For safer driving: follow that British Gas van

British Gas offers driving safety fleet help to SMEs

BUSINESS van managers of smaller fleets can now get advice on running their business vans from the larger fleet experts.

And one of these experts is an every day sight – a British Gas van.

That’s the idea behind a new initiative organised by the RoadSafe Driving for Better Business champion British Gas. It is introducing a road safety mentoring scheme designed to help SME vans fleets implement occupational road risk management processes – and thereby improve the safety of van drivers thanks to reduced vehicle collisions.

British Gas operates more than 10,000 vans along with some 1,900 company cars.

According to RoadSafe, British Gas initiatives have seen incident rates tumble by more than 30% in five years, saving the company money, providing better staff welfare and reducing the number of days lost to illness.

“Many organisations, particularly smaller businesses, often don’t have the capacity to implement specific road safety initiatives,” commented Jon York, fleet operations manager at British Gas. “Through this innovative mentoring scheme British Gas and other ‘business champions’ can work with organisations in their respective areas to help them put measures in place.”

Mr York added: “Improving safety on the roads benefits all employers, and by working together and providing best practice advice we can all help each other.”

Mr York, who is based in Wakefield, says he will use his vast experience to help local employers conduct risk assessments and introduce measures such as driver licence checking.

“I’m already looking at mentoring organisations that are local to me and I’m also working with our sub-contractors on the introduction of safe driving initiatives,” Mr York continued.

Linked to British Gas’s road safety programme is a comprehensive fuel monitoring initiative, which is also used to improve efficiency through safe and fuel efficient driving techniques.

British Gas, which spends £14 million on fuel a year and restricts its fleet to a maximum speed of 70mph, is also combining its vehicle collision data with fuel efficiency data to verify the relationship between excessive fuel use and ‘poor’ road safety.

British Gas is undertaking this mentoring help as a Driving for Better Business campaign champion, a campaign which is managed by RoadSafe.

RoadSafe says it now has 52 business champion organisations across the UK. They are used by the campaign to promote the financial, legal and moral benefits of occupational road risk management to other organisations across the UK.

Further information

If your business is interested in being mentored you can email Jon York at: [email protected] or the Driving for Better Business campaign at [email protected].

The Driving for Better Business campaign is run by RoadSafe and forms part of the Department for Transport’s Driving for Work road safety strategy. The campaign’s stated aim is to raise awareness of work-related road safety in the business community and the business benefits of managing it effectively.

You can see more about RoadSafe here: www.roadsafe.com.

You can read more about the Driving for Better Business campaign here: www.drivingforbetterbusiness.com.