Fleet decision-makers should not underestimate the effect the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules will have on the way they work.

The GDPR regulations come into force on May 25 next year aiming to protect EU citizens from privacy and data breaches in an increasingly data-driven world. Any organisation not complying faces a significant fine.

“GDPR has perhaps been a little underplayed in terms of its impact on fleet,” said Caroline Sandall.

“A lot of news items have focused on telematics data when actually what is really critical is making sure you can prove that you maintain a robust audit trail of how drivers understand what is happening to their data.

“They need to understand what their obligations are, so having an ‘I have read and understood policy’ tick box will not stand up to scrutiny in my opinion.”

Sandall added: “If you are a smaller organisation and somebody comes knocking on your door expecting you to know the answers, you can reach out to anybody in the industry, you can reach out to ACFO, but the magnitude of this is not to be underestimated.”

Pictured: (L) Brian Cooper, senior manager, People Advisory Services, Ernst & Young and Caroline Sandall, vice chair, ACFO