How safe are your company drivers?

Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) has launched its support for a project entitled ‘Driving for Better Business’ (DfBB), run by partners at Highways England (HE).

Focusing on fleet management and driver training, this project and its assets will replace the SSRP campaign entitled ‘Company Operated Safety Transport Scheme’ (COSTS) which the partnership has run for the last ten years.

The DfBB package includes a range of articles and toolkits to assist managers and employees, such as Fleet Risk Check, driver behaviour at the wheel, vehicle maintenance and background checks on company drivers. It is essential to include these elements in your health and safety programme for your organisation to ensure the welfare of your staff.

We are launching support for DfBB in Sussex during the countrywide ‘Carriage of Dangerous Goods’ (CDG) enforcement week, ran by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). This week targets vehicles who carry dangerous goods and tank containers, as well as checking driver credentials.

Collisions involving occupational drivers make up 26% of all collisions for SSRP’s top five priority group. This is the largest group, with 719 crashes for a three year period from 01/01/2014 – 31/12/2016. As this is such a big category, we will be promoting DfBB throughout the whole year. There are no specific peak times during the year, unlike other priority groups, as businesses operate the whole year round.

Sergeant Badman from SSRP explains further the need to focus on this priority group in Sussex:
“Occupational road risk has been an issue in Sussex for a number of years now. We are backing this educational and informative campaign from Highways England in order to target fleet managers and create the sense of responsibility a company needs to operate safely and successfully. Your business may be losing out on a large amount of profit each year due to crashes and driver behaviour, which can easily be rectified by some driver training. It is your responsibility, both as employers and employees, to adhere to driving standards, as this reflects on your company as well as the service you deliver.”

As well as advertising this project during CDG weeks, we will also be using Truck and Bus enforcement weeks (which are ran by TISPOL, the European traffic police network) to promote the assets available, which also run periodically throughout the year.

For more information, please see the HE DfBB website.