COMPANY car drivers clocked up a 100% failure rate when they sat the basic Highway Code theory test as part of a new police initiative. The shocking lack of knowledge was revealed when 100 of them sat the test - and all failed - as part of Fleet Safe, a Warwickshire Police one-day scheme instructing company car drivers in tackling road risk.

It also found evidence of a lack of management responsibility, with company car drivers being pushed to meet excessive work schedules, calling for them to drive hundreds of miles daily across the country without a proper break.

And the officers behind the scheme say they have every reason to believe that this snapshot of the UK's company car drivers is indicative of a nationwide lack of awareness of safety issues.

PC Alan Rogers, who with fellow officer Steve Postlethwaite has been instructing the drivers, said: 'It's clear that complacency has set in and drivers are not bothering to keep abreast of new laws in the Highway Code.'

He claimed to have met drivers who were expected to cover hundreds of miles a day, two or three times a week, in order to meet their schedules. One had been stopped after touching 98 mph while driving from Sussex to meetings in Manchester, Derby, Wolverhampton and Cirencester, before returning to Sussex on the same day.

Interest from companies in the county in Fleet Safe has been generated by word-of-mouth, with police officers holding four training sessions for companies with fleets of between six and more than 100 vehicles.

For more information about Fleet Safe, contact PC Rogers or PC Postlethwaite on 01926 415473