Around 100 members of ING Car Lease staff regularly drive on company business. A total of 60 employees drive an allocated company car and all other drivers use pool cars or daily rental cars. The use of privately owned vehicles on company business is not permitted.

The company says that its approach to driver safety is to lead by example, demonstrating best practice within the organisation and making the approach available to customers.

The firm has driven down crash costs per driver by more than 60% in four years due to the introduction of the Risk Assist programme, which is also available to ING Car Lease's 1,000 customer accounts.

ING Risk Assist is a full service risk management package designed to manage the risks faced by each driver on an individual basis, depending on their specific circumstances and work requirements.

In 2006 ING Car Lease recorded a 71% incident rate but, as a result of Risk Assist, the ratio reduced to 23% last year, with crash costs per driver slumping from £483 to £183 over the period.

Looking to the future, ING Car Lease is currently investigating the use of telematics with a view to fleet incorporation.

ING Car Lease managing director Ian Tilbrook said: 'We hope to be able to use the data we gather from our drivers to further identify those tendencies and practices that place them at greater risk, and take mitigating action. Telematics has the potential to be a valuable source of real-life data that allows for quicker responses to risky driver behaviour and an even more targeted approach to training.'

Driving for Better Business campaign director Adrian Walsh said: 'ING Car Lease is a first-class example of a "business champion" doing what we hope all our campaign members will do: put their own house in order and then take their message to the business community in which they work. The knowledge and experience the company has in occupational road risk management is beneficial to many other organisations.'