Waking up to the dangers |
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Meanwhile, with average traffic speeds falling on all types of roads and at all times of the day, road traffic increasing, and congestion in towns and cities now a serious issue for a majority of people, driving for many motorists can be a stressful nightmare. Employers need to wake up to the real scale of the problem, according to HR and road risk specialist Jeremy Hay, managing director of the Essential Risk Consultancy, who says that employers must be aware that the dangers of driver fatigue are far more widespread than many believe. He says: “The UK’s three million company car drivers only make up under half of employees who drive for work, regularly or occasionally. But health and safety rules cover every single employee who uses a car for work. “Firms that encourage or turn a blind eye to ever-longer working hours are sleep-walking into trouble. Few realise they could be prosecuted for aiding and abetting road traffic offences if a tired employee crashes while at work. “A cocktail of severe tiredness and driving is so potentially explosive that employers need to deal with the problem as soon as they become aware of it. Our answer is to remove the root causes of the tiredness by coaching management teams and individuals so they can regain a healthy balance through new ways of working or sometimes playing, if employees are bringing their problems into the workplace from outside. “Occupational road risks fall dramatically when you reduce workers’ levels of stress and tiredness. The real payback from tackling this problem at the organisational level is a significant increase in productivity. After all, if someone is too tired even to drive short distances safely, they cannot be working at anything like their full potential.” There is no doubt that stress and the pressure employees are under to meet work schedules contributes to speeding and, therefore, crashes. The 2005 “RAC Report on Motoring” says that one of the most common excuses given by at-work drivers for speeding is “I was in a hurry”. New research from Bank of Scotland Vehicle Finance, which questioned more than 1,600 company car drivers, reveals that more than 30% admitted to spending between 20 and 30 hours a week behind the wheel and 6% admitted to more than 30 hours a week. In addition, 61% of drivers say they broke the 70mph motorway speed limit as they rushed to fit in more and more business meetings. Eighty per cent of those questioned think that pressures of work, or being late for appointments make them drive faster or less safely, and over 58% do not taking a break every two hours.
Graham Hale, head of corporate business for Bank of Scotland Vehicle Finance, says: “The fact that these hours spent at the wheel has dramatically increased from last year is a worry. Aside from the wear and tear on both driver and vehicle, excessive mileage and time spent behind the wheel exposes an employer to risk. “The financial case for introducing risk management measures, whether it’s driver-training or looking at journey times and schedules in an effort to reduce mileage, is clear. Accidents are a significant proportion of the cost of running company cars and the true cost – time off work through injury, disruption to work patterns – can represent a considerable loss for a business.”
It is not unusual, says Mark Edwards, head of training at IAM Fleet, for organisations to lay down guidelines on the number of hours and mileage covered by their drivers as part of their risk management policy. But, he adds: “Pressure on middle managers to deliver results can often lead to risk management policies set at board level being diluted and the pressure being passed down to field-based staff, many of whom are on performance-driven reward or incentive packages. “As well as having ‘top down’ policies from senior managers, a ‘bottom up’ approach should also be considered. Bodies such as trade unions and professional associations need to be encouraged to support drivers and their adherence to the occupational road risk policies set down by employers. “The majority of incidents occur because one or more road users was not thinking about their driving as a result of stress – perhaps due to work pressure, or fatigue – typically as a result of driving for too many hours. Even at the best of times, it can be difficult for the driver to constantly concentrate on their driving. By adding further pressures or distractions, the driver will inevitably be placed at greater risk, with the potential to place themselves and other road users in danger.” Dave Abbott, director of RAC Risk Management, says that unfortunately there is an in-built belief that road crashes are inevitable in the majority of companies. However, he says: “When employees undertake an RAC Risk Management driver-training course, the comments made on their report are graded and weighted. We attach a score to the comments and that will give a risk profile of the driver and enable comparisons to be made within the same industry sector; within the business; from depot to depot, and so on. “We can then work with management to analyse why one employee has significantly more accidents than a colleague undertaking a similar job. The result may come down to issues such as poor time management and bad journey planning and that can spark change.” If an organisation is to succeed in managing the time and distance covered by its drivers, a clear policy must be in place, as well as an observable commitment from senior managers to implement and police the policy. This will help prevent the risk of such a policy becoming a well-intentioned document that stays in the company handbook and is seldom referred to. A key part of a company’s risk management armoury, which will also improve business efficiency is, according to Peak Performance, technology that will enable journeys to be planned and will, therefore, reduce driver stress and fatigue and help keep road accidents to a minimum. The use of modern technology such as satellite navigation, pc-based electronic route finders, and readily available information on weather and traffic congestion points can all be used to plan journeys well in advance and ensure that drivers are not stressed by poor route planning and inadequate time management. Les Hammond, director of risk management at Chesterfield-based Peak Performance, says: “It’s essential for drivers who drive for work to plan journeys and leave sufficient time to complete them safely, as rushing to make appointments or in an effort to make up time causes stress, and stress increases poor driving behaviour and contributes to the likelihood of being involved in accidents.” Mr Hammond says it is essential that company managers include within the company driving policy and drivers’ handbook advice on journey planning, rest breaks and driving times, and Peak provides examples of this advice in its drivers’ handbook template (which is available to companies by calling the Chesterfield office on: 01246 244200). “Everyone knows you get tired while driving, therefore it’s a known risk and must be managed by the company. If you haven’t assessed the risk to your drivers of inadequate journey planning and time management and adequately covered it within the company policy, you are not complying with latest Health and Safety Executive recommendations in managing driver risk,” he says. Tony Johnston, sales and marketing director of fleet specialist VELO, believes that telematics has a key role to play in providing a solution to numerous risk-related issues. With the launch of the company’s new SafetyNet programme, Mr Johnston says: “Telematics may be a controversial term with some drivers and, as a result, an area where many employers are wary to tread. Used judicially, however, it can be an important risk management and cost control asset to a company. “Tracking and monitoring drivers’ mileage and journey patterns as well as behaviour behind the wheel is becoming increasingly important not just from the risk aspect, but additionally to aid cost control and fuel reimbursement. “Using technology to gather up such essential management information will become increasingly commonplace, especially as fleets begin to appreciate the savings it can deliver.” DriveTech’s top 10 tips for journey planning and fatigue avoidance
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