VEHICLE & FLEET SAFETY
PROTECT AGAINST PENALTIES AND PREMIUMS
Radius Payment Solutions’ David Mountfield, discusses how using telematics can improve driver health and safety, and support your business’ Duty of Care policies.
Businesses spend a lot of time and money managing the risks to health and safety for their employees around the workplace. Whether it be an office, building site, or retail space, when you spend the vast part of your working day in one location, most risks are clear and apparent, and therefore easier to manage. Where some businesses are letting themselves and their teams down, however, it’s with less obvious risks, such as when employees are out on the road.
Under the Health and Safety Work Act 1974, employers have a statutory duty to assess the health and safety risks of their employees, including any driving activity on the road. Every day more than 150 vehicles driven on company business are involved in a road traffic accident in Britain. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) estimated that between 800 and 1,000 road deaths a year are in some way work-related.
The government has already taken action this year by increasing penalties for using a mobile phone while behind the wheel, increasing the number of points drivers receive from three to six and doubling the fine to £200. A survey by Direct Line and Brake, the
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road safety charity, reported that an estimated 22% of crashes could be caused by driver distraction alone. While many workers will need to use a mobile phone as part of their jobs, the dangers of doing so while driving and the government crackdown has highlighted the wider issue of health and safety on business journeys.
One of the greatest risks is the driving style of employees themselves. Harsh braking and acceleration together with incidences of speeding are all great indicators of whether driving is as safe as it could be. However, short of sitting next to your drivers while they’re out on the road, the only way of spotting and remedying unsafe driving styles is with in-vehicle telematics.
Essentially a live reporting tool, telematics have a number of handy features including information on fuel usage, vehicle efficiency, traffic updates, GPS, and most importantly driver performance. Often they are used as a cost-saving tool thanks to their propensity for spotting and reducing inefficient fuel use. But for employers that take their health and safety requirements seriously, they can also be used to encourage drivers to operate as safely as possible.
When used as part of your health and safety initiatives, telematics monitor and measure speeding and harsh driving styles, and produce driver profiles. Our Kinesis system uses this data to assess drivers with a score out of 100. With this information to hand, you can then identify and monitor key areas to influence driving styles and policy, or identify driver training programmes.
While in the past these black boxes were feared as Big Brother, they are now widely recognised as ‘Big Mothers’. For lone workers especially they can be an extra safety blanket, providing peace of mind to them and their employers. Drivers also know that if they become the unwitting victim of a ‘crash for cash’ scam, telematics data could help them prove their innocence.
There is a business case for safe driving, too. It has the added bonus of reducing fuel use and, depending on your insurance provider, reducing your premiums. There aren’t many systems you can introduce that reduce your liabilities and your monthly outgoings. But telematics might just be one.
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