‘Driving for Better Business’ scheme set to expand

THE Government’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme is to further expand with a range of initiatives notably targeted at FTSE250 companies and leading UK vehicle leasing and rental companies.

In addition, RoadSafe, which manages the programme, will continue to raise awareness of the at-work driving safety initiative by encouraging local authorities to target employers in their areas and by working with trade associations.

Already 11 companies listed in the FTSE250 have become ‘business champions’ within the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme with the hope that the best practice policies and procedures they have adopted will become templates for other organisation as they improve their at-work driving safety focus.

Those FTSE 250 companies are: BSkyB, BT, Centrica/British Gas, Greene King, Northgate, Scottish & Southern Energy, Tesco. com, T-Mobile, TNT Express, Whitbread and Wolseley.

Champion

Northgate, the UK’s largest vehicle hire company with a fleet of more than 68,500 vehicles, is one of five rental and leasing companies to become a ‘business champion’. The others are: Arval, LeasePlan, M&G Vehicle Hire and vehicle brokerage YourFleet.

However, as the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme enters its third year, RoadSafe has set a goal of recruiting a minimum 10% of the companies listed in the FTSE250 and 20 leasing and rental companies.

Additionally, the organisation will be working closely with the National Business Travel Network – a Department for Transport programme to take the message on the Government’s sustainable travel strategy to business - to further increase access to the corporate world.

Trade associations also remain a key ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme partner and RoadSafe continues to forge links with the Electrical Contractors Association and the Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineers to promote the importance of managing occupational road risk to their members.

Cambridgeshire County Council, which is also a ‘business champion’, was the first local authority to run its own safe at-work driver programme. As a result, RoadSafe has reported interest in other local authorities running similar initiatives. They include: Barnsley, Buckinghamshire, Gateshead, Milton Keynes, Shropshire and West Sussex councils.

Separately, major employers are also being targeted to become ‘Driving for Better Business’ partners and General Motors UK Fleet has become the first vehicle manufacturer to commit to championing the programme. In addition BP and Johnson & Johnson, which already have significant occupational road risk management programmes in place have joined as partners.

April’s introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act was the catalyst for General Motors UK Fleet to champions the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme.

Fleet director Maurice Howkins said: “The Act is a hugely important piece of legislation for fleets all over the UK, including GM UK’s own. We want to demonstrate how serious we are taking this new legislation both to our customers and to our staff.

“We are the first vehicle manufacturer in the UK to take this initiative. We believe that it’s the right thing to do. We sell our vehicles to businesses big and small all over the UK, and we also run a company car scheme for our own employees. We, and every other vehicle manufacturer who sells to businesses, should do our part in ensuring that business car drivers and their organisations not only have, but understand, the information associated with being safe and legal on UK roads while going about their business.”

With 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at-work drivers, thousands of small, medium and large companies across the UK must improve the safety of their at-work drivers, says RoadSafe.

‘Driving for Better Business’ programme manager Caroline Scurr said: “It is important to work with a balanced range of organisations that can disseminate safe driving information to small, medium and large employers to further drive down the number of at-work drivers involved in a road crashes.

Crashes

“Given the number of road crashes involving working drivers, it is vital businesses increase awareness, implement clear procedures and adopt effective road safety policies.”

Reflecting that philosophy is Leeds-based YourFleet, which works with a range of companies running a combined fleet of more than 7,000 vehicles, and has a particular focus on SMEs.

Rob Edmond, head of corporate sales, said: “YourFleet is keen to assist our clients make their employees as safe as possible when on the road. Working alongside the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme will help us raise the importance of workrelated road safety management among our clients.”

Other ‘business champions’ are: Central Auto Supplies, Chelmsford Electrical, CGG Veritas, My New Door and nkl automotive.

Further information is available at: www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com

Group of champions receive awards from Prince Michael

The ceremony took place at a showcase event for the programme at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire.

Prince Michael, a patron of RoadSafe, said: “The human and economic costs of road crashes are high – in Britain they account for some 1.5% of the entire GDP about £18 billion. All the ‘champions’ recognise the valuable contribution which business can make by ensuring that these losses are minimised. An investment in road safety at work makes business sense.”

In outlining the social and environmental responsibilities of businesses in managing occupational road risk, Prince Michael said there was often a perceived conflict between profits and ‘these social and environmental issues’.

But, he added: “Good companies realise that this conflict does not in fact exist at all. They embrace sound workplace and business travel policies and make a commitment to their staff and the community to make matters better and their businesses more efficient.”

Spearheading the safety first approach by the ‘business champions’ has invariably been the managing director of a board level director.

Prince Michael told company representatives: “I will do my bit to encourage more businesses to follow their lead and I ask you all to keep up the pressure to.”

As patron of the Global Road Safety Commission, Prince Michael also wants to encourage organisations in both private and public sectors with international vehicle fleets to develop and implement policies and practices that will reduce crash risks for vehicle occupants and other road users. He told certificate recipients: “What you are doing needs to be replicated not just here in Britain but across the world. I therefore urge you to continue your work to showcase best practice and to take the message to every other business you come across.

“The arguments for safe fleets do not simply rest with the financial benefits of crash reduction. All involved in the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme know that an investment in safety also means an investment in people. A wellmanaged fleet of drivers makes for a happy and profitable company. I am keen that you should promote these values within your companies.”

Programme manager Caroline Scurr said: “We are thrilled to have an opportunity to reward our ‘champions’ for their dedication to work-related road safety and their commitment to sharing best practice with their industry peers through the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme.

“It is vital that critically important messages filter through industry via our developing network. The success of this programme is down to the hard work of the companies involved and the commitment of individuals prepared to talk about the benefits of managing the risks to their drivers. Our hope is that more companies will come forward in the coming months to assist RoadSafe in taking the story to industry.”

COSTS to cut the carnage

In a bid to cut the carnage by 5% – 45 fewer deaths and serious injuries – this year and more in the future, Sussex Police Roads Policing Unit is spearheading COSTS (Company Operators Safer Transport Scheme), which is a Sussex Safer Roads Partnership initiative.

Funded for 12 months to the tune of £156,000 by a Department for Transport grant, COSTS is an initiative under the Government’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme, which is managed by RoadSafe. The organisation also sits on the COSTS advisory board.

COSTS was launched with a three-day campaign by the Roads Policing Unit Casualty Reduction Team stopping panel vans travelling along the A22 at Uckfield, A27 at Firle and A27 at Pevensey and advising drivers on speed.

Drivers were given ‘Back Off I’m Sticking To The Limit’ stickers to put on the rear of their vans and a reminder showing the restricted speeds for that class of vehicle. There was also a letter explaining the project with an invitation to fleet managers at the drivers’ employers to find out more about the management of occupational road risk.

On average just two out of 10 van drivers were aware that within the national speed limit (60 mph for cars) they were restricted to 50 mph on single carriageways. Some drivers were of the impression that they were restricted to speeds below 50 mph and many believed that they were permitted to drive at 60 mph.

COSTS project director Ian Jeffrey said: “All the drivers spoken to were very positive about the project and found the information helpful and were grateful for the advice. Two fleet managers stopped said they would look into this project further.

Apparent

“On day three it became apparent that some of the drivers were being stopped again and they were all still happy to be stopped and updated by the team. They had stuck their ‘Back Off’ stickers in the rear window and had passed on their letter to their manager.”Apparent “On day three it became apparent that some of the drivers were being stopped again and they were all still happy to be stopped and updated by the team. They had stuck their ‘Back Off’ stickers in the rear window and had passed on their letter to their manager.”

Since then, Sussex Police has conducted Operation Cabbie, which saw taxi drivers in the county being advised on occupational road safety and other initiatives have involved company car drivers.

The scheme includes:

• Sussex Police marked and unmarked cars patrolling key routes such as the M23, A23 and A27 where there is a high volume of business users
• Seminars for company directors, fleet managers and drivers
• Free information packs for business
• Letters sent to employers following detection of a driving offence committed by drivers on a work-related journey

With 30% of all people killed and seriously injured in crashes across Sussex involving employees on a work-related journey, Mr Jeffrey, a retired roads policing chief inspector with a 30-year career behind him, said: “COSTS provides an opportunity for the police, highways authority and business to interact to drive down road casualties in the county.

“There are many businesses that have already taken very positive steps to reduce employee casualty rates and we want to get them on board and champion the cause.”

While phase one of the campaign is focused around police enforcement and education with the issuing of the ‘Back Off’ stickers to drivers and letters being sent to drivers that break the law, phase two will see almost 5,000 firms in Sussex being sent a copy of the Highways Agency’s ‘Driving on Business’ DVD (RoadSafe: autumn/ winter 2007).

Designed to act as a trigger for company bosses and fleet decisionmakers to focus on occupational road risk management, it will be distributed in late summer. That will be followed up with a communication programme asking recipients if they require further help and advice.

The seminar programme, which will also address vehicle crime prevention, will kick-off in the autumn with events focused on major employment areas such as Brighton, Crawley, Gatwick Airport, Eastbourne, Hastings and Chichester. In addition, Mr Jeffrey is considering developing special company driver focused speed awareness and driver improvement courses for employees caught committing an offence such as speeding or using a handheld mobile phone and those involved in crashes. The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership already runs speed awareness courses in conjunction with West Sussex and East Sussex county councils.

East Sussex local authority already employs its own driver trainers for its at-work drivers and Mr Jeffrey said: “We may also discuss with businesses whether they want to offer driver training to their staff in which case we could work with the authority.”

Success

With education and enforcement key to the success of the COSTS initiative, Supt Paul Morrison, of Sussex Police Roads Policing Unit, said: “We are committed to improving driving standards to help save lives and reduce injuries, thereby helping companies to reduce the financial cost to them.

“The time is right for companies to review and reassess their policies and procedures and where appropriate put in place new practical and effective measures to not only protect themselves from penalties, but also their workforce.

“The letter to employers is not to threaten, but to invite companies to engage and better manage workrelated road safety. They may, for instance, wish to review or consider their occupational road risk policies and procedures.

“So what may be seen as a threat may well become a trigger to save money – insurance premiums, fuel, repair bills, better residual values and better company image. As well as saving lives and reducing injuries, these are the real quantifiable benefits from effective company fleet risk management.”

Information on COSTS is available at www.sussexsaferoads.gov.uk/costs

250 firms work towards accreditation

Now other local authorities are studying the success of the council initiative as its Road Safety Team continues to work with local businesses to encourage them to put the spotlight on reducing their atwork driving risk exposure.

Initiatives

And one of the main initiatives in the remainder of 2008 will be to work more closely with Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service on raising corporate awareness of work-related road safety. When fire officers undertake checks on company premises the hope is that they will also ask employers if they have a work-related road safety policy in place. A negative response will then spark further action and the offer of assistance.

The council received a £93,000 Department for Transport grant to fund the programme, which included a series of eight seminars that ended in April.

The council initiatives has been a trailblazer and has provoked interest from a number of other authorities including West Sussex County Council (see COSTS story above), Buckingham County Council, Milton Keynes Borough Council, Gateshead District Council and Hertfordshire County Council.

At the time of going to press four companies that sent delegates to the seminars had completed work-related road safety policies and procedures that met the council’s benchmark standard giving them the right to display the council’s ‘Road Safety: We Mean Business’ banner on vehicles, office walls, letter heads and elsewhere.

Certification

The first company to achieve certification was Cambridge Car and Van Rental and it has been followed by Teligence, which provides professional network services to the communications sector; DC Norris, which designs and manufactures machinery for the food processing industry; and building services supplier The Aqua Group.

Around 10% of the 232 firms that attended seminars have so far returned policies to the Road Safety team, which is now processing the schemes with the aim of awarding them ‘Road Safety: We Mean Business’ accreditation.

Members of the council’s Road Safety Team along with staff at Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire Constabulary, who joined forces to host the seminars, are now contacting all companies that attended to ensure they complete their policies and gain accreditation.

Jenny Stannard, road safety project manager for the authority, said: “The aim is to maintain a network of ‘champions’ and promote best practice through electronic communications and a major direct mail campaign. The programme will run for the remainder of 2008 with the hope that at the end of the year it becomes part of the road safety programme within Cambridgeshire County Council as opposed to a Department for Transport funded initiative.

Network

“As well as maintaining the current network of companies with whom we have contact we will also be focusing on recruiting new employers to the scheme.”

At-work drivers will also be targeted through a multi-faceted public relations programme under the strapline ‘What is your employer doing for you?’.

Ms Stannard added: “In many companies, particularly SMEs, fleet management is part of a single person’s full-time job. However, businesses need to understand that road safety is not a part-time responsibility

“Once an occupational road risk management programme is established by an employer they will notice that crash-related costs reduce so it will save them money.”

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