Driver Safety Hub

Having gone to the trouble of creating your policy, it’s obvious that if the policy is not communicated effectively to all staff, then they’ll not be in a position to follow its guidance.

Simply having a copy on a shelf in the office, or buried within the intranet, is not sufficient. It must be communicated to all drivers – and that includes those who may use their own car for work journeys – they are still driving on behalf of the business and the rules apply to them too.

In the case of other policies, such as mobile phone use, the rules may need to be explained to other relevant staff who may have cause to phone a colleague whilst driving.

In a recent survey carried out for Driving for Better Business, we found that 1 in every 6 employees who drive for work said they’ve been involved in an incident due to a phone call from a colleague.

You will also need to ensure that the policy is built into your staff induction or onboarding process. New staff will copy the behaviour of more experienced employees so, when new team members join, go through the policy with them and explain the importance of safe driving. If the policy is working, they’ll see other staff putting it into practice.

One of the most effective ways of communicating policy is through a driver handbook. Your handbook might include your whole policy or instead focus on some key elements with additional safety advice and guidance as a way of supporting and reinforcing the policy.

You will also need to keep records to show that this has been done.

You should be able to show that all your drivers have:

• Received the policy
• Read the policy
• Understood the policy
• Agree to abide by the policy

You may have given your employee a copy of the policy when they joined, and provided them with a driver handbook but it is good practice to remind them of its contents from time to time.

It is increasingly common that line managers are required to discuss Driving for Work issues with drivers at their annual appraisals. This might involve discussing any collisions, failure to carry out vehicle checks or reports of poor driving, but is also an opportunity to refresh their memory on company policy.

You could also look to issue timely reminders on safe driving guidance such as winter driving advice, vehicle checks, and the use of mobile phones whilst driving.

Remember, the benefits of good communication include:

• Drivers knowing what’s expected of them.
• Drivers being kept up to date with changes in legislation.
• Easier process of dealing with drivers for not following policy if the policy has been communicated effectively.

Employers have a responsibility to make appropriate checks to ensure anyone they ask to drive for work is legally able and competent to do so. It sounds obvious but many don’t.

The Road Traffic Act 1988 states that it’s an offence for a driver to drive without a valid licence. The Act also states that it’s an offence for a person or organisation to permit a driver to drive without a valid licence. So having a robust system in place to check drivers’ licenses will help you catch someone without a valid licence.

We also need to check if they have any penalty points, and whether they’re eligible to drive the class of vehicle required. The checks will also highlight if drivers need glasses or have any other medical issues that may affect their ability to drive.

Every year, tens of thousands of drivers have their licences revoked for a variety of offences, while tens of thousands more have to surrender their licence for medical reasons. Regular checks will pick these up. Licences should therefore be checked at least annually directly with the DVLA.

Your driver checks and records systems should include:

• Licence Checks – penalty points
• Eyesight and medical checks
• Vehicle category eligibility
• Insurance for business use (if they drive their own car for work)
• Policy receipt and acceptance (as we discussed in the previous segment)
• Delivery of any training requirements
• Collision or incident record
• Driving offences and fines
• Any complaints or disciplinary action taken against the driver

It’s important to remember that passing the driving test does not necessarily make someone competent to drive for work so it’s essential to check what experience they have.

If you’re asking a younger driver to travel 20,000 miles on a motorway each year, or asking someone to drive a van for the first time, or tow, it’s vital that you take the time to ensure they are both competent and comfortable doing so. If you need to provide any additional training and guidance, make sure that gets noted in your system.

These driver checks are an absolutely vital part of your duty of care.

The benefits of a robust driver checking system include:

• Preventing the recruitment of unlicenced or ineligible drivers.
• Quickly picking up medical issues or poor vision standards.
• Identifying higher-risk drivers and those with penalty points.
• Ensuring drivers have the right experience and competence.

Vehicle roadworthiness is one of the biggest challenges today. It’s an issue that the police and DVSA are taking increasingly seriously with regular compliance stops across the country where suspect vehicles are pulled in and checked. Policies and procedures to promote regular vehicle checks and ensure they’re in a safe, legal and well-maintained condition are therefore essential.

Vans and other commercial vehicles should all receive a full pre-use daily check with a written defect report – as part of an electronic reporting system if possible. If a safety-critical fault is found, the vehicle must not be allowed to be used until the fault has been rectified. Any faults that aren’t safety-critical need to be fixed at the earliest opportunity.

Your vehicle defect management system should include:

• Guidance to car and van drivers on what checks are required.
• A procedure for reporting defects.
• Another procedure for rectifying the defects.
• Ensuring regular service and maintenance is carried out on time.
• Prompt resolution for any MOT advisory notes.

The driver is entitled to expect the company to fix any issues immediately such as worn tyres, damaged windscreen, or faulty lights as these are safety issues for which the driver could be penalised if stopped by the police.

Be aware that an MOT test only checks for basic defects, and does not guarantee the safety of a vehicle. It is also only a snapshot of the vehicle’s safety on that particular day – it does not mean the vehicle is safe to use until the MOT expires. Government statistics also show that approximately a third of cars and half of all vans fail their MOT test at the first attempt. Regular checks are essential to maintain the safety of the vehicle.

To ensure your vehicles stay safe, things to monitor include:

• Key dates including MOTs, Road Tax and servicing.
• Service and maintenance records.
• Damage repairs and repair authorisations.
• Fuel spend.
• Pool cars and other vehicles not assigned to individual drivers.

Drivers should be encouraged to formally check and report on the condition of any vehicle given to them for the first time, especially if it has been bought pre-used or transferred from another person within the company.

An effective vehicle defect management system means:

• You can be confidence your vehicles are safe and roadworthy.
• Minimise vehicle downtime.
• Encourage drivers to take greater care of vehicles.
• There is less chance of vehicles being pulled over by Police/DVSA.
• There is less chance of a collision or breakdown due to mechanical failure.
• The risk to both the driver and the business is reduced.
• Vehicle downtime for maintenance and repair is minimised.

Running company vehicles can be an expensive business. While poor driving can obviously put your drivers and other road users at risk, it can also cost your organisation huge amounts of money, but often in ways you may not realise.

This is the basis of any business case to invest in further driver safety. While serious incidents may be quite rare, most businesses suffer regular instances of lighter damage and increased wear and tear on the vehicles due to poor or aggressive driving. Focusing on reducing these smaller incidents and excessive costs will not only bring significant business benefits, but the safe working practices you introduce will reduce the likelihood of a more serious incident occurring.

The most obvious costs are fleet insurance and repairs arising from unnecessary vehicle damage, whether that be serious collisions or just avoidable parking scrapes. A firm with a poor claims history can easily pay three, four, even five times the amount for fleet insurance as a well-managed fleet with a good track record.

Even if you haven’t claimed on your insurance, you might be paying for the damage in other ways such as end-of-term penalty chargebacks from your leasing company that can prove very expensive.

Simple repairs such as replacing a broken mirror can cost hundreds of pounds each because many now have remote control adjustment, blind spot monitors and side repeater indicators built in.

If you buy your vehicles outright, then the reduced resale value of a poorly cared for vehicle means more money is needed for a replacement.

However, there are many hidden costs that are also involved such as the increase in admin and management time sorting out claims and repairs, right up to staff absence, vehicle off road time and business disruption if the incident was more serious.

Operational costs such as fuel, tyres, routine service and maintenance, insurance and damage repairs are often simply seen as the cost of doing business yet they can be significantly higher than they need to be when drivers and vehicles aren’t being managed properly.

Poorly managed drivers will often be prone to poor standards of driving which means they’ll often accelerate or brake more harshly, speeding and driving too close to the vehicle in front in order to keep up with their schedule. This naturally results in greater wear and tear on the vehicle and a higher chance of a collision.

Higher than average fuel use, tyre spend, maintenance costs and damage repair costs are therefore all reasonably good indicators of opportunities to improve driver safety management.

Good management is about measuring and monitoring this type of data to highlight the where behaviour is impacting costs. This will allow you to work towards:

• Reduced insurance and repair costs
• Reduced maintenance and operational costs
• Reduced fuel use and environmental impact
• Less drain on management and admin time
• Less business disruption from vehicles being off the road

One of the biggest challenges in managing both drivers and vehicles is ensuring your records are both up to date and accurate. Your system must contain all the information you need – and for that information to be easy to find when you need it.

We call it having a robust audit trail. It means that you can quickly and clearly identify what upcoming actions need to be carried out and whether any urgent trends or issues need addressing. It also means you can clearly prove that all of those tasks were completed correctly and at the appropriate time.

Trying to do this using multiple spreadsheets or a paper filing system can be troublesome. It often means monitoring data on a regular basis takes up valuable extra time, the information may not be complete and there is a good chance you could miss something important.

A good system will allow you to report by exception rather than checking every item, so you’ll know immediately which vehicles need tax, an MOT or a service, especially important if you have a larger fleet. You’ll also be able to spot immediately if a driver hasn’t accepted the driving for work policy, has reached a concerning level of penalty points or if they’re due some refresher training.

A modern fleet management software solution will help you keep on top of:

• Driver checks.
• Policy acceptance.
• Driver training.
• Vehicle servicing.
• MOT and road tax renewals.
• Collision history.
• Maintenance and repair costs.
• Fuel use.

Reliable record keeping also means that, if there’s a serious incident, you can quickly lay your hands on all the relevant information regarding that particular driver and vehicle. This allows you to prove that you and the company had done what you were required to do in the way of policies, driver checks, training, vehicle maintenance, etc.

A key point here is who was actually driving – if you have multiple drivers accessing the same vehicle, either as part of a crew, or due to the same vehicle being used across different shifts, it is essential you can identify who was driving at any given time.

Not only does this give you confidence that you’ve done everything required in the event of an investigation, but it also allows you to be more effective at your job, spending time where it’s really needed.

Accurate record keeping means you can be confident that:

• You’ve got consistent and accurate records with nothing missing.
• You’re making the most efficient use of your time.
• You can quickly see and deal with warnings and red flags.
• You have a robust audit trail of all your legally required actions.

Reporting is essential because it shows what needs addressing in order to keep your drivers and vehicles safe. It keeps focus where it’s needed and prevents time being wasted on the wrong things.

Reporting is also essential for Directors because managing road risk is a shared responsibility. Directors have the ultimate legal responsibility because it is they who’ll be called to account if it all goes wrong. Risk management duties can be delegated to a safety manager but the ultimate duty of care can’t.

Directors have a moral responsibility for ensuring that nobody gets hurt in the normal operation of the business. And they have a financial duty to shareholders and staff to ensure that the business doesn’t waste money – and poor management of drivers and vehicles can waste an awful lot of money! Directors therefore need to be fully aware of what’s going on with their drivers and vehicles.

Reporting to directors should include:

• Collision frequency, severity and cost.
• Staff absence and vehicle downtime from incidents.
• Likely impact on fleet insurance costs.
• Uninsured damage repairs.
• Maintenance and servicing costs.
• Fuel use and efficiency.
• There may well be other things to report too depending on the size and complexity of your fleet.

Reporting allows you to set baselines and metrics. It allows you to track trends in both collision rates and operational costs. It also provides the basis for developing, implementing and tracking plans to rectify adverse trends.

There’s no set frequency for reporting but it does need to be regular – monthly or quarterly is good practice. Get your insurers to agree to provide regular reports on claims activity to help with this. What you can’t do is just discuss road risk on the odd occasion that something goes wrong. Road risk needs to be managed properly to minimise the chance of something going wrong and maximise the operational benefits of running a well-managed fleet.

To summarise, road risk needs to be managed – and, if you aren’t measuring, monitoring and reporting, then you aren’t managing it – simple as that. Regular reporting holds everyone to account.

Regular reporting means:

• You’ll know where your time needs to be spent to get the best results.
• Ability to quickly analyse and act on fleet trends.
• You’ll be better able to control both risk and cost.
• Directors will be aware of the issues you’re dealing with.
• You’ll be confident you’re making a positive difference.

This is the last article in this short series about driver safety essentials. Our goal was to help you understand the basics of what is needed to manage driver and vehicles safety but there are plenty of opportunities to go beyond this with industry accepted good practice to really improve safety and bring down collisions. We’ll be looking at these opportunities in greater detail in future feature articles.