FLEETS are losing staff time, paying more through insurance costs and risk making themselves uninsurable by ignoring major legal reforms which mark their first anniversary this year. The Woolf Reforms heralded the biggest shake-up of the legal system in 125 years, but despite a series of high-profile campaigns to make fleet managers aware of the effects of the new legislation, they have been unwilling or unable to change the way they work.

The reforms are designed to speed up the legal process by encouraging parties to settle cases without the need for litigation. This includes personal injury claims from motor accidents, the area which most affects fleets. Strict time limits for responding to injury claims have been introduced, meaning fleet managers need to have information at their fingertips on vehicles and drivers or risk being unable to defend a claim.

At a conference to mark the anniversary, specialist fleet insurance firm Summit at Lloyds warned: 'There has not been a great deal of difference in the way fleets are working. We are receiving information more quickly, but there seems to have been little that fleet policy holders have done to adapt to the changes.' In several cases a failure to react within the deadlines and provide information needed has resulted in a lost case, Summit warned.