The report, aimed at those at boardroom level, but also containing advice for fleet managers and drivers, creates a blueprint for a company strategy to help cut accidents among business drivers, whether they are in a company car or their own vehicle.
Kwik-Fit Fleet commissioned the report, called 'Business and Fleet Car Risk Management: A Boardroom Briefing', to highlight the need for employers to adopt a company-wide approach to safety.
As well as a boardroom strategy for business car risk management, the report examines driver issues that fleets must consider and also looks at the operational challenges companies will face.
Report author Professor Peter Cooke, of the Centre for Automotive Industries Management at Nottingham Business School, said: 'Directors need to create a risk management climate within their organisations. This climate should be led from the top down by example, with the ethos of the employee acting properly when away from the office being built up over time. There can be no quick fix.'
As well as help for directors, the 50-page report provides fleet decision-makers with the legal, moral and financial arguments for putting in place a comprehensive fleet risk management strategy.
Cooke said drivers should have their licences checked every four months, while employees should keep a driver's log showing how long they have driven, and how far, in any one day, which could be checked at random by the line manager.
Sales territories should also be reviewed to ensure they are manageable for staff without having to spend extensive periods in the car. Cooke added: 'Directors have a duty of care to ensure any car used on business is wholly fit for purpose and operates within clearly understood and documented guidelines.
'More than ever before, legislation, guidance and protocols dictate the operating parameters of the vehicle driven on business.'
The report was supported by Richard Dykes, former chairman of the Work-related Road Safety Task Group, which recommended Government action to reduce fleet accident rates.
He said: 'More employees die or are seriously injured as a result of road accidents than from all other workplace accidents put together.
'Greater attention to work-related road safety, therefore, has a huge contribution to make in reducing that death toll on the roads.'
Fleet focus set for change
A GROWING focus on driver safety coupled with increases in traffic congestion and the launch of congestion charging could result in a major changes to fleet operations, the report claims.
Even companies whose drivers use private vehicles on business journeys need to treat them as though they were company cars when considering risk management issues, it warns.
Report author Peter Cooke said: 'Risk management is one way of ensuring the company can help enhance profitability, image and success.
'Risk management programmes need to be an integral part of on-going business strategy. The critical issues should be reviewed at board level on a regular basis – at least quarterly.'
Cooke added: 'The responsible manager needs a clear mandate within which decisions can be made to maximise safety and minimise financial exposure as well as reflecting best practice.'
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