Centrica adopts permits to drive
Centrica, one of the UK's biggest employers, has become one of a growing number of fleets to adopt a 'Permit to Drive' approach to safe at-work driving...
Jon Your "We believe that now is an ideal time to bring all our fleet policies to life"
The company, which has put in place a wide-range of safe driving measures in recent years (RoadSafe: winter 2006/7), is one of the first organisations to become a 'business champion' in the Department for Transport's 'Driving for Better Business' initiative.
Under the scheme, Centrica employees who drive either company cars or their own vehicle at work - approximately 16,000 people - are required to go online and sign the company's Safe Driving Pledge and undertake a Risk Foundation programme provided by Interactive Driving Systems and based on Centrica's fleet policy, health and safety policy and driver handbook.
Exchange
All drivers due to exchange their company car will have to initially sign the Safe Driving Pledge, then successfully complete the Risk Foundation programme, without which they do not obtain their 'Permit to Drive' - nor the keys to their new vehicle.
Centrica fleet operations manager Jon York said: "We have been quite successful in targeting our road safety risks over the last 18 months and have reduced our collisions by 8% through a number of driver and management policy initiatives, focusing on detailed fuel monitoring, vehicle safety features, young apprentice drivers, multi-media-based driver risk assessment and monitoring, electronic licence checks and benchmarking.
"We believe that now is an ideal time to bring all our fleet policies to life by asking car drivers to pledge to comply with them, and also to use the Risk Foundation programme to ensure that drivers understand and apply the full detail of our polices, procedures and processes.
"The Safe Driving Pledge and Risk Foundation modules form an excellent 'Permit to Drive' for our company car users who exchange their vehicles this year, and must successfully complete the hour-long program online. >From the driver's perspective it ensures that they are up to date, and comply with all the rules, and from our perspective as fl eet managers, it provides an element of liability protection in the event that anything should go wrong as well as ensuring that drivers look after their vehicle."
The potential of 'Permit to Drive' schemes has already been highlighted (RoadSafe: spring 2007) and Inchcape Fleet Solutions has revealed that the fi rst company to implement its scheme is Reliance Security Services.
Initiative
Reliance operates a 1,000- strong car and van fleet and the initiative sees drivers, as well as new recruits, undergo a driving licence check against the DVLA database and complete an online risk profile before being given a 'Permit to Drive'.
Sandra Burrell, a director of the company's Patrol Net division, said: "We take the health and safety of our staff extremely seriously. This initiative supports our commitment to the welfare of our employees and provides reassurance to our customers of our ability to perform our duties to the highest standard of professionalism."
How a licence scam was uncovered
Only by managing its occupational road risk did stationers OyezStraker, noted for serving the legal sector, discover that one of its business car driving employees had two licences...
Or to be precise, Fleet Support Group's RiskMaster occupational road risk programme operating for OyezStraker made the shock discovery, and that licence one contained nine penalty points and licence two had six points plus three more in the process of collection. RiskMaster uniquely requires every participating driver to annually apply/ reapply for an employer's 'Permit to Drive' (RoadSafe: spring 2007).
The driver was brought to company secretary Pippa Maynard's attention because his online occupational road risk profiler indicated he was 'low risk'.
Yet his RiskMaster declarations showed he needed professional coaching. That was conducted by driver training specialist Drive & Survive. Their report showed that on road the man's performance was so poor that two collisions were only narrowly avoided.
Following suspension the driver was subsequently dismissed from his job for untruthfully stating that he had not been involved in a road accident.
Ms Maynard said: 'Using RiskMaster to manage the company's occupational road risk prevented the employee from being involved in a crash while driving on OyezStraker business."
Geoffrey Bray, head of 24hr Fleet Support Group, said: "The incident poses two serious questions. How is it possible for a driver to have two licences in the same name at the same address? How many other working drivers have two licences?
"Without RiskMaster driver research - ensuring that employees who drive in their employment comply with their employers' health and safety commitments and allied requirements - OyezStraker could unwittingly have been drawn into catastrophic costly uninsured losses and huge legal fees following a serious road crash."