The research, which was commissioned by ALD Automotive, confirmed that the road risk associated with drivers and company vehicles is a major issue for UK businesses.

Currently, there are over 25 separate pieces of legislation that impact on the safe management and driving of employees while at work. The legislation ranges from road traffic laws such as the Road Traffic and Road Safety Acts to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act and the Health and Safety (Offences) Act, with punishments that range from fines and penalty points for drivers for breaches of road traffic law to fines running into thousands of pounds and jail terms for managers and directors and multi-million pound fines for businesses. 

Commenting on the results, Keith Allen, managing director of ALD Automotive, said: 'At ALD, we work with companies by having them outsource the management of their company vehicles and can recommend strategies to help them reduce risk associated with their company vehicles. A change in a business’s fleet policy, or the implementation of telematics can have a significant impact on reducing risk.'

The research is also reflected in the growing interest being shown in the recent launch of ALD’s GPS-enabled telematics service, ProFleet2 GPS. Installed in over 20,000 vehicles to date, ProFleet2 can quickly identify erratic driving behaviour and provide fleet managers with auditable health and safety records. Fleet managers can find out not only exactly where each vehicle has been – and how much time has been spent behind the wheel – but also how it has been driven too. In addition, ProFleet2 delivers email alerts to fleet managers identifying costly or risky driving behaviour and the key factors which contribute to driver fatigue.

'ProFleet2 is a key tool being used by many of our customers and this innovative technology really comes into its own in helping fleets deliver an effective CSR strategy,' concluded Allen.