RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

June 22 , 2006
INTEREST BOOMING IN WORK-RELATED ROAD SAFETY

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has experienced a massive growth in interest in work-related road safety in the last year.

Charles Davis, RoSPA Head of Driver and Fleet Solutions, said: “We are delighted and encouraged by the way businesses and organisations have responded to the challenge of managing occupational road risk (MORR).

“Our own MORR business grew by 45 per cent in 2005/2006, which shows how seriously those with responsibility for fleet management are now taking this subject.

“The argument now seems to have been accepted that this is the biggest occupational safety problem which the country is facing and that fleet bosses have to do something about it.”

He said more and more responsible employers were adopting a system of auditing, management training and risk assessment, followed by driver training where necessary. Many reinforce good behaviour through driving awards schemes.

“The bottom line is that by managing occupational road risk they are protecting their number one asset – their employees,” Charles Davis said. “And that has to be good news for everyone who uses our roads, as poor occupational drivers are not only a threat to themselves, but others on the road around them.”

RoSPA pioneered the topic of managing occupational road risk by revealing that between 800 and 1,000 people a year on Britain’s roads are killed in work-related accidents.

The Society drew up the initial guidance to tackle the problem, and has continued to come up with innovative ideas to help businesses, bearing in mind that company car and van drivers have accident rates 35 to 50 per cent higher than private drivers.

Its latest initiative has been ROADTest - the first advanced driving test designed purely for business drivers. RoSPA developed it with DriveTech (UK) Limited to reduce crashes involving people who drive as part of their job. Advanced drivers have been shown to be around 25 per cent less likely to be involved in accidents.

RoSPA’s suite of MORR resources also includes the award-winning psychometric risk assessment tool Driver Profiler, e-learning and management and driver training courses.