SAFETY campaigners must focus on promoting profits when they try to persuade boardroom chiefs to commit to reduce accident levels among their fleet drivers, an expert industry panel has claimed.

Although schemes to reduce accidents are intended to help companies meet their duty of care to drivers, there are financial benefits too and that is what directors will want to hear.

The implication of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill and legal liability fail to strike a chord in many smaller businesses, because they are waiting to see hard evidence that they should act before giving schemes the green light.

But the Fleet Progression Forum (FPF), a cross-industry body founded by FMG Support, dedicated to championing the key issues and challenges within the fleet industry, agreed that the financial argument could never be ignored by a board.

The FPF believes that fleet managers must demonstrate a correlation between safety and profitability.

The forum says an organisation that invests in a robust fleet safety solution will generate more profits due to fewer incidents and lower insurance premiums.

It adds that this must be backed by schemes that put a positive spin on the safety message, by providing incentives for employees, encouraging the reporting of accidents and making all staff believe they will benefit from improved safety.

The FPF, which met in early March and was chaired by Steven Norris, a former transport minister, also agreed that any safety solution must be grounded in real-time data that continuously monitors the daily actions of fleets, linked to existing health, safety and environmental policies.

Most importantly, the data that is generated must be consistently analysed and fed back into the safety policy so that continual improvements can be made, driving down incidents and improving profitability.

Nick Brown, chief executive of FMG Support and founder of the FPF said: ‘The fleet industry must take responsibility for delivering the message that tangibly proves to decision-makers the financial benefits of investing a in a rigorous safety solution.’

The FPF has representation from across the entire fleet industry, bringing together a wide range of experience and depth of knowledge.