Arval’s journey from, ‘zero to hero’

Occupational road risk exposure at Arval, one of Europe’s leading fleet and fuel management companies, is officially low, according to an independent audit by the AA.

But, that was not always the case. In late 2003 a similar independent audit by experts revealed that Arval had a ‘significant risk exposure’ and highlighted a catalogue of weaknesses in terms of its corporate duty of care responsibilities towards it business drivers.

Once Arval’s safety blindspot had been exposed, the company commenced a journey of improvement that has seen wide-ranging safety initiatives implemented internally and, crucially, taken out into the wider community, among its 38,000 customers and into schools.

The company’s programme of initiatives has seen huge financial savings in terms of crash and third party costs and improved employee morale with staff feeling valued, according to Tracey Young, who was appointed fleet manager in 2004.

Change

The programme of change has led to Arval, which now has about 400 company car drivers, join the Government’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme, which is managed by RoadSafe, and become one of its ‘Business Champions’.

The ‘zero to hero’ journey has been overseen by Ms Young, who said the programme could not have been implemented without the commitment of chief executive Jean-Marc Torre and corporate service director Marc Biggs.

“Their support and receptiveness for change was huge in terms of moving our occupational road risk strategy to where it should be,” she said.

Six key action areas were highlighted by the original risk assessment:

• A safety culture was absent within the company with no monitoring of incidents
• With no dedicated fleet manager and health and safety policy guidelines, at-work drivers were unsure of their responsibilities in terms of checking vehicles and conduct in terms of, for example, driving hours
• Driver assessments and remedial training programmes were absent
• Driver licence checks were not undertaken
• There was no consistent process to check drivers health and well-being, including eyesight checks
• No formal crash investigation and review process

Ms Young, who now describes herself as a ‘born again road safety Christian’, said: “Arval would have been hugely exposed if one of its drivers had been involved in a serious road crash. It would have been hugely damaging in terms of our image and reputation.”

The risk assessment findings were fundamental to her appointment as full-time fleet manager after around 13 years with Arval in a variety of roles and the subsequent compilation of an action plan.

Priority

First priority was to undertake driver licence checks on the approximate 450 company car drivers, as well as casual car drivers and partners/ spouses. In total more than 1,000 checks were undertaken with one employee leaving after failing to declare a conviction for driving without insurance.

“It was a fantastic exercise to do in terms of building up a picture of our drivers,” said Ms Young, who discovered that about one in six had six or more points on their licence, mostly for speeding.

As a result, those employees with six or more points on their licence underwent a one-to-one on the road driver training programme with risk management expert DriveTech.

Simultaneously, Arval issued a more comprehensive fleet policy document, which drivers had to sign for and acknowledge they had read.

That was followed up with a drivers’ handbook containing practical ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ advice when certain incidents arose.

In 2003/4 Arval’s crash ratio was about 40%, which Ms Young now believes hides a significant amount of under-reporting. Bent metal costs amounted to almost £150,000 and third party claims £70,000. With the company self-insuring that was money straight off the company’s bottom line. An analysis of incidents revealed that low speed crashes were the most prevalent (28%).

Discussions

Other measures introduced saw the holding of post crash discussions with staff and financial penalties imposed ranging from £50-£250 if employees had two own fault incidents in a 12- month period.

“It was not about the money; it was the principle,” said Ms Young. “Employees were now going through a learning process and were appreciating the impact that incidents were having.”

By the end of 2005, Arval’s crash repair costs had dropped to below £100,000. Although, the incident ratio remained at 40% the types of incidents occurring were less expensive.

“By 2006 we had a lot of building blocks in place and we had ticked a lot of the risk management boxes,” explained Ms Young. However, she identified that while actions had been taken to manage occupational road risk, the safety culture within the business hadn’t changed.

The defining moment was her attendance on a course organised by road safety organisation Brake. Arval subsequently ‘reconstructed’ the course and during 2006 rolled it out to all company car drivers with attendance mandatory.

“The interactive discussions around attitude, beliefs and behaviour when on the road were transforming. For most people it was the first time they had really thought about their driving since they passed their test,” she said.

“Discussions around what individual staff thought about what was happening on the roads changed people. Many walked out of the classroom a totally different person. Emotionally the courses challenged them because they were hard-hitting.

“For the first time employees realised that it was not just about driving for work, but that driving was a life skill.”

The courses have since been followed up with a multi-media safety focused communications programme providing employees with advice on safe driving and updates on the law.

Impact

Once again the impact could be measured financially and by the end of 2006 Arval had sliced a further £25,000 off its crash repair bill taking it to half the level it was in 2003/4.

Arval completed its formal internal programme of putting itself on a best practice occupational road risk management footing in late 2006 with the introduction of DriveTech’s online risk assessments.

About 30% of drivers were identified as ‘high risk’ and they immediately underwent a one-day driver training course, which was subsequently extended to any business need driver irrespective of their risk profile. About 380 company car drivers completed the programme. Additionally, about 100 ‘medium risk’ drivers attended a safety workshop.

The number of employees committing speedrelated offences highlights one example of the progress made. In 2003, offences numbered 159, but by last year the figure had dropped to 32, despite the increasing number of cameras on the roads.

By mid-2007, Arval had completed its objectives and Ms Young said: “We are having far fewer serious incidents, but because our policy and procedures encourage the reporting of all incidents we are having the smallest paint chips reported. Historically, I believe there was an element of under reporting.

“Last year’s incident rate was 38%, but the cost of repair and third party claims is significantly reduced from the 2003/4 level.”

But, more importantly, says Ms Young: “Drivers feel valued and looked after as a result of the initiatives we have taken.”

Last year Arval launched ‘Drive4Life’ - a platform that has enabled it to take the road safety message to all its 1,000 employees at offices in Swindon and Birmingham.

To-date more than 600 employees have voluntarily attended classroom interactive forums; tyre safety checks have been extended from drivers of company cars to privately-owned cars; and vehicle maintenance workshops are held.

Coincide

To coincide with last autumn’s Road Safety Week, Arval highlighted the potentially fatal results of common errors behind the wheel, with a dramatic re-enactment of a road traffic crash (see article below).

The company has also taken the road safety message into schools in Swindon with a road safety quiz, which is set to become an annual event. Ms Young said: “We are now involving the wider community in our road safety activities. We are also proactively taking the safety message to our customers.”

Now, Arval is in the process of forming its own road safety forum involving customers and road safety partners, such as RoadSafe, as well as extending advice to other users such as motorcyclists and cyclists.

“We are establishing the forum because we want to share best practice. We have gone through a lot in bringing the business to this point, but the journey is not complete and we still have much to learn. As we continue to put initiatives in place and further reduce the risk exposure of our staff and others in the wider community we want to involve as many people as possible,” said Ms Young. “Since I started this job my own driving style has changed remarkably; my road awareness is different and my attitude has changed dramatically. I am no longer in a hurry and I think about my safety and the safety of other road users. We have created ‘Drive4Life’ and that is what I hope to do.”

Education and awareness are essential factors

“For Arval, road safety and the environment are essential in our proactive approach to corporate social responsibility.

“Arval manages a fleet of over 150,000 vehicles with access to over one million drivers. We therefore take our road safety responsibility very seriously. We believe as fleet providers it’s important to encourage and promote safe driving with our customers, staff and our local community many of whom share our views on the importance of road safety.

“I strongly believe education and awareness are essential factors in improving road safety and this must be done over time to build impact and create real outcomes.

“We recognised that the industry as a whole needed to address road safety and risk management. For our part, we saw there was work to do and set about addressing this. As a result, we have developed and improved in this area and are continuing to build our internal and external road safety initiatives.

“As a ‘Business Champion’ within the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme we are continually developing our practices for our own fleet, and strive to raise awareness of the issues affecting UK roads, working together with our customers, employees and governing bodies. We want to continue sharing and implementing best practice as well as developing new initiatives to ensure that improving road safety remains at the top of the business agenda.”

 

 

Shock tactic helps get the safety message across

The company invited people to watch in the hope that it would drive home the importance of road safety.

The entire event was filmed and a DVD created which has been distributed to customers to improve and promote higher standards of road safety within the fleet industry.

The incident recreated was a 35 mph crash with three car passengers and a cyclist. Local emergency services were also involved.

The re-enactment highlighted the impact of not concentrating behind the wheel, showing the ‘frightening’ outcomes of misdemeanours that drivers commit everyday: failing to wear a seat belt, using a mobile phone whilst driving, breaking the speed limit and failing to wear a helmet when cycling.

The event culminated with the audience learning that the re-enacted crash led to the death of the 19-year-old passenger as well as three people being seriously injured and the driver facing a maximum of 14 years imprisonment.

Arval’s event also showed that had the collision happened at 25 mph with no driver errors, then the result would have been minor injuries.

Fleet and leasing companies encouraged to support Government campaign

By registering for the eNewsletter, companies will become part of the ‘Driving for Better Business’ network and join a host of companies and ‘Business Champions’ committed to work related road safety.

Apart from Arval, the network presently includes companies as diverse as BSkyB, BT, Cambridgeshire County Council, Central Auto Supplies, Centrica, CGG Veritas, My New Door (formerly Chamberlain Doors), Chelmsford Electrical, nkl Automotive, Scottish and Southern Energy, T-Mobile, Tesco.com and Whitbread. Recent new additions to the list include LeasePlan (UK), Wolseley, Your Fleet and Greene King.

The programme is being managed by RoadSafe and is designed to empower business leaders to demonstrate how managing work-related road safety has business benefits.

RoadSafe director Adrian Walsh said: “RoadSafe regards fleet and leasing companies as being key to this process. By acting as champions and working with their customers, they are well placed to spread the word about the importance of putting in place work-related road safety policies.”

Companies can join the ‘Driving for Better Business’ network and subscribe to the e-Newsletter by visiting www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com. The website will also run regular ‘flash’ polls on relevant road safety subjects, the results of which will be shared with ‘Driving for Better Business’ supporters.

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