 Demonstrate road risk management procedures or face prosecution
An ability to demonstrate that occupational road risk is being managed is key if companies, directors and managers are to avoid prosecution in the event of a serious crash, according to a leading health and safety specialist lawyer.
But despite the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act too many organisations are complacent and living on the fact that none of their employees have been involved in a fatal crash.
Michael Appleby, of Housemans in London, says that continuing to adopt an ‘it won’t happen to us’ approach could prove to be a disaster for businesses in the event of a crash, subsequent police investigation and a court case.
“Once the police establish that there is a work-related aspect to a fatal road crash they will want answers to key questions from company bosses. If they don’t get the right answers they will continue to probe and delve deeper and deeper into an employer’s safety management system in respect of road risk,” he said.
“Investigations into deaths involving management failures are often long and drawn out. The time taken up by managers and directors to answer police questions can literally turn into a full-time job.
“A resulting prosecution alongside publicity around the crash, the investigation and the ultimate court case is likely to prove hugely damaging to any business.
"But," said Mr Appleby, “simply having policies in place will not be enough, the police will need to be convinced the risk is being actively managed. Employers with a system in place, like FSG’s RiskMaster, who are then using the information to manage drivers are less likely to face an investigation let alone a prosecution.”
Mr Appleby was speaking at a packed autumn meeting of FSG’s RiskMaster User Group which, as well as attracting representatives of existing clients including The Labour Party, Oyez Straker, West Bromwich Building Society, Molson Coors, EPS and WH Smith, also attracted many fleet decision-makers from organisations either on the cusp of implementing the risk management solutions or looking at utilising the solution.
Apathy was identified as the enemy of progress in health and safety 35 years ago, but according to Health and Safety Executive Chairman Judith Hackett in a speech earlier this year, board health and safety leadership is crucial.
Ms Hackett said: “Health and safety management is not about elimination of all risk - it is and has always been about doing what is sensible and proportionate - what is ‘reasonably practicable’ - to manage foreseeable risk and then getting on with the task.”
Citing occupational road risk management as an example, she said: “The rules of the road - speed limits, the Highway Code - provide the basic framework within which we should all operate. They are minimum standards of compliance - but are clearly not sufficient unless we all behave responsibly.
“Good drivers are those who operate within the framework laid down, but who pay attention, use their judgment and adjust their behaviour to suit the prevailing circumstances. These are the principles of real self-regulation and also of good leadership.
“Board leadership in health and safety is about common sense, personal responsibility and integrity.”
She concluded: “This is an area of management which requires the exercising of judgment - not just at board level but throughout the organisation, and ensure that people at all levels in the organisation are trained and encouraged to exercise their own judgment not just comply with the rules.”
As a result, managing at-work driver safety becomes much less about what the law says and what the law requires and becomes much more about how to apply the legal framework to the risks in a business in a practical and pragmatic way and in building everyone’s competence and confidence to exercise judgment and think for themselves.
Mr Appleby said: “Only a few years ago there would not have been a chance of a work-related road crash leading to a corporate manslaughter prosecution. But with a change in the law making it easier to use a systemic failure due to mismanagement at senior level to secure a conviction, and the police’s Road Death Investigation Manual showing how to investigate for this failure, a prosecution is much more likely now. Therefore, prudent companies will want to take steps to ensure they are fully prepared.”
 RiskMaster helps BBUS work towards its ‘ZERO HARM’ target
Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions (BBUS) is rolling out Permits to Drive to 3,000 drivers across the company to ensure maximum occupational road risk management compliance and assist with accident reduction as it works towards a ‘ZERO HARM’ target.
BBUS is one of the UK’s leading utility solutions providers, with a strong position in international markets. Delivering solutions for many of the UK’s major utility companies, the company works across the water, wastewater, gas and power sectors, and is the latest organisation to sign up to Fleet Supports Group's (FSG) web-enabled RiskMaster programme.
Dave Washbourne, Driver Risk Project Manager at BBUS, has selected RiskMaster along with GreenRoad’s technology-based service that provides real-time, in-vehicle driver feedback to deliver a comprehensive and robust occupational road risk management solution with fully auditable results.
An initial RiskMaster/GreenRoad pilot involving 50 drivers has over 10 months seen their risk rating reduce by 63% and their accident rate by more than 40%.
Mr Washbourne said: “We are delighted with the results so far. It means that our employees are safer; other road users are safer; and with fewer accidents, financial savings are being made.”
BBUS at-work drivers - company car, van and HGV workers as well as own-car users - are being enrolled in groups onto the RiskMaster system at roadshows being held across the country.
So far about 300 employees have been enrolled and all at-work drivers, as well as spouses and partners allowed to drive a company car, are expected to have been issued with a Permit to Drive, which includes a photo of them, by March 2010.
The introduction of RiskMaster and its integration with the GreenRoad system - GreenRoad is a partner company of FSG - significantly bolsters BBUS’s long-established risk management processes. That has seen the organisation win a number of awards including Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence from road safety charity Brake.
BBUS is part of the Balfour Beatty Group, which has embarked on a journey to achieve ‘ZERO HARM’ by 2012. This means zero risk of any kind to the public, zero risk of fatalities and zero risk of long term harm to health.
Mr Washbourne said: “As a result, my challenge was to look at the best technology available that would encourage a behavioural change and provide fully auditable controls as we work towards the 2012 target.
“As well as protecting drivers and encouraging them to drive safely, it is vital that we can prove compliance with legislation and best practice at all times.”
At the roadshows drivers are briefed on RiskMaster and the new approach to at-work driver safety. They also complete the online process that allows an individual Permit to Drive to be issued.
The system then creates an individual and comprehensive Driver Operating Life Report from which data is used to continually assess individual drivers in their driving-at-work activity.
Meanwhile, the in-vehicle GreenRoad system continuously rates driving skills, enables drivers and fleet managers to identify and address risky driving behaviour and promotes improvements over time through constant reinforcement.
Mr Washbourne: “Employees are the company’s most important asset and we want to look after them and ensure that they do not take risks and do not feel that they have to take risks to perform their job.
“Therefore, it is vital we have information that, where necessary, results in a change of behaviour. The information provided by RiskMaster’s Driver Operating Life Report and the live feeds from GreenRoad ensures that I have a complete risk-rated picture of every driver and can then take further action if required to reduce any risks that are highlighted.”
FSG Chairman Geoffrey Bray said: “Like all our RiskMaster clients, BBUS views driver safety not as a cost but as an investment as underlined through its ‘ZERO HARM’ approach. Legislation is increasingly impacting on at-work drivers so employers have a significant responsibility to manage them effectively.”
 Local union officials stand in the way of safe driving focus
Demand from local authorities for help in managing their at-work drivers is rising but resistance is being met by local trade union officials, the RiskMaster User Group heard at its autumn meeting.
Fleet Support Group (FSG) is currently in discussions with at least five local authorities about using its online occupational road risk management programme RiskMaster. One of the councils is already enrolling its drivers on the scheme with Permits to Drive and other authorities are expected to do so in the near future.
However, despite the TUC urging all employers to focus on reducing the risks associated with at-work driving and Unison, the UK’s largest public sector union, and The Labour Party already using RiskMaster, FSG Chairman Geoffrey Bray is concerned at opposition to safe driving initiatives from some officials.
He explained: “I am sitting in meetings with council officers who want to introduce RiskMaster because they want to ensure they are legally compliant and are looking after the health and safety of their staff. However, resistance in some quarters is coming from local officials who sit in on the meetings.
“This is a disturbing trend, particularly when official TUC guidance very much supports the implementation of safe driving procedures.”
The TUC says that employers should regard vehicles used for work in the same way as any other piece of work equipment.
The organisation advice on its website adds: “Many employers do not see road safety as a health and safety issue. Their main concerns relate to tax, insurance, MoT certificates, and that the driver has the appropriate driving licence. Attitudes like this can lead to higher death and injury rates.
“The TUC believes that work-related road safety must be a higher priority for employers and be integrated into employers’ arrangements for managing health and safety at work. Employers need to control work-related road risks and by doing so could save hundreds of lives every year.
“The TUC wants employers to develop work-related road safety policies in close consultation with safety representatives.”
The TUC says that ‘vital elements of the policy’ should include:
- a statement of the current legal position
- a commitment to consult safety representatives and workers that drive
- a commitment to carry out a thorough risk assessment and implementation of measures to remove or reduce the risks
FSG’s concerns that local authorities’ safe-driving policies are not as robust as they should be comes at a time when a recent survey by industry publication Fleet News highlighted that public sector bosses were potentially putting the lives of their staff and the general public in danger by failing to manage their ‘grey’ fleet drivers.
The law says that employers have a health and safety responsibility towards all employees who drive on business irrespective of whether that is at the wheel of a work-provided vehicle or their own.
The Fleet News research discovered that, of the 30 county councils quizzed, not one inspected vehicles driven by 130,000 ‘grey’ fleet drivers and more than 50% of the councils did not check to see if vehicles had a valid MoT.
The weaknesses in procedures also contravene Government advice, which says that public sector managers should be ‘carrying out checks on driving licences, insurance cover and MoT certificates before allowing employees to drive their own vehicle for work, and then repeating these at regular intervals’.
Mr Bray said: “Local union officials’ opposition to the introduction of safe-driving policies and procedures seems to stem from a fear that employees’ failure to comply will be used against them - their members - as a potential dismissal tool.
“What these officials do not seem to understand is that the implementation of at-work safe-driving initiatives is about councils being legally compliant, showing a duty of care towards their employees and ultimately saving money for investment in services by reducing the number of accidents in which vehicles are involved.”
 FSG to launch all-new RiskMaster II in 2010
The new version of Fleet Support Group’s (FSG) multi-award-winning online occupational road risk management system RiskMaster will be launched in the first quarter of 2010.
RiskMaster delivers both legislative health and safety at work compliance and financial savings with existing users reporting a string of cost benefits generated as a result of using information triggered by associated management reports.
RiskMaster II utilises the very latest Microsoft.NET technology, which has enabled the introduction of a vast swathe of new functionality enabling fleet decision-makers to configure the system to meet their own individual requirements.
RiskMaster II has been developed in partnership with existing system users, with members of the RiskMaster User Group having a key input into both content and configuration of the new cutting-edge technology.
Independent analysis of RiskMaster by safety experts at both Oscar Strategic Consulting and Toot Rock Consulting reveal that RiskMaster I is already the most complete work-related road safety management solution in the marketplace.
Additionally, FSG has won a host of awards for the technology and for actively encouraging companies to focus on road safety. Most recently, the company won road safety charity Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum’s 2009 Fleet Safety Provider of the Year and drove off with the Best Safety Initiative Award at the 2009 Fleet News Awards.
FSG Chief Operating Officer Richard Minshull, who has overseen development of RiskMaster II, told the autumn meeting of the User Group: “Existing RiskMaster users have come forward with many new ideas that they want to see incorporated in the system.
“Many of those initiatives are hugely important in enabling public and private sector fleets to be fully compliant with the very latest legislation and to effectively and efficiently manage all employees who drive on business.
“The ideas outweighed the capacity of RiskMaster I, which is why we have developed RiskMaster II. But the journey will not end with RiskMaster II, which will be released in the first quarter of 2010.
“The Microsoft.NET technology enables FSG to continue to evolve RiskMaster II to ensure that we keep pace with customer requirements.”
RiskMaster is already used by a multitude of fleets including the likes of Dun & Bradstreet,The Labour Party, West Bromwich Building Society, Unison, WHSmith and QMH Hotels to ensure legislative compliance and that driver documentation is valid.
Mr Minshull added: “RiskMaster II is rich in functionality which ensures that data is filtered, de-duplicated and refined before it is stored.”
While RiskMaster I was built as a driver-centric risk management product, RiskMaster II is both driver- and vehicle-centric and has the capacity to take delivery of journey-related information from in-vehicle tracker and telematics devices.
Existing RiskMaster users will see all data migrate seamlessly to RiskMaster II when it is rolled out early next year. Currently RiskMaster II trials are taking place.
Mr Minshull added: “RiskMaster II will be phased in and each customer will be consulted on the transition so as to ensure a planned migration.”
FSG Chairman Geoffrey Bray said: “Companies that manage drivers manage cost. If organisations don’t manage their drivers then they are not managing costs effectively. Introducing RiskMaster brings many benefits including a significant return on investment through reduced costs.
“Compliance and cost are bedfellows and should be viewed as partners. Using RiskMaster will reduce corporate costs because all our existing users are experiencing financial savings. If costs are not being reduced then it is because management influence is not being utilised and interventions generated by RiskMaster are not being put in place.”
 FSG strives to achieve a ‘zero complaint culture’ with ‘sensational customer service’
A ‘zero complaint culture’ has been adopted by Fleet Support Group (FSG) as the organisation and its independent dealer network aim to eliminate mistakes.
Just as clients Network Rail and Balfour Beatty Utility Services have adopted a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to missed and late vehicle servicing and a ‘zero harm’ approach accident reduction respectively, so FSG has introduced its new policy.
FSG Chairman Geoffrey Bray announced the move at the company’s recent annual national workshop for its Masterserve garages - a total of 470 outlets nationwide have approved or associate status.
He told garage bosses: “I want to know about every complaint; every issue and I will take personal control and deal with it. To ensure that we continue to be successful we must deliver sensational customer service. It is something that our customers must experience because I want them to tell me if they don’t.
“We must not make mistakes or make excuses,” said Mr Bray, who added: “It all comes down to managing people within our businesses. There should be no blame culture, but employees should take responsibility for their actions. Issues should be out in the open, dealt with and then we should make sure they never happen again. Only by doing that will we satisfy our mutual customers.”
Fleet chiefs are all faced with huge challenges and the single biggest one is to eliminate costs, which means looking to improve efficiencies within the vehicle operation.
Mr Bray said: “We can help them improve efficiencies by ensuring vehicle downtime is kept to an absolute minimum and helping them and their drivers to look after vehicles.”
He pledged that a ‘zero complaint culture’ would be achieved by FSG and its Masterserve network by sticking to the company’s founding principles of taking out cost, improving service and simplifying administration
“The ‘zero complaint culture’ policy may not be effective every time, but it is something that we must try to achieve,” said Mr Bray. “If we mess up with one client or one driver we need to avoid a ripple effect because that could lead to a loss of business.”
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