In focus
Above: Through the use of specialised programmess, IAM RoadSmart equips fleet drivers with skills to drive safely and efficiently while meeting business needs.
available, Driving for Work is still their most popular course, with Vehicle Familiarisation another big seller. He says: “These courses take place on the road with a professional trainer, which is the most direct way to help a driver to develop safer behaviours when driving on business”. “We also launched a new app back in January called RoadSmart, covering essential driver risk management tasks for fleet managers, including licence checking, grey fleet checks and driver risk assessments. The big news is the addition of a linked mobile app for drivers, which they can use to take part in a range of risk assessment and learning modules online learning for drivers via the app. Drivers have already completed more than 29,000 courses between them, generating insightful data for their employers to use in targeting further action on road risk.” We move on to the subject of EV fleet, and Bates tells me that when businesses first switched from ICE to EVs, fleet managers reported a
lack of take-up – mainly because people didn’t understand how to use them and were worried about range and charging issues! He says: “So we have created a new course (launching soon), called Understanding EVs to support fleets in the transition to EV. We also offer a variety of in-vehicle courses such as EV Familiarisation, and Eco-Safe Driving for EVs.
I then move on to ask Gary if as a business, they are still experiencing any pushback from fleets when it comes to driver training. He says: “Yes, fleets don’t always understand which parts of the HSE guidelines they are meant to comply with, such as the requirement to extend the same duty of care towards grey fleet as to employees driving company vehicles. There can also be a lack of understanding that driving as a work activity needs to be subjected to the same rigorous risk management processes that apply to other hazardous work activities. This might be because there are certain preconceptions that driver training is costly or time consuming, but
it doesn’t have to be. And it’s far less costly than collisions, at the end of the day.
“We’ve also found that drivers themselves tend to overestimate their levels of safety and don’t feel it’s necessary to undergo training, or simply find it a chore. I’d argue that we need to help employers establish a culture that prioritises safety, makes the administrative side easy for managers, and frames training and assessment as part of duty of care rather than a criticism of the individual’s skills.” Summing up, I ask Bates what is IAM RoadSmart’s focus as a business is for the rest of this year – and probe him further on any early details of future business developments. He says: “We are focused on supporting businesses with getting better data from on-road courses to enable them to make more informed decisions about their drivers and any intervention needs. We are also launching some new group workshops for drivers, to provide a convenient and engaging training solution for businesses with depot-based fleets.”
www.businesscar.co.uk | November/December 2024 | 35
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65
