The company, a global provider of corporate solutions for managing driver safety, has now reached 20 years in business from its base in Huddersfield, whilst also celebrating 15 years in global partnership with Zurich Financial Services Risk Engineering and the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

The firm has also now risk-assessed the 100,000^th driver at British Telecommunications in a leading programme that has helped BT significantly reduce its collisions and road safety costs over the last 12 years.

In recognition of these milestones, Interactive Driving Systems hosted a celebratory event to mark the occasion. Special guests included Kirklees councillor Martyn Bolt, Dave Wallington, BT’s Group safety advisor; Steve Stock, head of global corporate motor underwriting at Zurich Financial Services; and Andy Bolton, regional operations manager and Lorraine Nosworthy, key account manager, both from the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

As well as the ceremonial ribbon cutting to mark the occasion, short presentations were given, led by Interactive Driving Systems’ managing director, Andy Cuerden, who acknowledged the whole team at Interactive Driving Systems for their hard work and dedication over the last 20 years.

He added: ‘Using the road is the most dangerous activity that most people engage in, with approximately 1.3 million road fatalities around the globe each year. It is against this background that we are proud to support client and partner organisations in over 70 countries whose employees are required to drive for work purposes. To date, well over 1 million drivers and their managers have been engaged in road safety programs in 45 languages through Virtual Risk Manager.’

Dave Wallington, BT’s Group safety advisor, said: ‘Our 12+ year partnership with Interactive Driving Systems has to date engaged more than 100,000 drivers, being the “glue” behind the processes that have helped us cut our collision rate from 59 per thousand vehicles to 27 and reduced our annual vehicle damage costs from £25 to £10m.

‘In addition to the significant reductions in injuries to our employees, our driver safety programme has also generated a PhD, 2 Masters and 10+ research papers and has significantly enhanced our brand and reputation. As a result, we are consulted on road safety matters by many other organisations and government agencies across the world.’

Plans are in place to continue the company’s success with investments in new management leadership tools as well as technology, such as plug and play behaviour based telematics and targeted online coaching modules, to further help managers and drivers address potentially dangerous “habits”.