Safer Roads Humber Partnership with M&G Vehicle Hire.

Hull based M&G Vehicle Hire, one of the first Driving for Better Business champions and a subsidiary of Northgate, Europe’s largest rental and leasing firm, has been working with the Safer Roads Humber Road Safety Partnership to help Small and Medium-sized businesses in the Hull and Humber area to improve the management of risks faced by their employees when driving for work.

Following a very successful training day at M&G Vehicle Hire’s site in Hull on 16 December, Adrian Kilvington, the Managing Director of M&G Vehicle Hire, has announced another training day for East Yorkshire businesses on 20 April 2010.

The day is targeted at van fleet operators of all sizes, some of whom may already be M&G Vehicle Hire customers. The programme addresses the issues of safe and efficient driving as well ways in which benefit from the environmental goals laid down by the Government as part of their Act on CO2 strategy. Driver skills are also assessed within the programme.

Feedback from participants at the 16 December event was strongly supportive of the information and training package delivered by M&G Vehicle Hire. It also highlighted the following facts:

• Local businesses still do not realize that the most significant risk to their business comes from driving. While almost all the participants were aware of the improvement in road casualty statistics, they were unaware that a third of those killed and injured on our roads are still people driving for work.
• Directors seem unaware of their responsibilities for managing the risks faced by those who drive for work on behalf of their businesses. One outcome of the day was to make these businesses take legal advice on how they should address this issue.
• Managing occupational road risk is a low priority within business.
• The benefits of briefing and training at work drivers were significant and yet most companies failed to do this.

Adrian Kilvington, the Managing Director of M&G Vehicle Hire, said, “We are trying to make local businesses more aware of their responsibilities for managing their at-work drivers as part of our work for the Driving for Better Business campaign. Our own experience of doing this shows that there are significant benefits to the bottom line, to our image and– most important of all – for our employees. Improved safety on the roads is a by-product of this type of management.”

The next M&G Vehicle Hire event will take place on 20 April 2010. Anyone wishing to attend this event should contact M&G Vehicle Hire on 01482 575 777 or visit the M&G Vehicle website.