Posted: Thursday, 22 October 2015
According to research from Masternaut, around four in every 10 business drivers have been issued with points on their licence for work-related driving offences. The report surveyed 2,000 UK employees who drive as part of their job and found that 39 per cent of respondents had received endorsements while working.
Although the majority (62 per cent) of those with points on their licence were guilty of speeding, other offences include driving without reasonable consideration for other road users (15 per cent), driving without due care or attention (14 per cent), traffic light-related offences (14 per cent), and dangerous driving (10 per cent).
This highlights the need for companies to run driving licence checks on their entire workforce, which can reveal whether they have anything from penalty points to the wrong category entitlement for their type of job.
The reason for the survey was to examine the effect of employee penalty points amassed when driving for work. On average, Masternaut found that business drivers with endorsements on their licence had accrued seven points from work-related offences.
But in spite of these endorsements for speeding and other offences, almost three quarters of respondents said they were confident in passing their driving test again. On top of that, seven in 10 business drivers believed they knew all the laws of the road too.
However, such self-belief might be a little ill considered, because 50 per cent also said that training would make them better and safer drivers. Unfortunately, this might not be available to all, with previous research from Masternaut revealing that 70 per cent of business drivers aren't offered training by their employers.
These findings from Masternaut follow UK accident data released in June 2015 by the Department for Transport. Last year, road casualties rose by 6 per cent, the first increase since 1997.
Another concern for some fleet operators will be the news that HGVs, LCVs, and vans also saw an increase of 10 per cent in road casualties. Still, there is a possibility that this number could come down if fleet operators introduce telematics to their vehicles.
It has been proven that telematics can improve driver behaviour and safety, thus leading to less penalty points and other offences. What's more, fleet operators can also reduce running costs by monitoring fuel economy and create efficiencies through tracking driver location.