So says risk management firm E-Training World, which has reported a sharp increase in the popularity of its online driver training course, which it says is due to the fact that it's 90% cheaper than a driver training day.

Managing director Graham Hurdle said: 'The days of "sheep dip" driver training, where an employer puts all drivers on the same defensive driving course, seem to be over.

'Now companies are using our online risk assessments to determine with precision what form of training, if any, is required. This can reduce on-road training to less than 10% of fleet drivers which is a massive saving.

'It is also proven to reduce collisions by up to 20 per cent and offer fuel savings of nearly 10%, which means it more than pays for itself. And with additional on site support our clients have seen accidents reduce by 70%.'

To support the expansion of web-based technology E-Training World has recently launched a service called "Telematics ROI", which uses a team of qualified risk managers and software to monitor drivers daily, using the data to tailor individual driver training programmes.

Mr Hurdle added: 'Moving forwards, I see this is an important new approach. Because my expectation is that almost all assessment, training and driver monitoring will eventually become web-based with very little physical intervention at all. Particularly when we see greater advancements in the extraction of in-vehicle data which is streamed into our fleet and risk management systems which means drivers and their vehicles are churning data out from their journeys into software which can interpret it.'