She will also continue to analyse statistics on a monthly basis as well as investigating every incident.

Arval’s fleet safety committee, which is made up of internal stakeholders such as the finance director and HR director and its insurance broker, continues to meet twice a year with a quarterly  communication in between.

Arval has also established a road safety forum involving customers and road safety partners with the purpose of sharing best practice.

Benchmarking can be challenging though because not all fleet operators measures incidents in the same way.

Scarr’s advice to other fleet managers that, like Arval, have a well-developed risk management programme is: Don’t stop what you’re doing.

“Keep an eye on new technology and what’s going on in the industry,” she says.

“And speak to other businesses to see if you can steal good ideas from them.:

 

Achieving long-term change

Making safety personal is the key to long-term change, according to Robert Lindsay, head of driver risk at Balfour Beatty Fleet Services.

“We try to sell the message rather than tell the message to drivers,” he says.

Five benefits of safety to highlight to drivers:

1. Prevention of personal injury – not just to themselves but others as well, such as colleagues and family.
2. Personal fuel savings because safe and fuel-efficient driving are intertwined.
3. Less stress from driving.
4. Personal development.
5. Reduced likelihood of infringement and penalties.