Road safety charity Brake and accident management provider FMG encouraged more businesses to sign up to reducing risk in their fleet operations with a one-day conference earlier this week.

The advanced road risk management conference, ‘Going the Extra Mile’, attracted more than 50 fleet professionals.

Experts from a range of businesses, including Crossrail, Allied Bakeries, Ingersoll Rand, Shell and Zurich, talked about their areas of expertise and shared the knowledge they have gained during their own experiences of managing risk.

Road crashes account for 39% of work-related deaths in the European Union, according to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and driving is the riskiest activity most employees engage in.

Fleet risk management is fundamental to an employer’s legal and moral duty of care towards its employees.

Roz Cumming, professional engagement manager at Brake, said: “Businesses have a moral, legal, and financial obligation to ensure they’re doing everything possible to mitigate risk from their vehicle use.

"With advanced technology, such as data capture telemetry devices, and advanced software to analyse that data, businesses are in a better position than ever to reduce road risk.

"The event was well-attended and covered some very important issues, which will help some of Britain’s foremost fleets cut their incident rates and further promote the road safety cause.”

Bob Holbrey, IT and processes director at FMG, who chaired the event, said: “It was great to see so many businesses actively seeking ways to manage risk out of their vehicle operations.

"Incidents have a massive impact on individuals and businesses, and the business community needs to demonstrate its understanding of this important issue.

"By working together with Brake, businesses and individual drivers, we’re showing our commitment to reduce risk for companies.

"Prevention is better than cure when it comes to vehicle management, and incident reduction makes sense on a number of levels.”

During the event, areas such as telemetry, online driver training and regular licence and vehicle safety checking were discussed, among a range of risk reduction tactics available to fleet managers.

Driver behaviour, legal compliance and changing attitudes towards safety were key among the topics arising, as were educational initiatives aimed at a range of stakeholders, including drivers, pedestrians and other road users.