A ‘gold standard’ five-point action plan to help other businesses introduce occupational road risk management policies has been compiled by CGGVeritas.
The company launched its occupational road risk management programme, which now covers 203 drivers, six years ago.
Thirty employees drive company cars, a further 30 members of staff have taken a cash alternative to a company car and all other employees either drive their own car on business trips or use a hire vehicle.
Facilities officer and car fleet manager Louise Claydon said: “It doesn’t matter whether employees travel 10 miles or 30,000 miles a year on business, it only takes a single incident for an employer to be severely punished if they don’t have the right procedures in place.”
The company’s safe-driving focus has seen it become one of 27 ‘business champions’ within the Government-backed ‘Driving for Better Business’ campaign delivered by RoadSafe.
All company cars must now comply with four key safety requirements: be equipped with driver and passenger airbags, ABS brakes and electronic stability control (ESC) and meet a minimum four-star European New Car Assessment Programme crash test rating.
Similarly employees’ own cars must also already be equipped with driver and passenger airbags and ABS and have a four-star crash test rating and by January 1, 2010 they must also be ESC-equipped. Vehicles that do not meet that standard cannot be driven on business and staff must use hire cars.