Driving for Better Business - Kier Islington joins campaign.

9 June 2010

Kier Islington has joined the government at-work driving safety campaign. The company has reduced the number of crashes in its fleet by almost a third in 12 months. It has done this by employing a range of safe driving initiatives and educating its drivers.

These improvements in fleet management have resulted in significant financial savings. Read their case study.

RoadSafe runs the Driving for Better Business Campaign, and Kier Islington is the 46th organisation to become a business champion. It is the second Kier Group business to achieve the status following  Kier Harlow's sucess earlier this year.

Kier Islington operates a 172-strong light commercial vehicle fleet and two company cars with 26 employees driving their own vehicles on business trips.

Now reaping the rewards of introducing safety initiatives across its own fleet, the company is encouraging its approved list of 120 subcontractors and supply chain partners to adopt a similar approach to occupational road risk management.

Kier Islington regional director Rob Leitch has board level responsibility for work-related road safety. He said, “Kier Islington is a division of Kier Building Maintenance London and we are very proud to have achieved the status of business champion.

"As a proactive organisation, we continue to strive for best practice as well as increasing road safety awareness for both our members of staff and the public. This award also confirms our national commitment to the reduction of carbon emissions as well as reinforcing both our health and safety and environmental polices.”

In 2008, Kier Islington’s fleet had 48 incidents. On the basis that every recorded road accident costs the company a minimum of £250, the total bill for the year was £12000. After improving safety measures in the fleet management policy, the number of incidents fell to 34 in 2009, bringing the cost down to £8500. (The majority of incidents do not involve third party claims and are largely low speed maneuvering incidents.)

Kier Islington transport manager Jonathan Amechi said, “Through general health and safety initiatives, safe systems of work, Kier-led work related road safety campaigns and increased driver education, we have been able to reduce vehicle accidents by raising awareness of the importance of road safety. Driving safely and considerate use of our vehicles is now central to who we are and what we do.

“The volume of work we undertake combined with the geographical spread and the density of our locality means that driving and road-safety related risks must be very carefully managed. The company sees road safety as key to general health and safety due to the risks associated with our work on and around the area’s roads, pavements and housing estates.

“Work-related road safety is a high priority due both to our interaction with the public and the number of road incidents compared to other incidents at work. Furthermore, improving road safety is also key to our public perception in the borough and improving our image in the community.”

Caroline Scurr, Director of the Driving for Better Business campaign, said, “Kier Islington, like its sister company Kier Harlow, has not only introduced a first-class safe driving at work strategy, but is taking the message to its sub-contractors, which will result in more employers implementing similar initiatives.

“This is exactly what the campaign is about: business champions such as Kier Islington and Kier Harlow using their knowledge and expertise to help other organisations reduce their at-work driving risk exposure.”