ONE of Britain’s most high-profile fleets has revealed how it managed to cut accident rates by a quarter and reduce costs after a safety review.

The fleet department at communications giant BSkyB has transformed its approach in the past few years, delegates heard.

In 2000 it did not have a formal company car or health and safety policy, no vehicle allocation rationale, with no formal driver checking policy and no trained fleet manager.

Sara Cook, who took over as fleet manager four years ago, said the review saw new policies introduced, including risk assessment and management programmes, and a range of best practice schemes.

As a result, incidents have fallen by 26% and average vehicle downtime has been slashed from 6.4 to 3.3 days as the remaining vehicle incidents are less severe.

An impending insurance review should also bring a reduction in costs.

Cook told delegates: ‘Risk management programmes are constantly changing. There is an embedded safety culture in the fleet and this means greater awareness of risk.

‘That is a significant achievement when you consider this change has been achieved with a fleet in such a large blue chip organisation.’