What percentage of vehicle accidents are you happy with for your fleet? We would hope that the answer is 0%. However, this is not the case for the majority of fleets in Europe. And a recent survey has uncovered some shocking data that should raise significant concerns as to the driver behaviour and your brand reputation. How do you spot the patterns in your company?
Across Europe, road accidents involving people who drive for work account for between 25% – 33% of all work related deaths. Once this figure is known, it is quite amazing to find that many fleets do not have any safety campaigns in place to control fleet incidents. Alongside the risk to the people involved, there are the other ways poor road safety impacts your business and its reputational damage.
Study findings
- 42% of commercial fleets are involved in 1-5 road collisions per year
- 84% of fleet managers agree that poor driving behaviour has a negative impact on their business
- 50% of fleet managers agree that they are not certain their drivers behave safely on the roads
- 51% of fleet managers agree that they have too much vehicle downtime.
How can you improve driver safety?
Control the controllable
- 90% of road accidents involve human error
- 10-25% of all road accidents involve driver fatigue
- 10% of people who driver for work admit they have fallen asleep behind the wheel
Driving behaviour is a key component of road safety. Understanding your safety culture is key to minimising fleet incidents by uncovering what your drivers are actually doing behind the wheel. The recent study uncovered some startling facts highlighting the issue of distracted driving:
- A driver using mobile phone or other device while driving 77%
- A driver driving while fatigued 75%
- A driver speeding 74%
- A driver failing to stop at a red light or stop sign 74%
- A driver not using a seatbelt/using a seatbelt incorrectly while driving 73%
- A driver smoking while driving 71%
- Drivers not informing you about potential risks such as tyre under inflation 71%
- A driver eating or drinking while driving 69%
- One of your vehicles failing on the road due to lack of maintenance 66%
Driver behaviour and your Insurance premiums
The study found that the majority of fleets accept liability for 21- 30% of the collisions involving their vehicles in the last year. However, the majority also believe they were only truly responsible for 0-10%.
- 65% of fleet managers are concerned about other road users making false claims against their vehicles
- The average commercial fleet has three insurance claims made against it per month
- 58% of fleet manager agree that their liability insurance premium is too high
Your brand reputation
Not all the costs can be evaluated and put down on a spreadsheet. The damage done to a company’s brand reputation when one of its drivers behaves unsafely on the road is also a key issue for commercial fleets.
The study found that 75% of fleet managers are concerned that poor driving behaviour will harm their company’s reputation.
Now more than ever we should all take a look at study’s like this one and make a strategic change based on the data. Driver behaviour can be changed. Zero incidents may not be achievable but zero deaths must be a priority for all fleet managers.