Around 100 people a day have their lives changed by a work-related vehicle accident.
The figures on the impact of accidents involving people driving for a living are alarming – ten people are killed each day in work-related accidents and 90 more are disabled in some way.
Work-vehicle related deaths now outnumber other occupational deaths, even in high-risk industries such as construction and mining.
A spokesman for Drive and Survive, Steve Johnson, said most fleet owners were “blissfully unaware” of the dangers to vehicles and drivers. “People are affected by train and plane crashes but they don't, by and large, kill as many people day in, day out,” he said.
Drive and Survive has launched a new product for brokers so they can help commercial clients remedy this situation. The company released its Duty of Care programme last week and has already distributed information to brokers across the UK.
The programme is aimed at owners of small fleets and offers either a full-day or half-day seminar. These include a fleet risk assessment seminar, on-road demonstrations, reference books and templates so companies can produce their own duty of care procedures.
Johnson said it had traditionally been difficult for brokers to sell fleet risk management schemes to their clients. “Driver training is perceived as expensive and total risk management is difficult to sell because of the long-term costs involved.”
He said clients were often unaware of their own risks. “There was a lot of scaremongering about proposed changes to the law, with the introduction of corporate killing.
“Then it was omitted from the Queen's Speech and people thought they were off the hook but there are still laws they can be prosecuted under.
“Some small fleet owners have very bad risk profiles with bad incident rates but, before, there was little the broker could do about it except keep upping the premium.”
Johnson said the product was the first of its kind available to brokers. It took three months to develop and was piloted with a small group of Aon brokers.
