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A new risk management report sponsored by Kwik-Fit Fleet shows that directors are out of touch with at-work driver safety. Ashley Martin explains. Businesses could be heading for "potential disaster" if fleet safety does not rise rapidly up the agenda of boards of directors in many organisations, according to a new report.
A survey of fleet operations carried out exclusively for the report, sponsored by Kwik-Fit Fleet, suggests that 79 per cent of businesses do not have a risk management strategy in place or planned.
As a result, the report concludes, there is a "serious gap in knowledge and understanding in many boards of directors regarding work-related road safety and the more immediate issue of fleet safety - and their responsibility for fleet".
Department for Transport figures reveal that the number of deaths on Britain's roads increased last year to 3,508, a two per cent rise on 2002's figures and a third of which are likely to have involved at-work drivers. In addition, approximately 100,000 at-work drivers are injured on the - again a third of the overall total.
It is against that background that the Government, the Health and Safety Executive and the police have combined to urge companies to take their health and safety and duty of care responsibilities towards employees seriously. In addition, company bosses are being increasingly held to account for the deaths and serious injuries of employees following at-work accidents.
The report highlights how a raft of new and existing health and safety at work and duty of care legislation is being used by the police and HSE in an attempt to reduce the accident toll involving occupational drivers in Britain.
The Government-inspired policy of 'getting tough' on rogue companies will be further increased when the Home Office introduces long-expected corporate manslaughter legislation in the near future.
But the report, Profit through Safety: A Boardroom Plan for Action, says boards of directors are out of touch with both their fleet executives and Government strategy in managing and monitoring at-work driving. Simultaneously, the report suggests, fleet executives have a pivotal role to play in reducing their company's occupational road risk.
Research for the report reveals that there are "disturbing gaps in board awareness of fleet safety" in large organisations and, in the case of small and medium businesses, "the implementation of fleet safety policies is too often lacking".
However, fleet executives are receiving a considerable amount of guidance and instruction on best practice and policy implementation with regard to the management of cars used on business.
Therefore, the report concludes: "Few boards of directors are aware of the status of the cars used on business within their organisations and do not have regular formal board level reports as to the ongoing status of business mobility." In many cases, says the report, the buck stops with the fleet executive and awareness of fleet issues is not passed to the board, either for information or for comment and action.
Report author Professor Peter Cooke, of the Centre for Automotive Industries Management, Nottingham Business School at the Nottingham Trent University, said: "We have three elements - one external, one internal, pursuing business vehicle safety but a second internal element, the board, with whom ultimate responsibility lies, apparently out of touch.
"Such a situation cannot, or should not be allowed to continue, not only in the best-managed organisation, but also in any business. The legal requirements have been put there for a specific purpose and it is the role of the board to ensure those rules are followed and to have an audit trail that shows they are followed with diligence."
A nominated director, says the report, should have day-to-day responsibility for business car policy and strategy and monitor the situation. In turn fleet executives should be responsible for suggesting best practice to the board, communicating operational issues to drivers, monitoring fleet performance and highlighting critical issues and remedial actions.
Meanwhile, company car and van drivers and employees using their own cars on business, should accept, as part of their job description, company rules regarding monitoring and best practice and remedial action as necessary. They should also have an obligation to report incidents to the fleet executive.
Professor Cooke said: "Thus, the three players in the equation are balanced and communicate with each other with management awareness and remedial actions to correct problems built into the equation."
He added: "Crucially the fleet executive is moved from being on the fringe of the action, as would happen if there were no board reporting, to the middle of the information structure.
"It is the role of the board of directors to work with the fleet executive to plan how fleet safety might be enhanced, and to transmit that message to business car users, whether they drive a company car or provide their own for work.
"Government has introduced sanctions for poor fleet safety that can be both time consuming and costly - as well as uncomfortable. It is the role of the three parts of the organisation to work together to make - and if done properly - reduce costs as well.
"The management of work-related road safety has become a critical part of the role of the fleet executive but, as important, responsibility now, more than ever before, rests with the board of directors of the business." Further InformationTo order a copy of the new Kwik-Fit Fleet-sponsored report, Profit through Safety, telephone Kwik-Fit Fleet on 01727 840206 or email
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To help with the analysis and implementation of the issues and policies raised in the report, a CD-Rom featuring a fleet safety management and monitoring model developed by Professor Cooke is available free of charge from Kwik-Fit Fleet on 01727 840206 or email
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Biography
Ashley Martin is a fleet industry journalist, analyst and consultant who, after editing Fleet News for almost eight years, now runs his own business, Ashley Martin Communications.
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