Gary Whittam

“There is work to be done on improving the minority of van drivers who are driving badly”

Ford, the UK’s leading light commercial vehicle manufacturer, has launched a new “Wise Van Man” safety initiative, which it hopes will be the catalyst to promote a new generation of skilled commercial vehicle drivers across the country. Ford has been joined in the venture by RoadSafe, the Institute of Advanced Motorists, Drive & Survive, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, Norwich Union and the Freight Transport Association.

In launching the initiative, Gary Whittam, commercial vehicles director, Ford of Britain, says: “As Britain’s market leader we want to maintain momentum on increasing driver safety and linking up with these important partners will enable us to get the message to companies and van drivers across Britain.” He hopes rival LCV manufacturers will join the campaign, along with other organisations in addition to companies already promoting occupational road risk best practices within their van fleets to “champion” the cause.

Mr Whittam says: “This is not about selling more vans. It is about everyone in the LCV sector joining together as a consortium to improve driving standards on the road, save lives and reduce casualties. I shall be working on other manufacturers joining with us over the coming months.

“We are not going to change light commercial vehicle operations overnight, but as manufacturers we can start the process and involve our dealers who can advise on the suitability of vehicles for the purpose intended and can recommend additional skills training for drivers, which will result in fewer accidents, lower maintenance costs and lower insurance premiums. “Fleet operators need to study their schedules to ensure that vehicles are being operated safely and drivers are not speeding to jobs because their timetables are too tight. Companies that operate HGVs already have a safety focus because of the regulations that they must meet, and I hope those disciplines and skills will cascade into the light commercial vehicle arena so the mindset of companies and drivers changes.”

He says that the image of “white van man” is a misconception and that the majority of light commercial vehicles are being driven safely. Nevertheless, Mr Whittam acknowledges that “there is work to be done on improving the minority of van drivers who are driving badly”. At the launch of the initiative, Ford announced that its commercial vehicle retail customers – small business operators – wanting to be a “Wise Van Man” will receive £200 of accredited training with Drive & Survive, culminating with IAM Advanced Driving Test certification.

The training, which sees drivers using their own vehicles in the day, includes on-road driving techniques, dynamics of driving with and without a load, emergency lane changing, low speed manoeuvring and how to deal with a skid (see panel overleaf). And Norwich Union is offering a free seven-day “driveaway” insurance to Ford retail commercial vehicle customers through FordInsure. On confirmation of passing the IAM test, customers will get £60 cashback off a new insurance policy and 5% discount on first renewal and all subsequent renewals, saving around a further £25 a year.

“The moral pressure to reduce crash statistics is strong, but the commercial pressure is huge”

Van safety, according to RoadSafe director Adrian Walsh, is a shared responsibility embracing risk reduction and cost reduction, making journeys safer and employees happier. Last year, 15,728 light commercial vehicles were involved in crashes, resulting in a total of 9,312 casualties. Of those casualties 6,166 were in vans, the remainder being other road users and pedestrians. Broken down, the statistics reveal that 62 van occupants were killed, 569 were seriously injured and 5,535 slightly injured.

While those figures represent a reduction on the average casualty rates for 1994-98 – the period used by the government as it seeks by 2010 to reduce the accident toll by 40% – there remains much work to be done if the target is to be achieved. In the 1994-98 period, 65 van occupants were killed, 950 seriously injured and 6,410 slightly injured – a total of 7,424 deaths and injuries. Over the period, there has been a 30% increase in traffic volumes and there are 2.58 million sub-3.5 tonne vans on the UK’s roads. Mr Walsh says: “Last year a total of 2,207 people were killed or seriously injured in crashes in which a light goods vehicles was involved. If the government target is to be achieved that figure must halve by 2010.

“The moral pressure to reduce crash statistics is extremely strong, but the commercial pressure is huge. There are huge differences between the training and education of drivers and more must be done in both areas if casualties are to be reduced. Most companies do not realise they have a problem and we must work with businesses to help them. “Employers must change the conditions under which employees drive to reduce distractions, time pressure and fatigue, thereby cutting accident levels. Trade unions can help with this.”

Research reveals that more people die on the roads because they fall asleep at the wheel than through drink-driving. Similarly, the use of hands-free mobile phones – the use of hand-held phones is illegal, but hands-free mobiles can be used – is viewed as being as dangerous as being over the drink-drive limit. While the fitting of technology to vans – such as ABS brakes and ESP – can help prevent crashes from happening and the fitting of airbags can reduce injury in the event of a crash, companies may well have to review work procedures and journey scheduling to reduce the number of accidents in which their drivers are involved.

As Chris Baughen, of the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), says: “To improve the safety of their drivers, employers need to change the conditions under which they drive, so as to reduce distraction, time-pressure and fatigue.”

Case study

AAH Pharmaceuticals is focusing on operating a safe fleet driven by safe drivers

“Driver training is not about teaching our employees how to drive; it is about teaching them not to have accidents”

Time pressures on the 1,000 van drivers at AAH Pharmaceuticals are huge as drugs are delivered twice daily to chemists nationwide. A failure to deliver on time could literally be the difference between life and death as without the drugs the pharmacy will be unable to make up the prescription for a customer. As a result, Coventry-based AAH Pharmaceuticals – the UK’s largest pharmaceutical wholesaler and manufacturer, which provides distribution and marketing services to chemists, hospital pharmacies, as well as prison hospitals and since the mid-1990s has been a sister company of high street chain Lloyds Pharmacy – is focused on the importance of operating a safe fleet driven by safe drivers.

AAH Pharmaceuticals operates 600 Ford Transit vans clocking up an average 40,000 miles a year and the Lloyds Chemist fleet numbers 400 Transit Connect vans. In addition, the organisation operates 900 company cars and 150 HGVs. The fleet is the responsibility of Geoff Wright, head of corporate services, a job title that also embraces corporate health and safety responsibilities. He says: “We are not transport experts, but transport is vital to us because it is the way we deliver. If we cannot deliver our products the business collapses and the repercussions are horrendous for the company, our customers and their clients. “I have had to educate the company as to how critical to the business our drivers are in the whole distribution system and the drivers have played a huge role.”

Around 60% of the van fleet are involved in accidents each year and the vast majority of those incidents are the result of manoeuvring in congested shopping areas and rear-end shunts as drivers “race” to meet schedules. Mr Wright says: “As we self-insure, the costs associated with the crashes impacted on our bottom line. But an incident also meant delivery delays, which have a knock-on effect involving many people. It was also clear that both types of accidents were controllable.” In 2006, AAH Pharmaceuticals is to put all 2,000 plus drivers through an on-line risk assessment. Armed with the results, all “high” risk drivers will undergo on-the-road driver training with an assessor sitting in the vehicle as the employee goes about their work. Although driver training is not new to the company – it introduced a Driver of the Year event four years ago – the more methodical and measurable approach represents a departure from the past.

Mr Wright says: “I want the assessor to see the places that the drivers have to call at on a regular basis and evaluate them. Driver training is not about teaching our employees how to drive; it is about teaching them not to have accidents.” The company has also analysed delivery schedules and has introduced dispatch scanning at its warehouses to speed up the loading of orders into vans and has introduced telematic units. “It was clear that many of the issues affecting our ability to deliver were not the drivers’ fault. The information provided from the telematic units help us to improve journey planning and makes sure that we are not asking our drivers to undertake unrealistic schedules that can only be achieved by driving illegally,” says Mr Wright.

Crucially, AAH Pharmaceuticals has involved its driving workforce in the decision-making. Quarterly meetings are held with drivers at branch level and a drivers’ working party meets monthly with company bosses to discuss a variety of issues including driving schedules and vehicle specification. Mr Wright says: “The decision to introduce a Driver of the Year event came out of the drivers’ meeting. The company was told that it was very good at knocking drivers, but not good at praising them. We hope we have rectified that and now our drivers are our ‘eyes and ears’ in terms of improving our fleet operation and service to our customers.

“We have listened to the drivers and we will continue to listen to them. There is no-one better to ask about making the deliveries than the people who make them if we are going to continue to improve our service. The initiatives that we have introduced and will continue to launch have also improved staff motivation and staff retention: employing new people costs the company a lot of money in terms of training. “I would urge other businesses to follow the lead we are taking. Every company can come up with a string of reasons why they shouldn’t take action to reduce accident levels, but as businesses we can exercise a lot more control than we think and with the support of drivers.”