EXPERT VIEW | Fleet Management D
riving on company business, otherwise known as Work Related Road Risk (WRRR), is quite simply the most
dangerous activity an employer ever asks an employee to undertake on behalf of its business. In the UK, between 800 and 1,000 people are killed annually in work-related collisions. In fact, one third of deaths on UK roads are during ‘at work’ journeys. According to the European Transport
Safety Council, it is estimated that business drivers account for an estimated 30% to 40% of road deaths across the UK and Europe. A heavily regulated environment in the UK has led to much
safer roads and, as a result, the UK’s ‘Best Practice’ solutions are now being rolled out across Europe and the rest of the world as other countries are keen to reduce risks employees face in the course of their working day. Vehicle related incidents at work are both extremely costly and time consuming – adversely affecting operational efficiency and absenteeism and insurance costs. Nonetheless in many UK/ROI organisations – even with the impetus of clearly defined WRRR related Health and Safety/Duty of Care responsibilities to be fulfilled by the Employer – there is a lack of proactivity and so these significant costs are oſten overlooked and just accepted as an unavoidable cost of doing business.
Inexplicably, many organisations still do not have a robust, systematic and legally compliant approach to addressing their WRRR responsibilities (or even a defined “Driver Safety Policy”) and typically only reactively focus on fleet safety following a high cost collision or worse, a fatality. Therefore, there is a real opportunity
here for the finance department to take the lead and champion proactive action to ensure the organisation is fully focused on fulfilling its legal WRRR responsibilities and at the same time delivering significant cost savings and financial benefits (direct and indirect), as well as protecting your valued employees, and which can be achieved by the implementation of a comprehensive and fully compliant approach.
MANAGING WORK-RELATED ROAD-RISK THE BUSINESS BENEFITS
Proactively and compliantly managing WRRR provides a significant opportunity to reduce accident rates, while protecting the safety and well- being of both your employees and your brand. These significant business benefits include:
• Fewer accidents delivers serious cost and time savings • Controlling rising insurance premiums and vehicle incident related costs • Protecting the safety and wellbeing of employees
• Brand/reputational protection • Improved operational efficiency • Reduced absenteeism • Reduced vehicle running costs – fuel consumption, maintenance etc • Differentiating your business by demonstrating a commitment to safety and compliance to internal and external stakeholders and customers
Addressing WRRR also delivers other benefits such as:
• Legal compliance – ensuring that the business is fully legally compliant with the HSE’s Driving at Work guidance. Without a proper and robust process in place, you and your organisation are potentially exposed to the risk of prosecution in the event that one of your employees is involved in serious incident whilst driving
at work. Therefore non-compliance simply isn’t an option.
• Protecting employees and saving lives – nothing is more important than protecting the safety and wellbeing of your most valued asset – your people.
• Enhancing your CSR profile – in theory every employer wants to take all reasonable steps to ensure its employees get home safely every night: (but is your organisation actually doing enough, or even legally compliant?).
• The law – Employers have clearly defined duties under health and safety law in all EU states for on-the-road work activities. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSW Act) 2 states you must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all employees while at work. You must also ensure that others are not put at risk by your work-related driving activities. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999(3) requires that employers manage health and safety effectively. Employers must carry out an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of its employees, while they are at work, and to other people who may be affected by the organisation’s work activities. HSE Regulations encompasses all
employees driving on company business, irrespective of whether it is undertaken in a company or hired vehicle or alternatively a driver owned vehicle, as well as anyone taking a cash allowance (i.e. Grey Fleet users). It is therefore, a business-critical activity and one that must be attended to and indeed significant operational savings are achievable and collision reduction rates of 30 to 40% are frequently experienced when a WRRR program is implemented.
So where do you start? An initial WRRR ‘Legal Compliance and Driver Safety Audit’ (including Best Practice Benchmarking and a ‘Gap Analysis’) will help you to understand where current shortfalls are and help identify the following:
• Areas for improvement with regards to any existing processes and policies • Duty of care and risk • Risk of prosecution under HSE guidance/Health and safety/Corporate manslaughter legislation
• Financial and corporate brand risk to the organisation • Risk of harm to employees • Risk of management failings contributing to employees being involved in a collision
• Ways to make significant cost and time savings. n
Director of Finance magazine has teamed up with Applied Driving Techniques (Global Solutions) Ltd to offer a free Employers WRRR Legal Compliance and Driver Safety Audit/Health Check. If you would like to take advantage of this, email Dr Jim Golby on
Drjim.Golby@applieddriving.co.uk
dofonline.co.uk
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE
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