What Does A Risk Management Strategy Look Like?

You can be a Premier League standard Fleet Operator, dedicated in providing on the road training to your drivers, but accidents out of your control can still happen.

When it does and the spotlight is on your business, you need to ensure you can demonstrate that your business did absolutely everything possible to minimise the risk to all roads users involved.

Implementing an effective risk management strategy is one way in which your business can help demonstrate your statutory obligations to the health and safety of your workforce. Whether your organisation manages company vehicles, or your employees are driving their own cars on business related journeys, you have to ensure that appropriate measures are in place and that actions are followed up to reduce the dangers to your drivers and other road users.

In the UK, traffic accidents are responsible for a high percentage of injuries and death with 25% of road fatalities involving a driver who is at work. With these numbers, having a solid risk management strategy could be one of the most important measures you instigate to keep your business compliant.

Driver Behaviour and Training

Whilst out on the road, there's a good chance that your drivers will meet just about every kind of road situation conceivable, from congested city centre suburban areas - with vehicles parked on both side of the road - to tight country roads with troublesome bends.

Implementing a telematics system, for example, helps to relay information on driver performance, providing management the confidence to give feedback to drivers. The data provided helps drill down into your drivers' journey and identify certain behaviours such as harsh breaking. You're also able to run reports, implement driver score cards and set performance KPI's.

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Accepting damage of some sort is inevitable - it's the nature of the beast - but those who adopt a vigorous risk management strategy, that includes making best use of the data a Telematics system provides, see incidents fall.

Staying Compliant

Keeping a fleet legally compliant can stress even the most chilled fleet operators. However, although your drivers and vehicles may be miles away, the responsibility for them relies with you.

It's paramount that you know the status of the licence your staff members hold. Licence checking is a vital part of the risk management process, and it should be repeated annually or more frequently for drivers who already have points on their licence.

We always recommend that companies check drivers' licences before they are employed – and that includes agency and part-time workers. The information needs to come from the DVLA to ensure that you achieve compliance and that you're 100% sure your employees are legal to drive.

Authorised licence checking service providers such as Licence Bureau can check your driver's licences for you against DVLA and DVANI records, giving confidence that your business remains compliant.

Any vehicle maintenance problems must be rectified straight away. If you find something dangerous (or even just potentially dangerous) the vehicle in question should not be used. It's not worth putting your business (and others) at risk by allowing your drivers out on the road with potentially dangerous vehicles. Implement procedures such as a daily vehicle inspection checklist before drivers start their day.

Camera Technology

The past few years have seen a rapid increase of video clips that show poor driver behaviour by road users and the damming situations they can lead to. There's a reason for this, forward-facing cameras in fleet vehicles have become more common.

In-cab cameras help protect against insurance fraud via so-called 'crash for cash' scams, whilst also proving who is on the right or wrong side of the law. Vehicle cameras will help protect your drivers and your business against rising insurance costs.

SmartWitness cameras for example, record the road in front of, alongside, and behind the vehicle. They also record the interior of the vehicle, including driving style and, in the case of a collision, impact force. The price of installing this technology has dropped, so the economic case for fitting cameras across a fleet has been reinforced.

Fundamentally, a risk management strategy helps ensure a business is doing as much as possible to make sure it's drivers are insured, safe and as aware of the dangers whilst out on the road.

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