The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership is arranging two free workshops to improve safety among ‘at work’ drivers and protect their employers’ bottom lines.
With an estimated £10 billion lost to the UK economy every year through work-related road collisions, the costs of crashes while driving for work are significant. In Sussex, one third of all individuals killed or seriously injured on the roads were driving for work at the time of their incident.
The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership points out that in addition to repair bills (which average £860), hidden costs can include hire of replacement vehicles, lost productivity and damage to a company’s reputation.
To help mitigate some of these risks, the COSTS Project is offering business drivers, managers and fleet directors free workshops during October and November. The workshops are designed to increase knowledge around road safety issues, offer practical advice and guidance on increasing safety behind the wheel, and help companies comply with the legal demands placed upon them.
The ‘Lunch and Learn’ workshop is delivered to drivers in their place of work. It examines causes and consequences of incidents and offers key strategies to mitigate risks. The second workshop, ‘Occupational Road Risk Assessments’ is designed to help company owners and fleet managers develop robust road risk policies by giving strategic advice to ensure that drivers are protected and relevant legislation is complied with.
Ian Jeffrey, COSTS’ project director, said: “Developing a strong road safety culture is key to helping businesses reduce unnecessary costs incurred in even minor collisions. Our free workshops are a step towards developing this culture.
“Having a strong road safety culture could mean the difference between life and death on the roads. When you consider the number of non-injury incidents that take place, such a culture could also mean the difference between profit and loss, especially for small businesses.”
For more information visit: www.CostsProject.co.uk
Having watched the film and read the report it seems that they are concentrating on the speed limit of vans under 7.5ton laden. Great emphasis was placed on the responsibility that management have and the legal repurcussions of any driver’s accident. But, and its a big but, do we or they know if excessive speed was a significant contributory factor in many of the acidents?
To my mind they first of all stated that a van behaves differently from a car. In what way one asks, suspension? Steering? Balance? Weight? Load? Power? Acceleration? Braking? Forward vision? Rear vision? Tyre pressures etc.
Then there is drivers’ attitude and experience. Drivers nationality/hours/logistics pressure and worksheets to name but a few. All of which can contribute in some way to accidents apart from others’ fault. There is a lot to look at and not just concentrate on speeding.
bob Craven Lancs
0