There is a time and a place for most things – and the taking of so-called ‘selfies’ is one very important example.

It can always be justified as a bit of fun, but as Barrack Obama, David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt found out in subsequent media coverage, doing it at the state funeral for Nelson Mandela – in front of the whole civilized world – can push the boundaries of international protocols. In fact, taking a selfie at any funeral, is questionable but fleet managers are suddenly awake to the fact that many drivers are booking a one-way ticket to their own final send off by taking them while they are actually driving!!!

According to research commissioned by Confused.com, one in 14 drivers (7%) admit to taking photos of themselves while driving and 4% also use the social media app of the moment – Snapchat – to send photos to friends while at the wheel. The price comparison website also discovered that in a recent 30-day period, 287 tweets were tagged with #drivingselfie and #drivingselfies.

Bearing in mind, many fleet policies still have not satisfactorily solved the car phone policy of taking calls on the move, it begs the question how they get their heads round the narcissistic world of social media and how ‘crazy’ edgy and random are the only rules that drivers seem happy to abide by.

The law is clear – hand held devices of any description are forbidden which means ‘selfies’ are by definition irrefutably out of bounds.

However, unlike the difficulty companies and police have bringing those guilty of using a hand held device to book after the offence, social – or anti-social media – as I like to call it in this instance – provides all the evidence they need to discipline those happy to capture their near death experiences online. I used the word narcissistic earlier and this is because the sole objective of selfies is selfish self-promotion through your endlessly changing profile pictures.

There are companies who monitor their staff’s social media activities as a means of brand protection and those self-obsessed enough not to change their privacy settings when posting their driving misdemeanors may find they have some serious explaining to do.