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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 Support Group’s 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 Fleet Support Group - significantly bolsters BBUS’s long-established risk management processes which 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. This includes a driving licence validity check with the DVLA and an online assessment which profiles the 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.
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 said: “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 that 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: “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.
“BBUS took up the challenge and recognised improvements to existing risk management processes could be made, which we are now helping to put into place.
“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.”
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