WHSmith puts drivers’ safety first

WHSmith, one of the UK’s leading retail groups, has issued Permits to Drive to its 1,100 at-work drivers across the company to ensure maximum occupational road risk management compliance.

The company, a long-time customer of Fleet Support Group, Britain’s largest independent fleet management company with 55,000 vehicles on its books, has introduced the organisation’s web-enabled RiskMaster programme.

The phased introduction of the programme, which measures individual driver compliance with WHSmith’s best practice occupational road risk policies, has now been completed across staff who drive on business and are employed in the company’s London and Swindon headquarters, in High Street stores and across the organisation’s Travel business.

Recognising that best practice in the area of managing road safety has been continuing to develop, with further impending changes of legislation resulting from the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, WHSmith completed an internal audit of its existing business policies and control procedures.

Although a variety of road-safety risk management measures were already in place, including checks on driving licences and maintenance records for company vehicles, WHSmith wanted to strengthen its controls in this area further.

The company then conducted a fleet marketplace review of available occupational road risk management procedures. WHSmith concluded that FSG, its existing provider of a range of fleet management services, offered the most comprehensive solution.

WHSmith employees who drive a company car, drive their own car on business or are occassional drivers are granted a Permit to Drive following a DVLA licence check. An online driving ‘test’ is then used to profile drivers as ‘low’, ‘medium’ or ‘high’ risk with the assessment used as the basis for any driver training, including on-the-road. Vehicle maintenance records, insurance details, MoT and VED records, and any data on crashes and motoring offences are also fed into the system.

As information is supplied, it is analysed by the RiskMaster system that point scores a driver’s data. If points rise above a preset level, management is alerted. So a driver can qualify for a permit, or a temporary permit, or be denied.

The system creates an individual and comprehensive Driver Operating Life Report from which data is used to continually assess individual drivers in their driving-at-work activity.

That analysis is a continual process so each driver has a Driver Operating Life Report and each driver is simultaneously measured against WHSmith’s own specific parameters, that have been pre-fed into the system.

WHSmith drivers are granted a Permit to Drive by their employer through the FSG programme and must reapply for approval annually.

To overcome the risk of non-compliance by drivers with WHSmith’s programme and policies, the company will only pay monthly mileage expenses to those with a current Permit to Drive.

This programme has helped WHSmith focus on monitoring any potentially higher-risk drivers, which includes those who drive more than 25,000 miles a year on business, together with those employees with a significant number of penalty points on their licences and those who have any history of involvement in accidents. This focus has led to one employee leaving the business, who had a history of accidents, licence endorsements and a further impending driving ban.

Mark Sabin, the Group’s Risk and Audit Director, said: “Commercial risk management is important for WHSmith. We have tightened up procedures for managing road safety in order to manage the risks in this area more effectively. Due to the phased introduction of the programme, it is too early to quantify the potential savings at this juncture accurately, but we are confident that we will see future ongoing reductions in our insurance-related costs and vehicle maintenance charges.”

WHSmith has been a customer of FSG since 1995 and the fleet management company’s Chairman Geoffrey Bray said: “Our Permit to Drive system is a continuing appraisal of an at-work driver’s approach, attitude and performance in general driving.

“Evidence from our RiskMaster users suggests that Permit to Drive provides major safety benefits; financial savings; demonstrates social responsibility towards other road users; and a legally-recognised audit trail.

“With the implementation of RiskMaster, WHSmith views driver safety not as a cost but as an investment. Legislation is increasingly impacting on at-work drivers so employers have a significant responsibility to manage them effectively.”