The largest independent vehicle management company in the UK
News & events
Fleet Support Group has completed a hat-trick of awards from road safety charity Brake due to its concerted focus on reducing the risk exposure of at-work drivers.
The company, which manages a fleet of more than 50,000 vehicles, was named Fleet Service Provider of the Year for iRIS (Integrated Risk Information System) - its recently launched highly sophisticated software system combining its long-established RiskMaster programme with in-car telematics.
The company collected the trophy at the charity’s 2008 Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence where the technology was also highly commended in the Fleet Safety Product Award - Management Product category.
The 2008 award has now been added to Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence won by Fleet Support Group in 2006 when it won the Safe Vehicle Maintenance Award (large fleet) and 2007 when it was named Fleet Service Provider of the Year. In addition, in 2006 the company was highly commended in the highly commended Fleet Service Provider of the Year section.
The Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence recognise the achievements of those working to help reduce the 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at-work drivers.
Cathy Keeler, deputy chief executive of Brake, said: “Congratulations to Fleet Support Group on its well-deserved Fleet Service Provider of the Year Award. It’s great to be able to recognise the dedication and commitment of service providers helping fleets making a tangible difference to safety on our roads, with measurable reductions in risk. The work done by Fleet Support Group to integrate risk management tools into an easy-to-use system providing comprehensive analyses of risks relating to driver, vehicle and journey and its commitment to promoting fleet safety best practice made it a clear winner in this category.”
Initially, iRIS has been developed to ‘unlock’ the operational benefits of deploying tracking in fleet management as well as providing compliance and duty of care to all employees who drive on business. A direct link is provided between the tracking system and Fleet Support Group’s RiskMaster driver profiling system.
Central to RiskMaster is staff being granted a ‘Permit to Drive’. It is given to every company employee who drives on business including those who use their own cars subject to them meeting certain standards. The online initiative provides businesses with a comprehensive Driver Operating Life Report from which data is continually used to assess individual drivers in their driving-at-work activity.
However, while RiskMaster provides management information on individual drivers and vehicles, the new telematics solution provides management information on the journey.
iRIS integrates the information on journey length, rest breaks, speed driven and braking times etc. automatically and feeds detailed reports to a driver’s manager to enable them to further effectively control the risks posed.
The comprehensive solution enables companies to easily identify ‘low’, ‘medium’ and ‘high’ risk drivers and then target interventions at individual employees to reduce their crash exposure.
Fleet Support Group chairman Geoffrey Bray said: “A third triumph in the Fleet Safety Forum Awards further underlines the company’s pre-eminence in promoting occupational road risk management.
“Every company should adopt an in depth approach to occupational road risk management so they have a complete audit of drivers, vehicles and journeys in the event of a serious crash and questions being asked by the police.
“Health and safety at work legislation makes it abundantly clear that all companies that expect their employees to drive on business should undertake risk assessments and have in their possession a detailed audit of drivers, vehicles and journeys. A failure to undertake work in this crucial area could leave businesses exposed to prosecutions, particularly in the event of a fatality when the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act could be used against them.”
Fleet decision-makers are reporting massive financial savings after introducing Fleet Support Group’s at-work driving safety initiative to their businesses.
Martin O’Sullivan, Dun & Bradstreet’s leader fleet and procurement, said: “We have seen significant financial benefits from the introduction of Riskmaster. Accident frequency and associated accident management costs have been significantly reduced. These factors have enabled us to negotiate a more favourable insurance premium this year with our risk rating subsequently reducing by 15%.
“Not only are the financial savings important, but RiskMaster ensures we are compliant with all at-work driving health and safety related legislation.”