Reducing Company Vehicle Accidents Saves Lives & Costs

A study by Lex Autolease has uncovered some disturbing results for fleet managers all over the UK. From their fleet alone, 78% of the accidents that occurred in company owned vehicles were found to be the fault of the drivers. This is coupled with the news that over the space of a year, half of all company vehicles in a fleet will be involved in an accident. Important issues need to be addressed about the situations that are evolving to cause these accidents.

A company called Total Accident Management have done a study which shows that the majority of incidents involve broken glass, employees driving into the back of the vehicle in front, and collisions with objects (such as fences, walls etc). Addressing these issues could potentially save a large fleet thousands of pounds, improve the safety of your drivers, (meaning they will be more productive as they will be off the road for less time), and improve your company’s efficiency and image.

Companies often find even with mobile phones and laptops that their employees do not treat these items with the care and respect that they normally would because they do not own them. The same applies for company cars, and this mentality might go some way to explaining the accidents rates.
The pressures of working could also be a factor in how many driving related incidents your drivers have as they may be unfamiliar with the car, and driving in locations they have not been to before. These two elements could significantly affect a driver’s ability to concentrate, but when they are coupled with things like commission based targets and journey planning, the effect is much more pronounced. Another indisputable fact about company vehicle drivers is that they spend more time on the road then domestic drivers on a day to day basis, thus their accident rate will naturally be higher.

When a company’s accident rates are high, they also run the risk of more accidents as the drivers who remain on the road have to pick up some of the work from the employees who are injured or are waiting for their vehicle to be repaired. It is estimated that the real cost of every repair is 3 times higher than the actual cost of mending the vehicle; time off the road, administration and loss of sales all need to be factored in. For all the reasons above, it is important for companies to have good driver training schemes to combat their accident rates.

Driver training needs to ideally be introduced as soon as an employee joins the company, so that the employee knows right from the start what is expected of them. Managers need to ‘practise what they preach’ and have a good safety record themselves, else employees might not ‘sign up’ to what they are being taught. Encouraging employees to put forward their suggestions is another way of getting them involved. Psychologists have stated for years that the more involved, and interested, an individual is with what they need to remember, the better they will achieve. So employers need to take an active role in listening to the opinions of their employees and finding ways for their suggestions, providing they are sensible of course.

Regular employer paid for eye tests are a good way of assessing your driver’s needs, and the first test should be conducted as soon as the employee joins. Upon employment, copies need to be taken of driving licenses and all road related fines, penalty points etc declared. Fleet Managers have found that monitoring driver’s individual incident rates, and comparing these results to their colleagues can provide a basic insight into an employee’s driver behaviour. However, more detailed analysis is required in order to target an improve problem areas, and that is where technology such as vehicle tracking systems can really help your company. These systems allow businesses to monitor their employees driving behaviours in real time. Vehicle tracking systems are able to keep fleet managers informed of poor driving behaviour that can lead to accidents such as speeding, harsh acceleration, braking and cornering in the form of email alerts/notifications allowing them to take immediate action where necessary.

Vehicle tracking solutions are ideal for companies that want to ensure that their employees are driving responsibly and not putting theirs and other road user’s safety at risk. In addition, these systems also help businesses to comply with Health & Safety & Duty Of Care legislation.