Keeping it in the family

Morning boss," said Fred in a telephone call to his office. "I'm sorry but I won’t be in today. In fact, I may not be back at work for sometime. My wife was taking our young son to a friend's last night in the company car when she had a crash. They're both in hospital in intensive care and I'm going to have to stay at home to look after the baby."

"But," said his boss. "You're our top salesman and we can't do without you. Can't you sort something out and get back to work. Give me a call later today. By the way, hope they're better soon... and is the car badly damaged?”

OK, an invented telephone conversation, but perhaps not untypical of happenings in some workplaces across the country.

However, for some companies, caring for family and friends of employees is now a key aspect of their corporate social responsibility programmes and community-based objectives.

It is for those reasons that BT, one of Britain's leaders in managing occupational road risk, has launched a free online interactive safe driving initiative for friends and families of its employees.

Claimed to be the world's largest 'Friends and Family' safe driving programme, BT estimates that it provides an opportunity for the company to help over 250,000 people with the potential for a major impact on community road safety, as well as occupational road risk within the company.

BT group safety advisor Dave Wallington said: "During the last four years we have risk assessed and developed the driving behaviours of over 40,000 of our own people, and seen significant improvements in our road safety performance and a reduction in associated costs.

"We see the launch of the 'Family and Friends' initiative as a natural extension of this programme, and an opportunity for friends and families to participate in a scheme which is already helping to keep BT employees safe at work.

"BT has identified driving as probably the biggest risk its staff and their families face, and as a result has made the training freely available to family and friends as part of its employee benefits package.

"It is aimed at helping family and friends develop their life skills and be safer on the road." That benefits package also embraces driver training from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

Expensive

Financially, crashes involving employees or other family members are very expensive. It has been estimated that road crashes staff are involved in while at work costs are shared, 40% by the employee, 30% by the employer and 30% by the community. In accidents at home, or involving family members, the costs are met totally by employees and the community.

BT says: "For these reasons we want employees to take road safety home with them, and to engage their family (including brothers, children, sisters, friends, husbands, nannies, partners, sons, daughters, spouses and wives) in driving safely at all times.

"Some family members are allowed to drive BT vehicles, and from time to time show up in the company's collision data. Such a programme helps to take road safety into the home, which can also help to influence the safe driving of BT employees by engaging family and friends.

The online programme, 'One More Second', is designed to improve an individual's driving knowledge and attitude and behaviour when on the road resulting in safer and less stressful driving.

Developed in association with one of BT's occupational road risk partners, Interactive Driving Systems, 'students' are guided through a series of 'lessons' detailing best practice advice and using a question and answer format to explain defensive driving, the importance of attitude and behaviour when behind the wheel and hazard recognition and given help to develop a planned system of driving.

Tips

There are also '20 tips to save your life', which look at issues such as ABS/ cadence braking, blind spots, drinking and drugs, fatigue, mobile telephones, night driving, safety in the fog, skidding, tyre pressure and the two second rule.

Having worked through the six modules that make up 'One More Second', a 'knowledge check' is completed with the individual’s score from this section transmitted to their driving record.

Notching 80% is the optimum score with drivers scoring less sent further instructions and information by e-mail.

All family and friends who complete the programme receive a 'Certificate of Completion' and are given feedback through the programme with best practice information on any questions answered incorrectly.

Dr Will Murray, research director for Interactive Driving Systems, said: "The training has been launched by BT to raise awareness of the hazards associated with driving - the activity where most people between the ages of four and 44 in the UK lose their life prematurely - and to provide drivers with simple techniques to minimise risks.

"Corporate social responsibility is a major issue for BT, as it is for many companies, and they recognise that there are both community benefits by providing the free programme to friends and family as well as benefits to them as an employer.

"A crash involving a family member or a close friend may well result in an employee having to take time off work and that may will impact on business performance and productivity. Many road collisions happen close to home, often within the communities in which employees live and work. This means that safety in the workplace can also have a major impact on staff, their family and community while at home. It is therefore important that employees not only drive safely at work but also that they and their family take care at all times while using the road.

Developed

"Other companies have developed driving advice family member programmes, and BT is in the upper quartile of businesses and its scheme is potentially the largest."

There is an increasing demand from companies for driver training to be provided to anyone who drives company-provided vehicles, including spouses and other family members, but not many risk management organisations are providing the option," according to David Richards, marketing director of DriveTech UK.

Nevertheless, he says, it is an expanding part of DriveTech (UK)'s business and, he added: "There is an identified risk involved when a company car driver allows his or her spouse to take the wheel of a company car. There is evidence to show that, apart from a licence check, most fleet operators have little or no knowledge of a spouse's driving experience or ability. When there is a potential insurance claim at stake, it is cause for concern quite apart from the personal ramifications in the aftermath of a crash.

"We have trained many spouses and often include a module on personal safety and security. This gives advice on, for example, best practice on approaching and leaving a parked vehicle and precautionary measures that can be taken to prevent opportunist theft."

Courses for BP staff and families top the ton

BP, which won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for its fleet risk management programme in 2005, offers driver training for members of employee families as a related function to its 'Driving Safety Standard' initiative, which was launched in 2004.

More than 7,000 business car and goods vehicle drivers have been through the training, which is run and administered by IAM and has resulted in a reduction in road traffic accidents and damage claims handled by BP's car management unit.

In 2000, it became compulsory for BP drivers to sign up for a training day or refresher half-day course before ordering a new vehicle under the company's three-year replacement cycle lease scheme.

At the same time, and as a direct result of the success of the staff scheme, the offer was opened up to BP family members.

Mandate

Commenting on the 'Driving Safety Standard', which was the first such mandate to be rolled out throughout BP's operations in more than 100 countries, Simon Gates, BP's UK car fleet manager said: "Driving related fatalities among BP's 200,000 employees and contractors is reducing with the three-year rolling trend down from 16 fatalities in the period immediately prior to the standard 2000-2003 to 14 in the 2004- 2006 period since, still far too many, but the trend is in the right direction."

Meanwhile in addition to BT, Interactive Driving Systems has also working with other companies on road safety community engagement projects.

• Centrica has provided 400 copies of the Interactive Highway Code, and run safe driving workshops, for offi ce staff that may never drive on work business - but do drive to work and have family members who use the road. Centrica has also been active in promoting road safety in schools.
• Wolseley UK used the Virtual Risk Manager to risk assess all its graduates recently even though they may not drive on work business - to show their commitment to road safety and high risk young drivers.

Wolseley UK has also been active in promoting road safety in schools.

• Nestle has promote road safety in a local school in Nottingham, and is in the process of rolling out its driver risk assessment and training programme to family members.

Watch out for vital exceptions

Occupational road risk expert David Faithful, a solicitor with Lyons Davidson and a member of the RoadSafe Advisory Board, said the police, on Health and Safety Executive advice, would class a crash involving an employee being driven by his wife in a company car to catch a train for a business meeting as a work-related journey.

Similarly, if an employee was being driven home by their spouse in a company car from a social function hosted by their employer and there was a crash then investigators would also class the incident as work-related, said Mr Faithful.

He added: "The majority of journeys in company cars undertaken by family members will be on private mileage and will not be work-related. However, there are exceptions.

"Companies should be aware that while, for example, home to work travel is considered as private by HM Revenue & Customs for benefit-in-kind tax purposes, the HSE considers commuting to be working time and therefore work-related. I think, therefore, the police would act on the HSE guidance and investigate the purpose of the journey, the condition of the vehicle and the condition of the driver.

"If the police consider any journey to be work-related then, however loose that interpretation may be, an employer will be affected. That is why a company's health and safety policy should be extended to cover anyone who is entitled to drive a company car."

Even if there is no work-related connection but an at-fault crash results from a family member driving a company vehicle, it is likely that the company's future insurance premiums will be hit.

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