FLEET managers should ask for outside help when it comes to the battle for boardroom support over risk management policies.

A common complaint among fleet managers is that their attempts to improve safety flounder because they cannot persuade senior management to provide funding for any projects.

But members of the Midlands regional meeting of fleet operators’ association, Acfo, heard the problem may be that fleet managers are trying to fight for support on their own.

Alan Goff, from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, told members: ‘Often a presentation on risk is more effective if you have an outside agency do it for you, because that helps get the message across more effectively.

‘We have been into a number of companies, but not to sell products, but because the fleet has asked for our expertise.’

Members were told that lawyers are becoming increasingly successful in taking action on behalf of employees involved in car accidents. They simply ask for evidence that the company has given instruction in use of work equipment, which is a legal requirement. If a company answers no, then it opens the door to a successful case.