How Greene King brewed up a safer fleet

BREWER Greene King cut its road crash costs by more than £150,000 in 2006/7 as its in-house developed safe driving initiative continues to pay dividends.

In the last four years more than 500 members of staff – HGV, LGV and company car drivers as well as occasional pool car drivers and employees who drive their own car on business – have all completed individual three-hour driving assessments under the eagle eye of the company’s driving safety adviser Paul Blackman.

A Greene King Brewing Company dray driver for 11 years until he switched careers four years ago, Mr Blackman is believed to be one of the most decorated driving instructors in the country.

Diploma

Driving Standards Agency registered for car, LGV and fleet and a diploma holder in advanced car instruction, he is a multiple holder of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accident’s gold advanced driving badge and is volunteer chief observer of RoSPA’s Bury St Edmunds’ Group.

Mr Blackman said: “The company realised that with the growing legislative focus on occupational driving it needed to put a strategy in place. The directors were aware of my interest and advanced driving qualifications so approached me about a change of career.”

He readily accepted and used his safe driving expertise to develop the company’s own programme, which is focussed around the half-day one-to-one course. That includes a 60- minute presentation and discussion and a 45- mile drive, which is followed by a debrief and a written report that forms part of an employee’s employment record.

The company car policy states that all new staff whose work involves driving must have their driving licences checked, report any motoring offences and complete the driving assessment. Further licence checks are made on LGV drivers every three months and car drivers annually.

Any staff who are involved in an accident or commit a motoring offence undergo retraining and specialist training courses are completed by employees who might, for example, have more than six points on their driving licence. Alternatively, a low speed parking manoeuvre resulting in vehicle damage will lead to remedial training taking place ‘in the yard’.

As part of the corporate focus on safe driving, all company vehicles are equipped with ‘accident packs’. These include information about looking after yourself and others at a crash scene, accident forms to record information and a disposable camera to record all vehicle damage. In addition, monthly safe driving campaigns, which highlight key issues, such as drink-driving, driver fatigue and tyre maintenance, are run at the company’s head office and all depots to ensure road safety remains front of mind for all employees.

Eyesight testing

As a further step, the company is considering buying its own eyesight testing equipment that could be used by all staff – not just at-work drivers – as research reveals that many people could be driving with their eyesight below the minimum legal standard.

“Not only does Greene King have a duty of care towards its employees, but as a business we want to make sure our staff are safe on the road at all times. We don’t want people to lose their job because they lose their driving licence,” explained Mr Blackman, whose interest in advanced driving began almost two decades ago when he followed up a local newspaper advanced driving course advert.

The company’s success in managing its occupational road risk has been recognised with a second RoSPA gold award this year and it becoming a ‘business champion’ under the Government’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme.

Insurance data is independently collated and latest figures reveal that although the fleet has expanded significantly over the past seven years, the number of crashes in 2006/7 was cut by 63 (24%) to 200.

Greene King self insurers for the first £10,000 of vehicle damage and 2006/7 costs dropped by more than 54% producing a bottom line saving of £158,000 compared with 2005/6. In addition, the cost of damage to vehicles involved in crashes has been cut by 39% from more than £1,100 per case to £679 as the safe-driving programme means that the severity of incidents has reduced despite inflation contributing to a rise in the cost of repairs in recent years.

Recognising

“By highlighting the dangers of workrelated road risk and recognising the financial costs of accidents, Greene King has been able to improve profitability and contribute to the safety of staff by making them more risk aware,” said Mr Blackman.

“I would advise all companies not to bury their heads in the sand.

“Businesses can say that managing occupational road risk is not for them because they have never had anyone killed while driving on business. But that probably means that the likelihood of someone being killed is increasing as the risks faced by drivers is far greater than anywhere else in the workplace.”

Bury St Edmunds-based Greene King has been a brewer and operated pubs for more than 200 years. It runs a fleet of 271 company cars within an overall fleet of almost 500 vehicles, including 95 drays, with drivers located nationwide.

Company directors and managers have all been through Mr Blackman’s assessment and, he said: “Because I work for the company and have been a Greene King dray driver, colleagues know that I understand the issues they are up against.

“Staff have been very receptive to the assessments. Some have gone on to complete their own advanced driving exams and that is very gratifying.”

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