First came corporate manslaughter, then tougher financial penalties and, finally, the threat of jail with the Health and Safety (Offences) Act.

These recent additions to the statute book have left the fleet industry in no doubt of the urgent need to manage risk, while Fleet News continues to set the benchmark for risk management by recognising the industry’s ‘best safety initiative’, at its annual awards.

RiskMaster, the brainchild of Fleet Support Group, was named best safety initiative at this year’s Fleet News Awards because of the “comprehensive way it covers the entire spectrum of occupational road risk”.

A web-based product, its focus is a ‘permit to drive’ – a continuously monitored company driving licence for employees, their partners or any other person who may have access to a company vehicle.

Each employee and every vehicle must pass a rigid ‘fit for the road’ examination annually, which includes regular online driver declarations about licences and health status.

This ensures employers are completely aware of all issues affecting their drivers. Failure to reply can mean withdrawal of a driver’s ‘permit’.

In addition, the system provides the same stringent checks to a company’s grey fleet.

Following a DVLA licence check and an online driving assessment, which is used as the basis for any training after it has been analysed, it profiles drivers as ‘low’, ‘medium’ or ‘high’ risk.

Vehicle maintenance records, insurance details and any data on crashes and motoring offences are also fed into the system.

It is then analysed by RiskMaster, which point-scores a driver’s data. If points rise above a preset level, management is alerted.

A driver can qualify for a permit or a temporary permit, or be denied.

The analysis is a continual process so every driver has a ‘driver operating life report’ and they are simultaneously measured against their employer’s own specific parameters.

Occupational road risk management is not only crucial in terms of compliance with the law, but it is a proven mechanism for reducing fleet operating costs.

“The idea of RiskMaster was born out of the recognition as a vehicle management company that the biggest single influence in cost is the driver,” explained Geoffrey Bray, chairman of Fleet Support Group.

“If you then start looking at the impact of bad driving, as we did at the end of the 1990s, we found that 20% of drivers were accounting for 80% of the cost.

And when you explored that further, you could see within that 20% you had potentially dangerous drivers. You could almost predict when they were going to have an accident.”

Designed to measure this threat, RiskMaster was launched in 2005 and quickly acquired an advisory group – a team of professionals, including legal, police and health and safety professionals, who continue to shape the system.

RiskMaster can be linked via telematics to Fleet Support Group’s Integrated Risk Information System – iRIS – a joint venture between the Wiltshire-based company and Sunguard, which connects real-time driving data to RiskMaster’s regular information gathering process.

It also provides a fully integrated road safety strategy, which includes updating the driver handbook to reflect any changes in legislation and compliance issues.

Accident costs 'cut by 30%'

Martin O’Sullivan, leader fleet and procurement at Dun and Bradstreet (D&B), said:
“RiskMaster has proven a valuable tool in managing road safety.

“It enables us to manage, measure and provide a robust audit trial of each driver’s risk profile. By doing so, it identifies high-risk drivers and the required intervention at an early stage.

“RiskMaster provides an automated process from assessing driver risk right through to targeted driver training.

"This is particularly useful for fleet operators that have limited resources to manage such a comprehensive programme.”

After 18 months, D&B cut its accident rate by 12% and
associated costs by 30%. It was able to negotiate a more favourable insurance premium after its risk rating was downgraded by 15%.