The risky business of driving for work

Unfamiliar vehicles, new locations, deadlines – all these factors make driving for work more dangerous than driving in your own time. But what can organisations do to effectively manage road risk, asks RoSPA’s Kevin Clinton

Driving is the most dangerous activity that most of us undertake in the course of our working lives.
    
Between 25-30 per cent of the 2,222 people who were killed on Britain’s roads last year are likely to have been on the road as part of their work at the time. It is likely that more people are killed in “at work” road accidents than in any other type of occupational accident.
    
Car and van drivers who cover 25,000 miles or more per year in the course of their work are thought to be at the same risk of being killed at work as those in acknowledged high hazard sectors such as construction or quarrying.
    
The pressures faced by “at work” drivers are vastly different to those experienced when driving during their own time. Unfamiliar vehicles, time constraints, new locations, deadlines, pressure to answer work-related phone calls - all these factors can lead to divided attention and other forms of performance impairment on the part of the driver.

WORK PRESSURES
And it appears that such pressures are impacting negatively on safety. For example, research cited on the Occupational Road Safety Alliance (ORSA) website (www.orsa.org.uk/facts-figures/accident-evidence.htm) found that business drivers have collision rates which are 30-40 per cent higher than those of private drivers – and that company car drivers have nearly twice as many at-fault accidents than drivers in general.
    
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has continued to stress that work-related road risk is a major road safety and occupational safety issue, which affects not only vocational drivers (those whose job is driving), but also the vast range of workers who cannot do their jobs without travelling on the roads at some point.
    
Since the inception of its managing occupational road risk (MORR) campaign in 1996, RoSPA has developed links with a wide range of businesses and organisations. In fact, the safety charity is now joined by more than 100 other organisations in the Occupational Road Safety Alliance (see www.orsa.org.uk).

DUTY OF CARE ON THE ROAD
When it comes to managing occupational road risk, employers must conduct suitable risk assessments and put in place all “reasonably practicable” measures to ensure that:
•    Work-related journeys are safe
•    Staff are fit and competent to drive safely
•    Vehicles used are fit for purpose and in a safe condition.

The effective control of such risk is a matter covered by employers’ duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. All employing organisations need, therefore, to ensure that they fully integrate their management of occupational road risk into their overall health and safety management arrangements.
    
In controlling the risk of work-related road accidents, organisations can put in place a range of practical and cost-effective control measure such as: exploring safer alternatives to road travel, for example, taking the train or video-conferencing; specifying safest routes; insisting on compliance with speed limits; setting standards for safe schedules, journey times and distance limits; specifying the use of vehicles with additional safety features; ensuring safe maintenance; and, ensuring drivers are fit to do the task, which includes driver selection procedures, assessment, training and continual development.

However, MORR is not about one-off, isolated interventions. Instead, it needs to be focused on developing a system (policies, people and procedures) to deliver sustainable and measurable safety performance improvements as well as other business benefits. It must be led from the top by senior managers and involve effective workforce participation and consultation with employees and their representatives. Line managers too have a key role to play in ensuring that staff are not put at risk and that they drive safely.

In short, MORR should be part of your organisation’s whole health and safety system and culture.

WHY IS MORR SO IMPORTANT?
The ethical reasons for taking work-related road risk seriously hardly need emphasising. The potential for pain and suffering caused by at-work road accidents is substantial, with effects for the employee, his or her family, colleagues and wider society.

Addressing road safety also makes good business sense. Indeed, the business case for preventing accidents is stronger during tough economic times. If sales and turnover reduce, cutting the costs associated with easily-avoidable accidents becomes an increasingly crucial way to defend the bottom line.
    
Research by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into workplace accidents suggests that for every £1 recovered through insurance, between £8 and £36 may be lost through uninsured costs.
    
Occupational road accidents are likely to cost firms in terms of lost business, administrative and legal fees and rising insurance premiums. Particularly when they involve liveried vehicles, they can also adversely affect corporate reputation and this, in turn, can bring further adverse financial implications.

SAFER AND GREENER
With the growing focus on managing the environmental impact of business, there are clear overlaps with the safety agenda, including between driving technique, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Indeed, some driver-training providers now offer “eco driving” courses, which explicitly highlight these overlaps.
    
Using less fuel typically means spending less money - bolstering the business case for keeping your employees safe on the road.
    
And if the ethical and business reasons are not enough - there are significant legal prompts too.
    
Guidance issued by the HSE and DfT in Driving at Work: Managing Occupational Road Safety (INDG382, published in 2003) clearly states that, in addition to road traffic law, health and safety law applies to on-the-road work activities as to all work activities.
    
The police look at work-related factors when road crashes are investigated and action has been taken against employers. For example, we have previously seen company directors successfully prosecuted for manslaughter after crashes which could be linked back to working practices, including where drivers had spent excessively long hours at the wheel.
    
And there continues to be a great deal of speculation about the potential use of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, implemented in 2008, in relation to work-related road deaths. The Health and Safety Offences Act 2009 will also have significant implications with regard to work-related road safety.

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR ROAD SAFETY RECORD?
Changing the attitude and behaviour of at-work road users can also make an important contribution towards reducing the overall number of deaths and injuries on our roads. Employers can also organise general educational programmes such as refresher driver training for employees and their family members.
    
There is tremendous potential for employers to get involved in this, for example, introducing motorcycle safety schemes into the workplace. Due to so-called “time poverty” experienced by people outside of work, they are more likely to take part in safety programmes delivered within the workplace than those offered in the community. So, besides helping to reduce risks to employees while they are at work on the road, employers are also well placed to make a valuable input towards reducing the tragic toll on our roads through the attention they give to road safety.
    
The best place to start managing your organisation’s road risk is with a comprehensive review of specific risks faced by individual organisations and individuals within the company. This will enable a longer-term programme to be implemented - as has been done, for example, by two organisations who have worked closely with RoSPA in the past.

BT AND ROSPA
With a commercial fleet of 44,000 vehicles, BT is well placed to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with managing occupational road risk. For a number of years, the firm has led the way in developing a systematic approach to keeping its employees - and others - safe on the road.
    
In 2001, BT began using an interactive risk management tool to assess its drivers, which was followed by computer-based training for employees identified as being “at risk”. And last year saw the development of a partnership between BT and The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, through which subsequent on-road training is provided from drivers who would benefit from further input.
    
RoSPA’s Driver and Fleet Solutions department trains these drivers as part of the Government’s Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving (SAFED) for Vans programme. BT’s safety adviser for travel and transport chose RoSPA because they wanted to put their drivers through an approved Government course - and the SAFED training enabled them to do that.
    
BT’s investment in driver assessment and training has resulted in benefits for individual employees and the company as a whole. The standard form for looking at how well they are doing is the number of incidents per 1,000 vehicles. BT has reduced their incident rate from 60 incidents per 1,000 vehicles to 30 during 2008.
    
Motorcyclists have not been forgotten by BT, which is keen to develop the relationship with RoSPA in the future, with the safety of motorcyclists in mind.

YELL AND ROSPA
Yell, the directories business, is taking steps to keep its people safe when they are driving for work by linking up with RoSPA to manage occupational road risk. The organisation has undergone a Managing Occupational Road Risk Review with the safety charity in 2009 and launched a three-year programme of driver assessment, training and education for 1,700 of its people in the UK who drive on company business.
    
For the first stage of the programme, those who drive as part of their job are undertaking a RoSPA Driver Profiler assessment. Driver Profiler 20:20, an online psychometric risk assessment, helps to establish which training interventions are most appropriate to individual drivers, helping Yell move away from a blanket approach to driver training.
    
Depending on the assessment result, drivers will then take part in either an “e-learning” interactive online training session or have 1:1 in-vehicle driver development training.
    
Yell’s head of human resources in the UK believes that this bespoke approach to driver training is of great benefit to those who drive for work, ensuring they are equipped with the knowledge and practical skills to drive safely and efficiently in their day-to-day roles.
    
At first glance, managing occupational road risk might seem like a daunting task. But many organisations are successfully addressing the issue without it being over-burdensome, and service providers are generally happy to help meet the specific requirements of individual firms.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is a registered charity and has been at the heart of accident prevention in the UK and around the world for more than 90 years. Kevin Clinton is RoSPA’s head of road safety

FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.rospa.com/drivertraining/
www.rospa.com/roadsafety/resources/employers.htm
www.orsa.org.uk