SME fleet operators are being offered a unique safety package that Volvo claim will cut costs and reduce the risk of both company car accidents and court action.

The Swedish manufacturer famed for its focus on safety standards has teamed up with driver risk management specialist Fleet21 to offer CoPilot, a comprehensive safety package.

At a special presentation of all of the car manufacturer’s safety systems at Brand Hatch race circuit, Kay Saunders, Volvo’s campaigns manager for business sales outlined the offer aimed at small businesses.

She said: “For our new fleet customers, we are going to give them the Fleet21 package (worth £495) free of charge to cover up to 20 drivers. They will get the fleet policy, they will get the handbooks for 20 drivers, they will get the licence checks and they will get the online risk assessment all for the purchase of one car.

“We have also joined with commercial partners in this with both providers and advocates who will be able to give SMEs some tangible assets. The advocates will provide information, such as technical white papers, best practice policies and other advice. We also have a raft of support functions for SMEs much like giving them a box of parts that will assist them in their business.”

Simon Turner, director of Fleet21, explained the risks that SMEs run when ignoring the threat of driver risk management.

He said: “Risk compliance can be shared around various job roles, it can be shared by the fleet manager, health & safety, HR, finance manager and director and through a whole range of people.

“Often that has a negative side that means no one person actually takes responsibility for it. With new safety technology on the cars and changes in driver behaviour businesses can see huge reductions in costs from accidents and too few businesses realise this opportunity exists to improve their business profitability.

“For example, if a sales manager loses one of his key staff through a bad accident that will cost his company a huge amount in lost revenue and the territory not being covered properly. On top of this, there is the threat that, if the company had not conducted its legal compliance obligations properly, there are some fairly draconian fines if they get caught not behaving properly.”

Volvo used the presentation to showcase it safety systems which include its camera operated City Safety low speed collision avoidance and adaptive cruise control which both bring the vehicle to a complete stop, lane assist, park assist, road sign recognition, blind spot warning and both dynamic stability and traction control.

Turner said that while workplace accidents figures are falling, road accidents statistics are flat-lining and pose a serious threat to small companies’ profitability.

He said when adding all the annual numbers of people involved in UK road accidents that takes them out of the work environment for some amount of time, the chances of an SME incurring costs is very high.

Turner explained: “With 534 people taken out of the work environment every day through road accidents, a business manager has to think it’s quite likely some of his staff will be occasionally involved in these accidents. Roughly a third of these casualties involve people who are driving for work purposes.”

He added that with 5M business cars on our roads, made up of 1M company cars and 4M personal cars on business, the Department of Transport estimate half will have some sort of collision in the next 12 months.

And this will hit the balance sheets of all the companies whose drivers are involved in road collisions.

He explained: “CE Electric UK is a champion of Driving for Best Business and have shared some figures they have found and typically your average business collision cost £800-£900 the average cost of all accidents across the country. But what CE Electric found was that the total cost to the companies involved could be between four and 30 times that figure when you factor in all the hidden costs.

“Things like insurance excesses, increases in insurance premiums, the driver off injured so there may have to be a temporary vehicle and river in to replace him, there could be goods and company equipment damaged in the vehicle and then all the admin necessary to deal with this incident.”