Vehicle Fleet Driver Training & Risk Assessment

As a fleet vehicle operator you will naturally be concerned about safety in the work place, which as you know incorporates employees driving and working in cars and other vehicles, but when looking for quality fleet driver training the task can be something of a nightmare.

To comply with Health and Safety regulations, as a vehicle fleet operator you will already know you have a responsibility in law as the employer of company vehicle drivers to ensure, so far as it is practicable, the health, safety and welfare of those employees is complete at all times. You will also be aware that employers have a responsibility to ensure that others are not put at risk by the work related activities of employees, which in vehicle driver terms, means all those who drive your vehicles, hire vehicle used for your trade, business or organisation, or even their own, in connection with their work for your business or organisation, should be properly trained for the job they perform so as to reduce the risk, as far as possible, to themselves and others around them.

Whilst any driver of a motor vehicle on a road has ultimate responsibility to conduct themselves in a manner so as to ensure their own health and safety, without effective corporate driver training input, your people may not be equipped with the types of skills required to reduce their risk of being involved in road accidents.

Health and Safety & The Fleet Driver

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 actually states a requirement for employers to carry out an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees, and of themselves, whilst they are at work, and to assess if other people may be affected by those work activities. This includes any driving activity, and the regulations require that risk assessments be reviewed periodically to ensure that no adverse changes have occurred. So, the fact is that employers need to evaluate the risks to employees whilst in motor vehicles on the road in the same way as for the risks associated with ensuring safety in the workplace, such as on a factory floor.

The Real Cost of Fleet Driver Traffic Accidents

Setting aside your legal obligations for a moment, what effect would there be on your organisation if just one of your team was forced out of work, even for a short period of time, through injury sustained in a traffic accident? How difficult would it be to replace a person who knows the job inside out, who is well-trained and who is effective at dealing with a their workload? Think about how you would compensate for that situation, and what it could cost you in terms of additional man-hours, financial loss and the overall well being of your business. Losing an integral member of your workforce, even for a short period of time, is something that no one thinks about, that is until it happens. By that time, when you are dealing with all the fall-out from such a situation, it is not the best time to think about implementing an employee fleet driver training scheme.

Between 60 and 70 percent of road traffic accidents each year involve people at work driving company vehicles on British roads. That is as much as 7 out of 10 road collisions will involve a company car, van and other vehicle driver, which is totally unacceptable. It is therefore vital that your vehicle fleet drivers are properly trained in effective and approved advanced and defensive driving methods.

Of course it is true that you can never completely guard against anyone being injured on the road, or from having a traffic accident, but it is also true that you can substantially reduce the risks, but that does count on you doing something proactive.

Advanced Driving Courses For The Fleet Driver

Ride Drive have the capacity to deliver advanced and defensive driver training programmes all over the mainland UK; fleet driver courses that will provide members of your organisation with the very best service in terms of value and quality corporate driver skills development and driver risk management strategy. Our driver training programmes are written by long-serving police traffic patrol officers; practical people who have been trained to Home Office class one police advanced driving level and who each have a wealth of experience of dealing with, and investigating the causes of, road traffic accidents, as well as studying driver attitudes and behaviour.

Identify Your Fleet Driver Training Needs

Our comprehensive risk assessments will provide you with effective driver risk management tools backed with a detailed analysis of the performance and training needs of the drivers within your motor fleet, covering all core competencies required for effective road driving methods. Based upon individual driver assessment we make expert recommendations concerning the appropriate training input you will need to ensure maximum safety in the work place supported with a comprehensive health and safety risk assessment report.

When we move onto training driver’s, each fleet driver defensive driving course will be tailored to the needs of the individual and will place emphasis upon those elements that have been highlighted by the initial driver risk assessment to ensure the health and safety of the individual according to his or her job function.

Identifying Fleet Driver Habit & Culture

Of course the development of practical road driving skills is important, and our fleet driver training courses will do all of that, but we like to go that extra mile and look at driver habit and culture within your fleet, as very often we have discovered certain influences, such as negative peer pressures, are present and which do not enhance the prospects of running a road safety conscious organisation.

Accredited Fleet Driver Training Courses

Within the pages of this website you will find various fleet driver training options and fleet driver risk management tools. Some of the driver training courses have been accredited to National Framework level-two and level-three driving qualifications and are therefore quality assessed and assured by a reputable accrediting body, the Open College Network (OCN). With accredited driver training to this standard your company will always pass the test of any form of health and safety scrutiny

As you consider your corporate fleet driver training needs, please bear in mind that when you choose Ride Drive you will always find us effective, efficient and enthusiastic, and that we work within a very realistic price structure to provide you, as a vehicle fleet operator, with a first class service that represents excellent value for money, making Ride Drive the right choice for all your fleet driver training needs.