A FLEET has put health and safety at the top of its agenda and introduced a new policy stipulating that only cars with a five-star safety rating can be chosen.

Executives at tyre and maintenance company ATS Euromaster say they have completely overhauled their business management ethos and integrated health and safety into all areas of its company operations.

The result is an order for centre managers of 75 Toyota Avensis cars that achieved a five star rating in crash tests performed by independent European vehicle safety organisation, Euro NCAP.

Company fleet executives are also currently working on a safe driving policy for company motorists which it will release in the near future.

Explaining the move, managing director Nick Gregg said: ‘I think there will be two types of company in the future – those which look at health and safety as something they are legally bound by, and you’ll find their health and safety policies in filing cabinets with all the right and words and ticks, and those, such as ATS Euromaster, which truly embrace health and safety and you’ll find their health and safety polices in every nook and cranny of their businesses.

‘Health and safety shouldn’t be a static thing, it should be geared to a continual process of improvement and it doesn’t need to stop there. As a national business we are in a position to influence and to help others. We are the UK’s leading tyre management supplier to the business sector with more than 45,000 business customers and we are looking at ways we can pass on the health and safety expertise we are developing to make safety an even higher priority in their product development.’

Gregg firmly believes that introducing high-levels of safety in a workplace can reduce costs.

He added: ‘Safe working practices are most often the most efficient and cost-effective ones too.’

The company employs 500 drivers who will move into five-star rated vehicles as and when their current company vehicles are defleeted.

It also has about 1,400 van drivers.