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Hotel operator QMH UK Ltd is in the process of issuing Permits to Drive to almost 300 at-work drivers across the company to ensure maximum occupational road risk management compliance.
The Romford-headquartered company, which operates 18 hotels in the UK including 12 Holiday Inns, three Crowne Plazas and three Best Western hotels, is the latest organisation to sign up to Fleet Support’s Group web-enabled RiskMaster programme.
The introduction of the programme, which measures individual driver compliance with QMH’s best practice occupational road risk policies, covers the organisation’s 45 company car drivers some of whom travel up to 30,000 miles a year on business, cash for car opt out drivers, staff who have elected to drive their own car on business and occasional drivers who may use a rental vehicle.
While QMH already undertook a number of occupational risk management measures to safeguard itself, its workforce and other road users, including driving licence checks and on-the-road driver training for company car drivers, the organisation wanted to further strengthen controls.
QMH UK’s HR director Moira Laird, who inherited management of the fleet following a company-wide reorganisation, said: “I analysed the safety-related at-work driving policies and procedures we had in place and decided that they needed to be enhanced.”
Although the company has a ‘low’ accident record with no serious incidents recorded in recent years, Ms Laird said: “Managing business driving and ensuring our employees are safe on the road is important to the company.”
QMH’s introduction of RiskMaster follows last year’s implementation of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act and the more recent introduction of the Health and Safety (Offences) Act, which brings with it harsher punishments for managers who fail in their health and safety responsibilities.
Ms Laird said: “The new legislation prompted QMH to act and ensure it heightens the importance of safe driving for employees, provides measures that are as robust as possible in the event of investigation following a road traffic accident and use the data to provide bespoke training for individual staff whom the system identifies as being at risk.”
While it is too early to quantify potential savings from the introduction of RiskMaster, QMH expects to see future reductions in insurance-related costs and vehicle maintenance charges.
RiskMaster has been introduced after Ms Laird attended an FSG seminar. FSG has now held a series of workshops to introduce QMH employees to RiskMaster and she said: “The workshops were excellent because they raised awareness with drivers of the risks they faced on journeys. As a result of the workshops the staff appreciate why the company is introducing RiskMaster.”
QMH drivers are granted a Permit to Drive following a DVLA licence check. An online driving ‘test’ is then used to profile drivers as ‘low’, ‘medium’ or ‘high’ risk with the assessment used as the basis for future on-the-road driver training. Vehicle maintenance records, insurance details, MoT and VED records, and any data on crashes and motoring offences are also fed into the system.
As information is supplied, it is analysed by the RiskMaster system that point scores a driver’s data. If points rise above a preset level, management is alerted. So a driver can qualify for a permit, or a temporary permit, or be denied until the necessary corrective action is undertaken.
The system 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.
That analysis is a continual process so each driver has a Driver Operating Life Report and each driver is simultaneously measured against QMH’s own specific parameters that have been pre-fed into the system.
FSG chairman Geoffrey Bray said: “We are challenging all businesses to undertake a series of checks to make sure that they have comprehensive and auditable records that show they are managing drivers, vehicles and journeys in line with best practice.
“QMH took up the challenge and recognised improvements could be made, which we are now helping to put into place.
“Evidence from our existing RiskMaster users suggests that Permit to Drive provides major safety benefits; financial savings; demonstrates social responsibility towards other road users; and a legally-recognised audit trail.
“QMH views driver safety not as a cost but as an investment. Legislation is increasingly impacting on at-work drivers so employers have a significant responsibility to manage them effectively.”
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