Chris Cordery, managing director of Aurora Training and Development Services

“The act of driving can seem unproductive and the time it uses up appears to be wasted”

“If only I had more time!” How many times have you heard that statement. Perhaps you use it yourself. On closer analysis, what does it really mean? “Time” is a strange concept. Sometimes it seems to go agonisingly slowly and sometimes surprisingly rapidly. Sometimes a split second means the difference between fame and fortune, like winning an Olympic race and being an anonymous second. And sometimes an hour’s missed revision means failing an important exam and having to retake a whole year’s study.

The really odd thing about “time” is that it doesn’t matter who or what you are, you have the same amount as everyone else. Male or female, rich or poor, old or young; everyone has the same amount of “time” available to them, even though it doesn’t always seem that way. “Time” is an almost unique resource. You can’t stretch it, compress it, save it, lend it or borrow it. Arguably, you can’t buy it either. And yet people still enrol on time management courses in the vain hope that they will be able to give themselves more “time”.

In reality, the Holy Grail that we all seek is not so much to manage “time”, but to use the “time” we have to better effect. So, in reality, what we are really seeking to do is improve our “personal effectiveness”. The trouble is that accepting the need to be more effective implies greater criticism of ourselves than attending a course on time management. You may wonder what this has to do with being a fleet manager. Well, quite a lot actually. While personal effectiveness is, self-evidently, a personal issue, organisations can do a great deal to help when it comes to driving. Why? Because for many organisations and individuals driving is an essential part of business, but it is a time stealer(1).

In other words, the act of driving can seem unproductive and the time it uses up appears to be wasted. This leads some organisations to attempt to make time spent driving more productive, for example by encouraging or allowing drivers to make business telephone calls from their mobile phones. If done within the law, on the face of it this seems perfectly acceptable. But let’s have a closer look.

There are a large number of things a driver can do to minimise the time spent on business journeys. Make telephone calls is one. Drive faster, take fewer breaks and read directions on the way are others. Sure, they save time, although perhaps only a few seconds. But, our thinking goes: “The seconds mount up to minutes and over a year the minutes probably add up to hours.” The logic is irrefutable: the less time we spend driving, the less time will be wasted, the more personally effective we will be. The problem with this logic is that it relies on the “a crash will never happen to me” principle.

“All activities that attempt to minimise time spent driving increase the risks of a crash”

All activities that attempt to minimise time spent driving increase the risks of a crash. Making and receiving phone calls, speeding, fatigue and distractions make driving more dangerous than it already is. Even though most people treat driving as a routine daily activity, by any measure it is extremely hazardous. People who drive in a private capacity make their own personal choices about their approach to safety, but people who drive on business are in a different category. First, in these circumstances driving is considered in law to be the same as any other business activity and, from an employer’s point of view, health and safety legislation applies. This means that the employer of anyone involved in a road crash while driving on business can be held to account for possibly contributing to the incident under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974). That is why the Health and Safety Executive encourages employers to include rules and regulations about safe driving in their company policies.

Second, if we return to the subject of personal effectiveness, while it might seem logical to minimise time spent on the road, it is important to weigh up the risks against potential benefits. Time spent in hospital, waiting for a vehicle to be repaired, at the police station, in court, participating in enquiries, not to mention the anguish caused to family and friends probably puts personal effectiveness in a new context.

Fleet and HR managers can contribute to their own and other employees’ personal effectiveness by having policies in place that minimise the risks of business driving and there is no shortage of advice available. On a personal level, drivers who believe that they are improving their so-called time management skills by taking short cuts on the roads should reflect on their personal effectiveness while in hospital … or worse.

You can find out more about Aurora’s time management/personal effectiveness courses and road safety consultancy at: Website: www.aurora-tds.co.uk

1 “Time stealer” is a phrase used in time management courses to describe personal ineffectiveness. Other time stealers are: interruptions, disorganisation, procrastination, some meetings, ineffective delegation, fatigue.