Fleets are being advised to warn their drivers about the inaccuracy of cheap personal breathalysers in the run-up to Christmas.

Drivers wishing to use personal breathalysers are being urged to explore more expensive and higher-tech solutions

Fleet software company FleetCheck says that many low-cost devices are so inaccurate as to be useless and could lead to an employee putting their licence at risk – and lives, too.

Managing director Peter Golding added that to gain a reasonably accurate measure of the amount of alcohol still in your bloodstream, the cheapest breathalysers cost around £60.

Golding continued: “This might sound like quite a lot but would no doubt seem something of a bargain in retrospect if you were to be accused of drink-driving.”

Golding also said this was a good time of year to give advice about the dangers of drink-driving.

“Your corporate attitude to alcohol should be codified in your overall fleet policy. The only responsible approach is a zero tolerance attitude to drink but it is worth providing advice over Christmas and the New Year about, for example, the length of time that alcohol stays in your bloodstream and not to take chances.

“The number of drivers who are unaware of the very real dangers of morning-after drinking is very surprising.”