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Company Drivers Continue to
Put Employers at Risk
Company drivers are continuing
to put their employers at risk by ignoring basic health & safety
guidelines and driving unsafe or illegal vehicles on company business.
The latest Total Motion
Vehicle Monitor Survey (Jan-Mar 2006), which inspected 2,018 company and
privately owned vehicles used for business purposes, found that 18% of the
vehicles were unroadworthy and 35% were not properly maintained.
Checks on their drivers showed
that 6% had invalid licences, 3% had no tax, and 12% of those using
private vehicles were not properly insured. Around 81% of all drivers
admitted to not carrying out the recommended weekly safety checks on items
such as tyres, lights, fluids and glass.
Generally, the privately owned
cars were more likely to have faults than company vehicles, but all
results showed a worsening trend compared to the last quarter of 2005.
The survey was conducted by
Total Motion as part of its Vehicle Monitor service. The appraisals were
undertaken by industry-qualified field engineers, who individually
inspected 2,018 vehicles for client companies around the UK.
“Most of these clients do have
policies and procedures in place, but the results show that drivers are
failing to adhere to them,” says Total Motion managing director Simon
Hill. “Almost half the drivers (42%) said that even if they were monitored
on making the basic safety checks, they would tick to say they had done
them without actually doing so.”
68% of drivers also said that
they thought on the road training is a waste of their time and that it
makes little or no difference to the way they drive.
“While the health and safety
message is getting through to companies, there is still a big problem with
monitoring and enforcement,” says Mr Hill. “I believe better driver
education, more stringent checks and heavier penalties are required to
ensure that drivers take their personal responsibilities for health &
safety more seriously.
“Companies need to support and
enable fleet managers to do their jobs properly by giving them the power
and the authority to enforce policies and penalise drivers.”
>> Download the latest Vehicle Survey Report Q1 2006
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