“Having 10 years of experience in fleet management does not make someone 'competent' in health and safety terms”

"It usually falls to an employee or officer of the organisation to manage the fleet, often without any previous experience"

• An analysis of the current situation concerning road incidents and their causes within the fleet
• A method for identifying “at risk” drivers
• Training or other interventions designed to reduce occupational road risk
• Monitoring and recording of the outcome of incident rates and their financial impact
• Continuous driver development
• A published undertaking from senior management that the organisation is working to reduce risk

What are the major benefits?

• Enhanced corporate reputation through better-kept vehicles
• Reduction in the risk of litigation and corporate liability
• Reduced insurance claims
• Potential for reduced insurance premiums
• Improved fuel economy
• Reduced driver and vehicle downtime
• Greater health and safety legislation compliance
• Positive change in driver safety awareness
• Creation of a safety-focused culture

What to look for
Fleet review
A company’s risk management provider should be able to carry out a detailed review of the fleet, highlighting areas that need addressing. Many fleets have developed organically over the years and it usually falls to an employee or officer of the organisation to manage the fleet, often without any formal qualifications or previous experience. As a result, many fleets are unable to formulate their own risk management strategy. A risk management provider should be able to furnish the fleet decision-maker or health and safety officer with a variety of documents for use as templates in their organisation and assist in communicating to employees, whether through mail shots or intranet sites.

Financial impact
By working with the fleet insurer or broker, the risk management provider should be able to provide a better understanding of the type of incidents that drivers are experiencing.
This, in turn, provides a clearer picture of the real costs to the business of road incidents, allows performance to be benchmarked against other organisations and provides ideas for a targeted approach to risk management. At this stage, the provider should be able to demonstrate the savings that could be realised by adopting either all or part of the recommendations that would follow.

"One-off driver training is unlikely to be the all-embracing solution"

Risk assessments
To satisfy the requirements of the 1999 Management of Health & Safety at Work regulations, employers are required to carry out risk assessments on their workforce. The advice is that assessments should apply to employees who drive for work. The risk management provider should be able to offer the ability to assess drivers’ risks in at least two ways – either through an in-vehicle driver assessment or via a remote means such as an interactive website, an increasingly popular method that is now offered by a number of risk management providers. Most driver-training companies now offer driver risk assessments either in hard copy form or electronically via CD ROM or the internet. Comparatively few of these assessments have been subject to any accreditation in terms of their ability to accurately predict or reflect the likelihood of a driver being involved in an incident. However, one such study from Napier University has been forthcoming. The study found that one product produced by Interactive Driving Systems (IDS) demonstrated a strong correlation between assessment results and the incident history of individual drivers. If remote risk assessments are to be used, it is important that the selected method has external validation.

Driver training
Any qualified driving instructor can set him or herself up to be an “advanced” or “fleet” driver trainer. The reality is that out of around 30,000 Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs) in the UK, only a few hundred are equipped to deliver training to qualified drivers. The skills required to train or coach at an advanced level are very different from those needed to instruct learner drivers. At the very least, any individual driver-training provider should be an ADI, registered by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). The EU Advanced Project – a report commissioned to establish best practice in advanced driver and rider training across Europe – found that the traits, experience levels and skills required to do the work at its best were not normally associated with driving instructors. There is now a Register of Fleet Trainers, administered by the DSA, for which trainers need extra training and qualifications to apply. While the Register itself is not a guarantee of trainer expertise, most training providers do require their trainers to be on the Register. Organisations such as IAM Fleet and DriveTech (UK) insist that all their respective trainers are on the Register. In a time of ever-increasing and improving vehicle technology and when road hazards – such as the increasing number of road users – are multiplying fast, it is imperative that trainers are kept fully up-to-date in both technical and training matters. From a practical perspective, the only way that this can be achieved is through the implementation of a programme of continuous professional development (CPD) for the trainers by the training provider. Clients should expect to see evidence of CPD from all prospective suppliers. Trainer communications, workshops, audits and training sessions should all be documented and preferably form part of an accepted quality assurance scheme such as ISO9001:2000.

Management information
A company’s risk management provider should be able to provide fleet decision-makers with accurate management information to assist in deciding the next steps of the company’s occupational driving risk-reduction programme.

Continuous training
The provider should make it clear that one-off driver training is unlikely to be the all-embracing solution it is sometimes claimed to be. There will be drivers – identified through the risk assessment processes or via practical training or incident records – who will require further training. The provider should have the resources to deliver this. These should include, for example, off-road facilities for vehicle dynamics training, and trainers skilled in providing post-incident coaching. It is also vital that the risk management provider should be able to provide selected company staff with assessor training to allow them to monitor the driving standards of employees and keep the safety message alive internally.

Summary
When choosing a risk management partner or driver training provider, companies should consider their needs closely – not just how they are at present, but how they could develop over time. Select an organisation with a recognised brand, which is respected within its own industry. Also, seek a provider with the ability to adapt to the company’s changing needs.

Key points:
Look for a breadth of ability, an understanding of risk management concepts and the legislative framework in which they operate.

• Select a provider with a strong infrastructure and substantial resources – essential factors for an effective business-to-business relationship that can only be provided by a well-established organisation
• Check the financial status of the provider. Ensure it carries adequate product and public liability insurance and, if necessary, professional indemnity insurance
• Look to see if the prospective supplier possesses externally validated accreditation, such as ISO9001

There is no product that cannot be made cheaper by a supplier and no service that cannot be downgraded to achieve a lower price. For a customer that buys on price alone, this is an ideal scenario. However, a quality solution will always prove to be more cost effective in the long term.