Greene King brews up one of Britain’s safest fleets

Brewer Greene King cut its road crash costs by more than £150,000 in 2006/7 as its in-house developed safe driving initiative continued to pay dividends.

In the last four years more than 500 members of staff – HGV, LGV and company car drivers as well as occasional pool car drivers and employees who drive their own car on business - have all completed individual three-hour driving assessments under the eagle eye of the company’s driving safety advisor Paul Blackman.

The Bury St Edmunds’-based company’s focus on at-work driving safety has resulted in the organisation becoming a ‘business champion’ under the Government’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme.

The initiative is managed by RoadSafe on behalf of the Department for Transport, which is working with the police and a raft of other agencies to encourage all companies and organisations to implement best practice occupational road risk management programmes.

Greene King runs 271 company cars, within an overall fleet of almost 500 vehicles, including 95 drays.

Although the fleet has expanded significantly in recent years, the number of crashes vehicles were involved in was cut by 63 (24%) to 200 in 2006/7 resulting in the huge financial savings.

Mr Blackman said: “By highlighting the dangers of work-related road risk and recognising the financial costs of crashes, Greene King has been able to improve profitability and contribute to the safety of staff by making them more risk aware.”

Initiatives introduced by the company include: a half-day one-to-one workshop and on-road training course, regular driving licence checks, additional training for staff involved in a crash following a debrief on the incident and monthly safe driving campaigns.

Mr Blackman added: “We are delighted that our safety focus has been recognised and are pleased to be supporting the ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme. I hope the initiatives that we have introduced and the success we have had in improving our fleet safety will encourage other businesses to take action.”

Driving on business, for most employees, is the most dangerous task they undertake during their working life, according to official figures. Last year, official figures reveal that 2,943 people were killed on Britain’s roads with almost 250,000 people injured.

The Government estimates that there are 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at work drivers

‘Driving for Better Business’ programme manager Caroline Scurr said: “Not only are the number of deaths of at-work drivers wholly disproportionate to the total number of workplace fatalities annually, but the number of crashes on the nation’s roads involving car and commercial vehicle drivers in the course of their work is massively out of line when compared with the amount of vehicles on the roads, around 34 million.

“Additionally, if it is not bad enough that businesses and organisations are seeing valuable staff killed every day while fulfilling their employment duties, the cost of those crashes to companies is prohibitive. In addition to personal injury and vehicle damage costs, the impact of lost orders, meetings being cancelled and hours of work time being spent on crash-related administration must all be taken into account.”

Highlighting the lead being taken by Greene King, Ms Scurr said: “The company is a fine example of how occupational road risk can be managed through putting in place a cycle of continuous road safety improvement.

“As a result it has seen business efficiency improve as vehicle downtime and staff sickness levels have been significantly reduced and its safety image boosted as the company’s drivers are also its ambassadors on the road.”

For more information, visit roadsafe.com