One large safety step for 3M...

Diversified technology company 3M manufactured the materials used to make the space boots Neil Armstrong wore when he became the fi rst man to walk on the moon in 1969. The astronaut famously declared: “One small step for man,” as he stepped onto the moon’s surface. 3M might similarly be said to have made a significant first step in its risk management strategy.

The worldwide US corporation, which counts Post-it Notes and Scotch tape among its 55,000 different products, has a UK fleet of 800 cars for management, sales and technical staff and an annual average road traffi c accident rate of 26% over the last seven years – 10% down on previous years and delivering savings of around £55,000 per annum in the process.

Static

3M insurance premiums have also remained static since the turn of the millennium, as have accident repair costs at the company, recently voted third most innovative company in the world in a poll of more than 1,000 senior executives. Crash rates, premiums and repair costs, however, hardly compare with a personal injury record of just three per annum on average over recent years.

As 3M insurance executive Martin Dobson puts it: “You can always repair a piece of metal.”

3M’s insurance is third party only, with the company funding the cost of all its own motor accident repairs. This provides the business with an extra incentive to take risk management seriously.

Its programme in this respect revolves around outsourcing its entire accident management since 2000 to WNS Assistance, which currently handles 350,000 claims a year on behalf of fl eets, insurers and brokers.

Mr Dobson said: “The first benefit of using a specialist service is that it saves an enormous amount of driver and administrative time as, following an accident, one call is all it takes to offl oad the entire responsibility for any repairs.

“Outsourcing also ensures that downtime is minimised and costs controlled, but not at the expense of the quality of repair.”

What’s more, WNS’s real-time online motor claims monitoring facility, Motorguard, has enabled 3M to identify high-risk drivers, together with the causes of their accidents.

In turn, this has facilitated targeted driver training, which Mr Dobson believes is essential to reducing accident rates and personal injuries, and, in the process provided further downward pressure on repair costs and insurance premiums – the virtuous circle of a successful risk management policy.

The driver training programme was initially introduced on Mr Dobson’s appointment 15 years ago. That appointment, in turn, was at least partly the result of what the company considered an unacceptable number of road traffic accidents involving 3M drivers.

Instructor

“Every driver spends a half-day out on the road with an instructor,” explained Mr Dobson. “Following some initial classroom-based instruction we then receive an assessment from the instructor about whether they might need any additional training, whether classroombased or out on the road, so that by the end of the process we’re confident in the ability of every one of our company car drivers to avoid accidents.”

Drivers then receive a refresher course every five years, while all new employees with company cars are also enrolled on the training course as soon as possible after joining. All drivers are required to provide 3M with a copy of their driving licence on an annual basis.

“The risk management programme has already reduced the number of accidents from one-in-three to one-in-four per annum and we hope to get it lower still,” said Mr Dobson.

“This is what accident management really means, after all, not just dealing with those that have already occurred, but doing everything possible to prevent further accidents. Prevention is always better than repair.”

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