According to Monk, what he describes as the ‘collective denial’ about the risk of driving results in an acceptance of accidents and even deaths on the road as something that seems inevitable.

“We need to challenge this. I have friends who won’t fly because they worry about the risk, but they drive every day even though statistics prove flying is much safer than driving.

In addition to driving licence checks, Vauxhall also carries out risk assessments for all its drivers.

Anyone identified as having any kind of risk area, have one-to-one vehicle training with specialist professional drivers and are put through something similar to an advanced driving course.

Anyone involved in any kind of road incident or collision on business also has to sit down with a manager afterwards for a post-collision interview.

“Many firms seem to be slow to realise that driving at work is part of mainstream health and safety, but the processes and systems in our factories are now up to such a high standard that the greatest risk for the company is when people drive as part of their job,” says Monk.

Company policy requires each business driver to undergo on-line training totalling four hours in addition to a stream of emails underlining the pitfalls of long-distance driving, the dangers of fatigue and mobile phone use. Vauxhall’s non-business drivers use a web portal-based training module of risk-assessment linked to incentives such as shopping vouchers.

“Much of what we do is part of communications strategy to raise awareness and has a high impact. It’s actually saved the company huge amounts of money,” he claims.