, driving when fatigued and spending more time in the driving seat. This is a false economy, if the driver crashes because he is tired, obviously any saving on a hotel will be far outweighed by the cost of a crash. Also with drivers spending longer behind the wheel, they could be more likely to develop back problems.

The very same drivers who are off work with back problems are also the same people targeted by daytime TV adverts from No Win-No Fee firms. The temptation of drivers to make a claim, is a serious threat to businesses who could end up paying compensation and having their reputation damaged by the whole process.

This is just one example where the company has to be vigilant against any health & safety breach, because if they don’t their employees will make them pay.

I continue to feel we are mollycoddling drivers far too much these days. Does the employer really have to give advice on offering models suited to the tasks of drivers, with appropriate levels of seat adjustability to ensure good postures to be adopted at all times? Quite frankly I find this laughable.

Will we reach a point where the company has to ask the driver if they can reach the pedals OK? Or are they stretching too far to use the gear stick safely and without shoulder pain? And is there a possibility that they could get their hand trapped in the door? Where is the driver’s responsibility in all of this?

We are, regrettably, in an era where employees are deemed completely faultless and the employer is always to blame. It’s for this reason that on our online profiling system we ask the driver to confirm that they haven’t suffered any back problems when driving. By recording that the driver is ‘injury free’ this at least gives the employer a dated audit trail that can be used if someone suddenly feels inspired to make a claim.

I asked the question; “if the driver failed to stop and ran into the back of the vehicle ahead and the crash resulted in the death of the driver, who would be responsible”?  The answer came straight back. “The driver is responsible”.  OK the speaker has to sell his products, so you might expect him to say that! But the speaker didn’t reply to my question, it was a member of the audience who were primarily, Fleet Managers.

I have mentioned before that drivers need to be responsible for their own actions, but in circumstances where a safety device fitted to a vehicle is adjusted by a manager, presumably for commercial reasons (I can’t think of any sensible reason why anyone would adjust the settings on a safety device) then the vast majority of the blame for the crash should sit with the fleet manager and the directors of that company. 

I wonder if that fleet manager or the directors would be happy to put it in writing that the fleet manager may adjust this safety device fitted to company vehicles, I very much doubt it!

But why do drivers get themselves into such embarrassing situations? The answer is the same reason that drivers have crashes, killing and seriously injuring 1000’s of people in the UK alone. The answer is in the title of this blog, ‘observation’.

Drivers just don’t observe and that’s why we hear people saying things like “suddenly” , “out of nowhere”  or “all of a sudden”. I bet one of those words/phrases will be used by a driver when describing a crash they were involved in.  “The child ran out of nowhere” WRONG! The child ran out of an area that I didn’t look at or didn’t look at properly. “It all happened suddenly” WRONG! I was not looking far enough ahead.

A few years ago, when I was the Managing Director of Pro-Drive (at the time Pro-Drive was one of the leading Fleet Risk Management and Driver Training companies in the UK) we ran a survey to find out how many road signs drivers on assessment noticed, our results were quite frightening as an average of only 12 out of every 100 were noticed and just 6 out of every 100 signs where the drivers took the appropriate action.

Let’s see how you get on.

What is the maximum speed for a car on a single carriageway road displaying this sign?

what does this sign mean?

what does this sign mean?

what does this sign mean?

Correct answers at bottom of this blog.

 How did you get on?  If you answered one or more incorrectly then you would benefit from our online e-driver training programme. For just £30.00 + VAT this programme will take you through a complete advanced driving course plus many other related topics in the comfort of your home or office.

(a)  60 mph            (b) minimum speed 30 mph            (c)   end of dual carriageway            (d)  other danger

The Closing Gap Between

Fleet and Driver Management

21 April 2010

Fleet management has always been about the vehicle. Dealing with maintenance, handling accidents, managing disposals and ensuring it is operational, mobile and being run at the most efficient whole life cost possible.

But with an entire industry and set of professions built around fleet management, we now see ourselves entering a new era – Driver Management.

• Drivers need risk assessing
• Grey fleet drivers need managing (even though their vehicles are not directly within control of their employer)
• Telematics monitor driver (rather than vehicle) behaviour
• Accidents are caused by drivers
• No win-no fee firms are providing greater temptation than ever for drivers involved in accidents to make personal injury claims
• And place 2 drivers in identical vehicles and each will run up very different whole life costs – all down to their attitude and driving style.

Talk to any major contract hire company and they will tell you that driver management is now being integrated into vehicle management.

Talk to any fleet manager and they will tell you that their role has shifted too.

So, what is the future of fleet?

And what do we need to do to ensure we are well equipped to manage this changing landscape?

This one day E-Training World workshop looks at how Vehicle and Driver Management are becoming increasingly combined.

In plain English it looks at the issue of Managing Occupational Road Risk, at how fleet management can integrate with driver risk management and what the new model for professional fleet management will look like.

The day will be a combination of presentations, discussion and debate where future best practice is discussed and shared.

For more information and to reserve your place contact Graham Hurdle on 07740 780814 or email graham@e-trainingworld.com

More details and our speaker schedule are below.

        Vehicle vs Driver

The Closing Gap Between

Fleet and Driver Management

21 April 2010

Date:                            21 April 2010

Arrival (tea / coffee):    10.00 a.m.

Start:                            10.30 a.m.

End:                             3.30 p.m.

Location:                      Hilton Warwick

Cost:                            £47.00 including VAT, Lunch, Parking

Does it matter that these people don’t have insurance?  If an uninsured driver badly injures another road user will the injured person get compensation?  The answer is yes, because all of us insured drivers pay an extra £45.00 on our insurance premium to cover the compensation claims from those uninsured drivers. So in reality it is only us law abiding drivers who suffer. Now where have I heard that before!

What is the punishment for not having insurance? The fine is a level five fine so the maximum will be £5000.00 but the three drivers detailed above; the struggling builder, the elderly lady and the young driver (providing the old lady and the young driver are like a lot of people in their age groups, on low income) will be fined maximum 175% of their weekly income, see table below.

For the purpose of the offence guidelines, a fine is based on one of three bands (A, B or C) the selection of the relevant fine band, and the position of the individual offence within that band, is determined by the seriousness of the offence.

Starting point                                            Range

Fine Band A

50% of relevant weekly income        25 – 75% of relevant weekly income

Fine Band B

100% of relevant weekly income      75 – 125% of relevant weekly income

Fine Band C

 150% of relevant weekly income      125 – 175% of relevant weekly income

So if you have ever wondered why your insurance premium keeps rising, it is because you are paying for that 18 year old who gets about £100 per week and can’t afford car insurance that is likely to cost about £1500.00 and he knows the maximum he will be fined (if he gets caught by one of the few traffic police the UK has left) is about £150.00 with a 1/3 off for pleading guilty. He will get 6 – 8 points on his licence, but as he would have held his licence for less than 2 years he will automatically revert back to learner status and have to pass the driving test again. This in most cases has the effect of our uninsured driver also being an unlicensed driver, so completely out of the system.

I do however; think I have a solution to uninsured drivers. The reason drivers get away with being uninsured is because there is no visible sign that they have insurance unlike a car tax disc. If drivers were given a number plate when they passed the driving test, this plate would remain with the driver for the rest of their driving life, taking it from one vehicle to another. The plate would also indicate via a badge that the driver has a valid licence, insurance, MOT and has paid the car tax. This badge would be issued each year only when the driver is completely legal.

You may have other ideas how we can stop all these illegal drivers, that cost us legal drivers so much. If you do please add your comments.

10.  Driving with unrestrained pets. Just think what would happen if your small dog got stuck under the pedals or in the event of a crash that small dog will weigh as much as a baby elephant at 30 mph.

9.  Overloading the car.  All vehicles are designed for a purpose and cars certainly aren’t designed to transport the entire   contents of a 3 bedroom house even when it is in ‘flat pack’ form.

8.  Wheel spin away from the traffic lights.  We see drivers do this every day only to get caught at the next set of traffic lights.

7.  Changing lanes in traffic queues.  You would think that drivers would have learnt by now that if drivers change lanes just because that lane is moving more, due to the increase volume of traffic now in that lane, it will slow down and the lane he was originally in, will move faster.

6.  Dirty windows and lights.  Hello drivers! It takes a few seconds to wipe the dirt off the windows and lights and you can then see better.

5.  Talking on the mobile phone.  You cannot concentrate on two things at the same time (its called being human) so don’t expect to remember even half of the conversation, big problem if it is a business call. Your driving skills will also diminish, so expect to crash or at least get a few honks on the horn from other drivers.

4.  Overtaking inappropriately.  Why do drivers risk life with dodgy overtakes only to turn off at the next junction. Before you overtake, ask yourself: Is it safe, legal and necessary?

3.  Fluffy dice.  Why do some drivers insist on restricting their view? To drive safely you need to be very observant and yet some people think fluffy dice, stickers all over the windscreen and soft toys propped up on the dashboard are more important.

2.  Holding onto the roof.  You see these drivers as soon as the temperature starts rising in spring, they are the drivers who put their arm out of the window holding onto the roof. If the cars roof hasn’t come off during the winter it will stay on during the summer. Keep both hands for driving the car.

1.  Impatience.   Every day we all come across impatient drivers, they annoy the hell out of the good drivers. Although it is funny when it goes wrong for the impatient driver, except often it’s not just them that end up paying for their attitude.