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Posted By Lyndon Sutcliffe
We have a small number of sales engineers who spend the majority of their time out driving their vehicles on the road. The need for risk assessing these activities (in more detail) and providing additional driver training is becoming more important to us, as we have identified this as an higher risk than was previously considered.
We have looked at a number of options of how to control these risks, but I am a bit sceptical of online risk assessment tools etc. We are also considering instructor based defensive driving training as well.
I would be interested in the opinions of anyone who feels that they have adequately controlled their driver related risks and how they have achieved this. I personally think a lot of organisations are ignoring this problem due to the perceived complexities of controlling it.
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Posted By Philip Beale
Not sure what risks you are referring to work relating to engineering or just driving a car.
"We are also considering instructor based defensive driving training as well."
Why not just an advance driving course why defensive driving they don't seem to be in a high risk group (carrying cash or expensive items) i would have thought more of an issue would be with lone working
Phil
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Posted By Colin Reeves
My employer, a local council, requires that all employees who drive Council vehicles or who are essential car users undertake a Driver Awareness Course. This includes a half day theory and a one hour driving assessment (aka test). Failure meant not driving a Council vehicle which could affect your job!!
A good course - did not stress "drive slowly" too much, in fact made the point clearly that inappropriately slow driving is dangerous! I was pleasantly surprised that the lecturers were in the real world.
Colin
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Posted By Stefan Daunt
With the onset of the Corporate manslaugher act and in my opinion regardless of the new legislation and as a manager of vehicle based activities you should be-
1. Check driving licences 6 monthly.
2. Carry out a risk assessment of the driving environment it's self, incorporating weather, pedestrians, other road users etc.
3. A risk assessment of each individual driver, previous convictions, medical problems, type of vehicle and safety features fitted etc.
4. Monitor the amount of hours the drivers spend behind the wheel.
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Posted By Lyndon Sutcliffe
Thanks for your response.
Some of our guys do £35000+ miles per annum which basically increases the risk of them having accidents compared to the average driver so I feel that we need to do all we can to lessen this risk.
Part of the struggle will be to convince management and the drivers themselves that aquiring additional skills or refreshing existing skills will make them safer behind the wheel.
It would be interesting to see how other safety professionals are tackling this important issue.
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Posted By Alan Spiers
Just to add to the discussion on line risk assessments, e-learning as well as driver training all have their place as one 'size' does not fit all peoples needs. It is easy to give everyone the same training if you have the resources but you could be wasting money. An additional issue is even with all the training completed if company culture insists on excessive and prolonged total hours of work ( driving plus day job)whatever that is deemed to be, then the training alone would not save them in the event of an accident. Add to that time on handfree mobile and pressure to get the orders and we really have a can of worms.
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Posted By Safety Dave
Get them all to take the IAM advanced driving course/test - I did it and it does positively affect your driving skills. Some insurance companies also give compnaies discounts for going through this process.
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Posted By Bob Shillabeer
Lets get a bit real about this. The risks are from two basic sources. The driver of the vehicle and its maintenance and from other road users. If you undertake a risk assessment of using a road vehicle it would be so high you would ban driving. The uncontrolled risks from road users outside your control are so high you would say forget it. The risks of road use are well known so it is about how you ensure your drivers are trained and controlled that applies. Some peole suggest a bespoke training package for its staff but that depends on the number of vehicle users and how often they use that form of transport. A vast subject that requires a horses for courses approach so it is up to yourself which approach you take. You need to have a policy in place that sets out your approach and indicates how you ensure YOUR staff comply.
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Posted By Kieran J Duignan
A smart approach to safety, Lyndon
One area of risk to drivers to flag up and monitor smartly is back injury. The 'driver ergonomics' of this risk area is explained on the ergonomics website at Loughborough University.
Please let the forum know your updated analysis and the decisions of your management
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Posted By Renny Thomson Have a look at IAM Fleet Trainig. They do an Occupational driver training http://www.iam.org.uk/ia...tionaldrivertraining.htmAlso RoSPA do a similar course which we used for our Council Officers who driver dignitaries around. Feedback from this was very good.
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Posted By Lyndon Sutcliffe
Thanks very much for responding to my thread, it has been very helpful.
I think we will go for a stepped approach starting with online risk assessments for all, but fastracking all high work mileage personnel to half day (behind the wheel) defensive driving training.
We cannot justify advanced driver training for all, but have not ruled it out in the long term.
My approach has always been based on risk although this is very hard to quantify in this situation.
It has been very interesting to see the number of different approaches taken by others in order to control this risk.
Thanks.
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Posted By John A Wright
Lyndon,
I can recommend RoSPA's Driver Development Course, if they still call it that, for company car drivers. They have you drive on country roads and motorways and teach you very sensible approach to road bends and lane discipline, jumping gears (e.g. from 4th to 2nd) and a few other 'advanced' tips which keep your hands more on the wheel etc etc. I still apply most of what I learned there, especially on country roads and motorways, an example of effective training - it was fun and good training. RoSPA tend to use ex-coppers as the trainers.
Our risk assessment review of individual drivers includes a vehicle inspection, and ensures they do the main maintenance checks, windscreen chips, tyres, mobile phones etc., adhere to the requirements when carrying flammable liquids etc etc
It's a good idea to keep an eye on drivers' licences. We did have a driver still driving several months after being banned. We sacked him. If he had come clean he would likely have been found useful employment until his ban was completed.
Driving hours is also important, you need rules that are strictly adhered to.
John W
Tech IOSH
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Posted By Brett Day Can second John's comments about RoSPA and other comments about IAM. Touching on Kieran's point about the 'fit' of the car this link may be of use: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/d...ergonomics/biw/intro.htmHaving been stuck with a company car that gave me chronic backache I can testify how important this is.
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Posted By Ian Luesley
Hi Lydon following your discussion with interest, I am a defensive driver trainer working for various different providers any that you contact will give you plenty of information regarding there services.The vast majority of trainers are self employed so even though you may chose a particular provider you are often getting the same trainers. On line risk assessment just identifies your high millage drivers or point collectors as being at risk this you could do your self depending on the size of your company, nothing beats on road training tests are useful and create goals but not every one can accept being tested.It is difficult to reach individual trainers that supply this sort of work most sub contract to the big boys as one trainer cannot easily handle large numbers of drivers that are spread across the country.
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Posted By Glyn Atkinson
My biggest problems are the drivers not accepting that they can personally be at fault for their driving techniques and also not accepting the reasons behind our many attempts to give them advice and training.
Just because they have been in their jobs for a period of years is no safeguard against how they drive on company business.
Motor claims can often be attributed to personal poor driving technique and insurance premiums can be affacted if any company does not responsibily act against rogue drivers with no regard for their safety and the safety of others on the public roads.
Our drivers are mainly repair engineers or drivers delivering parts nationwide ready for the engineers to complete work on a scheduled route.
Engineer are in working pairs - the deliveries are done by lone workers with GPS tracking and alram buttons on board for any safety eventuality warning protection.
All drivers are checked against working time directive guidelines for work / driving during any work period away from home.
We are currently looking at ROSPA driver attitude testing as another way of seeing if the drivers are suitable for their work load.
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Posted By Lyndon Sutcliffe
Yes, the responses to this thread do prove that driver safety is becoming more prevalent in health and safety, and that safety professionals (as a whole) are fumbling around trying to tackle it in the best way that they can. (if this offends I did say 'as a whole')
We have put a program in on the back of a comprehensive driver policy. This includes providing behind the wheel driver training for the 'at risk' categories idetifies in our risk assessment. We are improving, but we have not solved this problem by any means.
Administrative controls on their own will not improve driver safety. I think the key here is getting people (fleet managers, drivers etc.) to accept resonsibility, convincing them that they have the potential ability to reduce accidents and also getting drivers in general to improve their skills. Reducing driver exposure will play a part, but it is hard for safety professionals to influence this.
This will be a long haul, particularly if changing behaviour is involved, but so is the nature of health and safety. We should be used to it by now!
Thanks for your responses.
Lyndon
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