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FleetNews
03.01.08
£2.25
fleetnews.co.uk

HELRPINGA
N
YO EAUPER
U
CH ANER
CLE FER Business motoring strategy and finance
SA ET
FLE

Majority of grey Survey reveals

biggest dangers
to fleet drivers

fleet is not safe

Almost two-thirds of private vehicles surveyed fail roadworthy checks
EXCLUSIVE
BY DANIEL ATTWOOD
The grey fleet is in the spotlight again after
an ongoing survey found that almost two out
of three private vehicles driven on company
business were not safe to be on the road.
It is estimated that between one and three
million privately-owned cars are used for
work.
The survey discovered found that almost
60% of the private vehicles were not properly
maintained and around a third were not
properly insured.
This is despite the fact that several insur-
ance companies will extend cover for free for
drivers who use their own cars for work. It
also confirms the findings of an extensive
grey fleet survey late last year (Fleet News,
October 25, 2007), which found that 52% of
companies do not have a policy to check
insurance details of their grey fleet vehicles.
Equally worrying is the lack of company
procedures to check that grey fleet vehicles
are safe.
Last year, a quarter of fleet managers said
that roadworthiness of their grey fleet vehi-
cles was a major concern. And yet this latest
survey confirms that, months later, many
are still failing to ensure roadworthiness
checks are being carried out.
Just over 70% of maintenance problems
identified were tyre-related and should have
Employees must check their cars for roadworthiness before driving them for business
been picked up during basic safety checks.
However, 91% of drivers admitted to not
making such checks – and 98% said their
companies did not verify whether or not they
did so.
The statistics, which were taken from the
Total Motion vehicle monitor survey of 5,734
company and privately-owned vehicles used
for business between April and September
2007, show a marked deterioration from the
previous issue, which covered October 2006
to March 2007.
“It is clear that the safety issues raised by
private cars being used for business are not
being addressed,” said Simon Hill, manag-
ing director of Total Motion. “Even where
companies are introducing duty-of-care poli-
cies, they are failing to enforce them.”
The results were obtained from driver
appraisals and physical vehicle checks
undertaken on-site by qualified engineers as
part of Total Motion’s continual vehicle
monitoring service.
It found that while several issues need
immediate attention in the grey fleet, in
contrast the condition of company-owned
vehicles continued to improve, with just 0.2%
of the vehicles inspected found to be un-
roadworthy.
daniel.attwood@emap.com
Fleet managers have identified
three areas that present the
greatest risk their drivers face.
The first – the threat presented
by other road users – was
identified by 24% of fleet manag-
ers in the recent National Car
Rental/Fleet News sur vey as being
the biggest threat to their
employees’ safety while driving for
business.
This was closely followed by
distractions caused by equipment
such as mobile phones and
satellite navigation systems. This
suggests that a total ban on taking
phone calls while driving, whether
on a hands-free set or not, should
be considered.
“This sur vey really highlights
the concerns fleet managers have
over the level of concentration
their drivers give to the road,”
said Lorraine Farnon, National
Car Rental sales director. “There’s
clearly a dangerous tendency to
multi-task behind the wheel –
whether with GPS equipment or
mobile phones – and this of
course could also be illegal if the
driver isn’t hands-free.”
A similar number of fleet
operators (22%) said drivers were
under such intense pressure to
meet work deadlines that this was
posing a threat to their safety.
While this trio of threats was
cited as presenting the most
significant risks to employees who
drive fleet vehicles, 11% of fleet
managers also felt their drivers’
poor skills behind the wheel
presented a big risk to their safety.

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