Posted: Tuesday, 12 August 2014
As a business owner, what is your biggest concern when one of your employees takes to the road in a company vehicle? If you are like most, you are concerned about safety. Not only does safety affect the health of your employees and others on the road, it also affects the health of your business. To that end, creating safer drivers is the aim of the Driving for Better Business (DBB) campaign.
Driving for Better Business was launched in 2007 at the urging of the Secretary of State for Transport. Implementing the campaign was just one of many ideas being bandied about to encourage companies to stress driver safety in the workplace. What began as an outreach to companies with vans and passenger vehicles has been expanded into an ongoing campaign stressing education and driver awareness.
The main premise behind the DBB campaign is one that says to business owners that mechanical safety equipment alone is not enough to adequately improve driver safety. For example, cameras and warning systems alone will not effectively address the problem of commercial vehicles and cyclists sharing the same congested space in crowded cities. The behaviour of drivers also needs to be changed as well.
As a company providing claims services for UK businesses, we could not agree more. Road safety is a combination of the right equipment and a safety mindset among company drivers. A constant focus on safety, combined with regular training, can go a long way toward reducing road crashes involving company vehicles.
In a recent report published by Fleet Expert Magazine, DBB offered a number of reasons commercial drivers tend to be in avoidable crashes:
DBB addresses these things in a number of ways. First of all, general education about safe driving and the potential risks drivers might encounter is a good starting point. Then the organisation can also custom tailor programmes designed for the unique challenges your company drivers might face. Drivers who spend a lot of time in urban environments may receive specialised training on city driving. Long-haul drivers might be trained on motorway navigation during bad weather and other emergencies.
At Fleet Licence Check, we believe safe drivers make for better business. That is why we provide licence check services in addition to claims handling. We currently process about 20,000 licence checks every year for motoring companies across the UK. We can provide one-off services for your company or a comprehensive package that includes licence checks and claims processing.
We urge you to combine our services with the training programmes offered by Driving for Better Business. All of the resources together will make your drivers safer and your business better. Moreover, where licence checks are concerned, do not forget that your business is liable should a disqualified driver be involved in a crash using one of your vehicles. Protect yourself with regular checks through Fleet Licence Check.
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