GreenFleet

While driver training can satisfy health and safety, duty of care, employee welfare and ultimately cost reduction objectives, a holistic approach to driver improvement is the key to successfully reducing the risks associated with driving.
    
The IAM positively influences the driving and riding of around 160,000 people a year. It has grown to become a leading voice on road safety issues, dedicated to raising driving standards of the UK road using public. Its occupational driver training division, Drive & Survive, leads more than 35,000 company drivers through Driver Risk Management (DRM) programmes each year. Together, the IAM and its professional training division provide an overall approach to tackling the effects of having more than 33 million road users in the UK, and an annual death toll to match.
    
“People who drive for work are often under pressure – the effect of the competitive nature of business today. They are incentivised to work longer hours and achieve pressing targets,” says Drive & Survive Managing Director Seb Goldin.
    
“They spend long days behind the wheel and drive when tired so it’s not surprising that these pressures feed into driving behaviour.  
    
“Occupational road safety contributes significantly to the overall road toll internationally, as well as occupational injury and death rates. An overall approach with targeted initiatives can play a significant role in improving general road safety.
    
“This means a company’s focus should not just be on cost reduction or achieving company financial goals, the focus should be on managing each of these aspects through an overall risk management programme.
    
“Ultimately, improving a driver’s skills will first of all ensure their welfare and a company’s duty of care, which should be paramount to any employer. The flow-on effects of this are simply a bonus to a business.”

Protecting employee welfare
Demonstrating a commitment to health and safety legislation is paramount in protecting an employee’s welfare and can be done so by taking steps to ensure employees are protected to complete their jobs safely in terms of the equipment used, training provided to do so and for both parties to be operating within their legal obligations. At the simplest level, this includes the driver possessing a legal and valid driver’s licence. But getting that licence checked systematically and regularly is something that is beyond many companies.
    
The need for employers to demonstrate their duty of care is underpinned by the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 which came into force in April 2008.
    
“Recent changes to legislation should encourage employers to check whether their company’s systems and processes for managing health and safety are adequate. Driver training is an essential part of this,” says Goldin.
    
So, how do employers cover the first base? Go online says Goldin.
    
“An online driver risk assessment should be the first step in establishing an employee’s current work commitments and the driving skills they have, and require, to manage this.
    
“The assessment can determine if a driver is a high, medium or low risk and propose actions to lessen this risk by preparing a Driver Risk Management programme suited to each individual.”
    
Medium and low risk drivers may be suited to completing online e-learning modules which can be tailored to suit an individual needs and act as a refresher for a driver’s understanding of training techniques and road regulations.
    
“E-learning is also increasingly being adopted to ensure staff are still provided with the required training to do their job safely and effectively during the current economic downturn.”

Hands-on driving
High-risk drivers may need to hit the road according to Goldin. “Hands-on training in real life situations under the guidance of a qualified trainer is the best learning tool a driver can have.
    
“Training should focus on developing the core skills required to complete a task safely. Tailored training – everything from LGV drivers to the so called ‘grey fleet’– will see the driver’s skills maximised.”

Eco-driving
The benefits of driver improvement don’t end there, with the skills developed leading to a driver becoming ‘greener’ as well.
    
Tips on greener driving have been included in official learning materials for those learning to drive since 2005 and recently, an ‘eco’ element was introduced to the learner-driver test, teaching the new generation of drivers how to drive in a way that saves money, fuel and cuts emissions as part of their practical exam.
    
“The principles of safer driving techniques ultimately lead to a driver being a ‘greener’ driver. That is, they use less fuel and subsequently reduce the impact their driving has on the environment,” says Goldin.
     
A month’s worth of fuel can be saved every year by using fuel-saving techniques advised by the IAM, including those coached through Drive & Survive’s eco-driving course ecolution. ecolution can lead to fuel use reductions of up to 25 per cent, which can be coupled with significant emission reductions, and has even proven to reduce fuel consumption by up to 78 per cent.
    
Results from ecolution trials show that, for an average fleet of around 3,000 company drivers, companies could see an average annual fuel bill reduction of more than £300,000, which could also be coupled with significant CO2 savings of up to 3,000 tonnes per annum.
    
Vehicle repair and maintenance costs can also be reduced as a result of driving in an eco-friendly manner and lead to an improved residual value of vehicles, and subsequently increase a fleet’s overall operational efficiency.
    
Last year Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick dedicated an extra £3 million to promoting smarter driving techniques that will help all motorists save on fuel costs, as well as giving money-saving advice on new car purchasing.
     
“While fuel prices may not be at their all-time high, the effect of transport use on the environment are still under constant scrutiny, so it’s understandable that fleet companies are looking for ways in which to reduce their fuel bills, as well as their carbon footprint,” says Goldin.
    
“Eco-driving results are just one demonstration that driver training is an investment that has ongoing benefits for a company with fleet drivers.
    
“Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is also increasingly an objective that companies strive to sustain. While firstly ensuring a driver’s safety on the road, driver training can also see a company’s commitment to an eco-friendly approach to business sustained and therefore their overall obligation to reduce the impact of their operations on the rest of a community, directly or indirectly.
    
“Of all road deaths in the UK, one third are linked to someone driving for work. This is an alarming statistic. The UK Government supports the IAM work to reduce that figure, through an overall approach to driver risk management.”

Saving lives and money
Minister Jim Fitzpatrick spoke in support of an IAM road safety initiative that has seen MPs throughout the UK set an example for businesses of all sizes to manage the risks associated with their employees who drive for work by completing an IAM DRM programme to assess and improve their driving.
    
The Minister stated his concern that people who drive for work are over-represented in road casualty figures.
    
“Managing driving for work is as much common sense as running any other part of a business - training and planning of all aspects of operations go a long way to bringing avoidable costs under control,” said Mr Fitzpatrick.
    
“In creating a work-related road safety ethos as part of their existing health and safety policies, employers not only make savings that can be delivered straight to their bottom lines – they also save lives, playing their part in cutting the number of needless tragedies that take place on our roads every day.”
    
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the State for Transport, Paul Clark, spoke at a function to launch the initiative.
    
“Just as with safety issues generally, it takes time to educate and convince a workforce of the value of work-related road safety. It is an ethos that needs to be driven from the top down and implemented at every level.
    
“But once embedded and the economic savings fully recognised, employers can become zealous converts. That also helps to save casualties,” said Mr Clark.

Crash brings higher emissions
Environmentally, it is worth remembering that crashes on the UK roads cause untold chaos. Seb Goldin takes as an example the direct link between bad driver skills and the environment.
    
“Even a minor shunt at the wrong time will have a devastating effect on the peak time traffic flow. Those crashes don’t just happen – they are inevitably the result of a driver error. But while the two drivers involved sort out their insurance details, a queue of traffic can quickly build up behind them. That queue is sitting there, wasting fuel going nowhere, and creating a pocket of needless CO2 emissions.
    
“In this scenario, the crash need never have happened. The lane would not have been blocked. And the vehicles trying to get past would have kept moving smoothly. So even a small rear-end shunt is a needless waste of fuel.
    
And what’s top of the list of occupational driver errors? “Anecdotally, I am sure that mobile phones are still a major issue,” said Goldin.
    
“News last month that drivers are largely ignoring the ban on hand-held mobile phones is a particular challenge for those supervising people who drive for business.
    
“The law has changed to make drivers using hand held phones face a fixed penalty notice, complete with a fine and three penalty points. Yet the law is regularly flouted.
    
“And for the employer, it’s not that simple. You need to keep in touch with your workforce while they are on the road. But does that mean you encourage them to take and make phone calls while they are driving?
    
“There is plenty of evidence that even talking hands-free increases the danger that the driver poses not just to himself, but to other road users. You don’t want to be negotiating your budgets with your boss while you attempt to join the M25 slip road.
    
The link between driver behaviour and the environment is not as far-fetched as it might seem at first glance. That’s why our work, educating occupational drivers, is so crucial.”

For more information
Web: www.iam.org.uk