VisionTrack is launching a Fleet Risk Reduction Campaign to help operators prioritise safety.

Simon Marsh, CEO of VisionTrack

The leading video telematics provider is already a co-headline sponsor of Brake’s annual Road Safety Week campaign, now underway for 2022, but is also introducing its own initiative to enable fleets to do more to improve work-related road safety.

Simon Marsh, CEO of VisionTrack, said the company’s work was an opportunity to make an urgent call to action to eliminate fleet risk that is costing lives and causing unnecessary suffering.

“Government figures estimate that work-related driving could be responsible for over 20 fatalities and 250 serious injuries every week, which is simply unacceptable when vehicles have never been safer,” explained Marsh.

The campaign is designed to educate and engage with drivers and companies, with the aim of mitigating the impact of fleet risk on the road network. The initiative will call on vehicle operators to target five key pillars of fleet safety, which can contribute to a dramatic reduction in road collisions and ultimately save lives:

Slow Down – Exceeding the speed limit and travelling too fast for the driving conditions, contributed to 27% of fatal collisions in 2020, as well as 16% of collisions in which a serious injury occurred and 13% of total collisions (UK police statistics).

Belt Up – Not wearing a seatbelt contributed to 30% of road deaths in 2021, a figure that increased to 47% at night. Despite this, over 5% of drivers still do not use a seatbelt (Department for Transport).

Take a Break – Fatigue contributes to about 4% of fatal road crashes and 2% of all collisions in the UK, but the true figure is likely to be far higher as tiredness is difficult to spot and test for (UK police statistics).

Just Drive – Using a mobile phone behind the wheel makes motorists four times more likely to be in a crash, while reaction times when using a hands-free phone are 30% slower than if a driver is at the drink-drive limit (Brake).

Stay Focused – Between 10% and 30% of road collisions are caused by driver distraction (European Commission), with 51 fatalities and 2,023 recorded in UK resulting from in-vehicle distraction in 2020 (Department of Transport).

Marsh continued: “Working with our key partners in the UK and internationally – including Brake, Together for Safer Roads and Driving for Better Business – our objective is to champion road safety. Road Safety Week is crucial to raising awareness and promoting important messages, but we wanted to introduce our own initiative that maintains VisionTrack’s focus throughout the year.

“Our Fleet Risk Reduction campaign will be a key part of our commitment to making the roads a safer place for all and we look forward to announcing further details shortly.”