Risk & Reward 2007
Up to a million UK employees could be driving on company business without bosses knowing whether they are insured or even qualified to drive.
A survey by BMW Corporate Finance has found that most firms check on all staff who drive on business but a quarter of companies limit their checks to drivers who get a company car or car allowance - missing out other potential car users.
The survey found that four million other employees regularly make business trips in their own cars - meaning that a million workers may fall outside the safety net firms are legally required to apply to all business drivers.
According to the Health and Safety Executive, driving is one the most hazardous working activities in terms of deaths and injuries. A thousand workers are killed and 13,000 seriously injured in Britain every year while driving on company business.
The safety "black hole" for owner-drivers is revealed in a report called "Risk and Reward 2007" published today by BMW Corporate Finance. The company is calling on all employers to review their road safety policies for all staff as soon as possible.
Richard Schooling, Commercial Director of Alphabet said: "Firms need to keep tabs on every single employee who drives on business, for their own security as well as workers' safety. Health and safety law applies to every single business trip and bosses can also be prosecuted for aiding and abetting offences such as driving without a licence or insurance."
The survey also discovered that, although just over half of drivers who get company cars or car allowances are banned by their firms from using mobiles when driving, 75% said the ban didn't make any difference to them.
Most companies, it found, rely on writing rules and sending instructions to drivers rather than carrying out checks and offering training to cut fleets' multi-million pound annual bill for accident repairs and personal injuries.
BMW Corporate Finance today published a report, "Risk and Reward 2007", on the survey findings. The report points out that an estimated 1,000 working drivers die every year in road crashes. A new law on corporate manslaughter is due to be passed soon, and crashes and injuries cost UK fleets hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
As well as the omissions over owner-drivers, the report records that:
• 21% of companies had done nothing to improve at-work road safety.
• 56% of companies had tightened their policy rules or sent memos to drivers but hadn't taken any practical steps such as training, assessments or checks.
• Only 18 out of 251 firms had carried out a fleet risk assessment in accordance with HSE guidelines.
• Only 10 out of 251 firms had checked whether drivers were legally licensed or insured to drive.
• A huge majority of drivers who were subject to company rules restricting driving hours or banning mobile phone calls while driving admitted that these rules didn't make any difference to them.
• The majority of companies omitted the basic step of requiring drivers to sign their safety policy - this could affect their defence if they were prosecuted over a crash.
• Encouragingly, the survey found that, compared with 2005 when BMW Corporate Finance commissioned similar research, more companies today see fleet and road safety issues as worthy of board-level attention.
• Fewer companies plan to encourage drivers to switch away from company cars to a cash alternative - partly because company cars are seen as less of a safety risk.
Richard Schooling, Commercial Director of Alphabet, commented:
"It is alarming to see companies spreading effective action on at-work road safety so thinly and with so many gaps, nearly four years after the HSE published clear guidance in this area.
"It is shocking that a million drivers appear to have completely fallen through the safety net. All firms need to look out for this particular "black hole" in their procedures.
“To make a real difference to the financial and human cost of accidents, however, improvements need to filter down to the individual business driver at the wheel. The verdict from our interviews with drivers is that businesses still have much work to do to turn policies and promises into practical action steps that will increase safety and cut costs.
"An important lesson from this report is that many employers are not making a sufficient business case for safety in their own fleets. Companies that implement positive risk programmes of checks, assessment and education, will not only protect their staff and comply with current HSE requirements but also achieve tangible financial benefits by bringing down the frequently alarming cost of incidents."