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Demand from local authorities for help in managing their at-work drivers is rising but resistance is being met by local trade union officials, according to a leading fleet safety expert.
Fleet Support Group is currently in discussions with at least five local authorities on using its online occupational road risk management programme RiskMaster. One of the councils is already enrolling its drivers on to 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.
Mr Bray, who at this year’s Fleet Safety Forum Awards organised by road safety charity Brake won the Kevin Storey Award for Outstanding Commitment to Road Safety, 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 union 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.”
Mr Bray’s comments come in the wake of the Office of Government Commerce, an independent office of HM Treasury, launching a major new campaign aimed at improving the way the public sector manages ‘grey’ fleet use - employee-owned vehicles driven on work-related journeys.
He said: “Local authorities we are talking to want to introduce safety measures that improve the management of both council-owned vehicles and privately-owned vehicles. It is clear from the launch of the new OGC campaign that public sector road safety is a major concern for Government as well as the TUC.”
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:
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 whether vehicles had a valid MoT.
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 driving safety 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.”
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