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Fleet Support Group’s RiskMaster at-work driving safely programme is the most complete occupational road risk management solution on the market - according to a new independent survey.
The survey of 38 companies offering occupational road risk management services reveals that no company markets a product that provides a linked audit trail of drivers, vehicles and journeys - including ‘grey’ fleet drivers - to the level of Fleet Support Group’s RiskMaster programme, which includes a ‘Permit to Drive’ approval scheme and since the beginning of this year has also embraced a telematics solution, iRIS (Integrated Risk Information System).
With lawyers and courts using the Health and Safety Executive/Department for Transport ‘Driving at work: Managing work-related road safety’ guidance as the benchmark for occupational road risk management standards, there is concern that some businesses may have implemented a product or service that does not effectively manage the risk thus leaving themselves open to legal action due to management failings.
The analysis examined a total of 13 different at-work driving safety services from the 38 different suppliers across the fleet industry - vehicle leasing and fleet management companies, specialist risk management providers, software companies, insurers, motoring organisations and telematics providers.
Services looked for were: risk assessments, online driver appraisal/profiling, e-learning packages, on-the-road driver training, driver licence checking, availability of an online driver handbook, vehicle inspections, a ‘grey’ fleet focus, accident and maintenance data feeds, telematics, linked data collection for risk identification, automated ongoing risk scoring and the full online availability of all products.
The study was compiled by Gary Kent, who runs Toot Rock Consulting and has around 30 years fleet experience latterly as European fleet manager at City business solutions organisation Dun & Bradstreet.
He said: “In the build-up to April’s introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, and since its implementation, there has been an increasing focus by companies on occupational road risk management. In addition, a host of new entrants to the market have attempted to capitalise on growth in the sector.
“To totally manage occupational road risk, companies must have in place controls that cover the driver, vehicle and journey whether staff drive a company-provided vehicle or their own. My analysis highlighted no product that covered the three elements in totality in the way RiskMaster does.
“Many companies, particularly the major leasing organisations, have services that cover driver and vehicle controls, but in a suite of products that are not dynamically linked and do not use multi-data sources to automatically identify risk and trigger interventions. There is also very little focus on ‘grey’ fleets to any comprehensive degree apart from basic document checking.
“Telematics is offered by a few companies, but is not integrated into other control processes of vehicle and driver.
“One company also utilises a ‘Permit to Drive’ process similar to the RiskMaster solution but it is not as dynamic and fully automated. Therefore, it largely only covers driver controls and not vehicle or journey.
“The only fully automated, web-based, seamlessly linked end-to-end comprehensive control system that covers all three elements risk management elements of driver, vehicle and journey that I can find on the UK market is RiskMaster.”
Mr Kent added: “There is concern that a number of providers are suggesting that by implementing their product or service, the company’s duty of care is satisfied. This could be a dangerous assumption to make and could expose management to a possible charge of management failure in the event of a fatality where the service/product used has clearly not properly addressed the issue.”
The survey will be updated quarterly and Fleet Support Group chairman Geoffrey Bray said: “An ever-increasing number of organisations are turning to RiskMaster to meet their occupational road risk management responsibilities - the most recent to sign-up include Unison and the Labour Party. We expect this independent report to result in more companies turning to RiskMaster to reduce their at-work driving risk exposure.”
Fleet Support Group (FSG) is the largest independent vehicle management company in the UK and looks after approximately 50,000 vehicles.
The well-established organisation based in Chippenham, Wiltshire, has gained an enviable reputation within the industry by continually concentrating on delivering a consistent, quality service embracing full vehicle acquisition and disposal, vehicle outsourcing, fleet management, risk management and work-related road safety, maintenance management, accident management, breakdown recovery, short-term car rental and truck management.
Within the FSG team, there is significant industry experience and qualifications across the range of services provided. This in turn is supported by an in-house IT operation which is continuously upgrading the internal systems and applications to ensure that, by innovation and product development, FSG leads the field in the provision of vehicle management.
For further information contact: FSG chairman Geoffrey Bray on 0844 8000 700