Telematics key to bespoke driver safety training 

 

Targeted and bespoke driver education, based on data from the growing use of telematics within fleet operations, is critical to improving road safety.
That’s the message to fleets from Sarah Sillars (pictured), the new chief executive of the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), who also wants more company bosses to recognise that promoting road safety in the workplace makes business and financial sense.
Sillars, who was previously at the helm of the Institute of the Motor Industry and more recently Semta, the skills council for engineering and advanced manufacturing, says helping to cut the number of road deaths and serious injuries involving someone at work is key for the organisation.
The road safety charity has more than 90,000 members, all intent on improving their own motoring skills or driving through reform to improve road safety. It also provides independently audited driver and rider training, including the advanced test.
However, it is probably better known to fleets via its occupational driver risk management arm, IAM Drive & Survive.
Sillars says the subsidiary has endured a “challenging time”, along with its competitors, due to what she sees as an element of complacency around corporate road safety.
IAM research suggests that more than a third of businesses do not have driver risk management on their radar, and 70% of employees who drive have never been offered any risk-related training despite the numerous business benefits, including boosting a company’s bottom line due to cheaper insurance, fuel savings and cutting vehicle downtime.
“There must be a compelling argument,” said Sillars. “It used to be corporate social responsibility, but now the focus has moved to the enormous business benefits if drivers are de-risked.”
A Fleet News poll revealed that ‘duty of care’, and ‘cost control, were both ranked the number one priority for fleets in 2015, each receiving 31.6% of the vote.
Sillars continued: “Standards have to be set from the top in any organisation, so it depends on the conviction of the leaders of the business to make sure the road safety message is delivered further down the line.”
Suggesting that there was “a huge amount of work to do”, she said motor manufacturers had made vehicles safer in terms of occupant protection, as well as improving pedestrian-friendliness, but added: “The same rigour has not been applied to drivers, who are perhaps too reliant on the vehicle to keep them safe.”
http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2015/3/23/telematics-key-to-bespoke-driver-safety-training/55218/