CAS comes good on safety - central auto supplies

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The Wellingborough-based auto parts supplier has seen many benefits after launching a new initiative. ASHLEY MARTIN reports...

CAS van

Thirty-five years ago Peter Jipson entered the motor trade and his first job involved vehicle crash recovery. Having witnessed the tragic consequences of drivers failing to be aware of their surroundings, he is now in the vanguard of making his employer’s fleet one of the safest in Britain.

Mr Jipson is operations manager for Wellingborough-based Central Auto Supplies, which was established more than 40 years ago and has grown to become the leading automotive parts distributor in the Midlands and the East.

A decade ago the company turned the spotlight on improving the safety of its drivers. At the time the company operated a fleet of 86 vehicles, which were involved in 38 crashes of which three-quarters were own fault.

Ten years on and company expansion – the business has 19 branches supported by a central distribution hub that supplies vehicle components, exhausts and engine management parts to all areas of the motor trade including garages, fast-fits, national chains, technical specialists and DIY shops – has seen the fleet increase to 103 vans and 37 company cars driven by directors and senior management.

Crashes

Last year those vehicles were involved in a total of 47 crashes of which 15 were declared own fault. From an accident record of 44%, the figure has now dropped to 33% on a significantly larger fleet (63% fleet growth 1997-2007) with a third of those incidents being own fault – both figures well below the sector norm of around two-thirds of vehicles being involved in a crash with up to a half being own fault.

Mr Jipson declared: “The pendulum has swung completely and this year we are extremely committed to reducing the number of own fault accidents into single figures because they are the incidents that cost money in terms of bent metal, administration and insurance premiums.”

The company’s accident data reveals that in 1999 it suffered one own fault crash per 90,322 miles and last year that figure had declined to one per 285,714 miles. The company is also concerned that crashes can prove costly as a result of personal injury claims – the largest so far has amounted to about £11,000 in total. Mr Jipson said: “Personal injury claims are on the increase and can seriously impact on insurance premiums. We must guard against that. So the challenges facing the business and our drivers to stay safe are always increasing.”

Since 2000, Central Auto Supplies has shaved about a third off its insurance premiums due to its reducing claims record and a raft of initiatives designed to keep road safety at the forefronts of the minds of van drivers delivering parts to shops on an ‘on demand’ basis, company car drivers and occasional drivers.

“There is no easy fix,” said Mr Jipson, who has seen the company become one of the first ‘Business Champions’ under the Government’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme. “Once a company commits to a programme of risk management you have to be on the case year after year and always improving and fine tuning.”

The company’s programme of occupational road risk management is centred on an internally developed programme that applies to all 250 staff that are likely to drive on business and sees:

“The intensive programme from induction onwards ensures that as a business we have a complete audit of all our staff, their training and their accident record,” said Mr Jipson.

In addition, with most incidents involving the company’s light commercial vehicle fleet, the company has switched almost entirely to Renault Kangoo vans with ABS as standard.

With average mileage across the van fleet being more than 35,000 miles a year per vehicle – more than four million miles a year in total are travelled – Mr Jipson said: “Not only must a vehicle be fit-for-purpose in terms of its load-carrying and have good safety features, but it needs to have good ergonomics because our drivers spend a lot of time behind the wheel.”

Commenting on the introduction of fines for drivers involved in own-fault accidents, Mr Jipson said: “It focused the drivers’ minds the first time an employee was disciplined. We explained the process to them because we want them to be safe on the road. Reducing accidents has operational and financial benefits, but it is also about morality. Most crashes are not to do with speed; they are because drivers are not aware of their surroundings. We want our drivers to have stopping time, thinking time and anticipate what could happen. That is what our initiatives are about.”

Ambassadors

With drivers being the company’s ambassadors on the road and when they are delivering to customers, he added: “The company’s expansion is a product of running a delivery fleet along best practice lines. Our products get to market as a result of the fleet and our customers don’t want supplies delayed because of crashes. Equally, we don’t want our vehicles being driven when damaged because that impacts on company image. We train our drivers to be polite and helpful. We know what our delivery times are and we want vehicles arriving at customers’ premises on schedule. The development of a safe driving culture has helped the growth of Central Auto Supplies.”

The company’s safety focus has full support from managing director Mark Piercy, and Mr Jipson said: “Every fleet manager who wants to develop a safe driving programme needs the support of the board. The payback is not immediate, but the investment is ultimately worth it because the culture that develops reflects a successful company.”

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