Calls for post-test driving for work qualification for young drivers

The overwhelming majority of Britain’s officially recognised safest fleets want the Government to introduce a nationally-recognised post-test driving for work qualification for young drivers.

Road crashes are the single biggest killer of young people in the UK with almost 1,200 killed or seriously injured on the roads every year. Young drivers, especially those under 20, are nearly 12 times more likely than those aged 35-65 to have caused a fatal crash than to have been innocently involved in one.

Meanwhile, with an estimated up to 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at work drivers, more employees are killed and seriously injured on Britain’s roads while driving on behalf of their employer than in any other work-related activity.

Therefore, inexperienced, recently qualified 17-24-year-olds who are driving on business are likely to be at the very highest risk of being involved in a crash.

As a result, the Government is anxious to promote a wide range of measures to help young drivers stay safe when they are on the road.

Among the wide range of measures proposed by the Department for Transport in its ‘far-reaching ‘Learning to Drive’ consultation document was additional pre and post- driving test training.

Meanwhile, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents with help from the Government-backed ‘Driving for Better Business’ campaign, which is managed by RoadSafe, will launch a new guide in the spring to help businesses improve the road safety of young drivers.

A new survey by the campaign among its almost 40 ‘business champion’ fleets discovered that not only do 90% of respondents want to see a post-test driving for work qualification for youngsters, but 71% of those questioned don’t believe the current ‘L’ driver training and testing process prepares 17-24-years-old for the challenge of at-work driving.

While the majority (76%) of ‘business champion’ fleets allow young employees to drive on business - 24% don’t - many impose restraints on them as part of their safe driving procedures. Those measures include:

48% of ‘business champion’ fleets restrict the size of vehicle young employees are allowed to drive
33% restrict the performance of the vehicle
19% ban youngsters from taking to the road in adverse weather conditions
14% ban them driving at night.

As the Government continues to compile its 2011-2020 road safety strategy of which a greater focus on preparing youngsters for the hazards of driving is expected to play a key part, the new online RoSPA guide will highlight key safety issues for employers to deliver in workshops.

Guide content is based on a series of 12 pilot workshops attended by up to 15 young drivers devised by RoSPA and hosted by a cross-section of employers. The forthcoming guide will contain the workshop structure and materials and a guide to delivery.

The aim of the workshop is to develop young drivers’ knowledge that driving for work has ‘issues above and beyond what they probably assimilated when learning to drive’ and to help them understand how they can develop additional skills required when driving for work.

Following publication of the guide hopes are high that employers will host their own workshops and use the booklet-based guidance to improve their young drivers’ safety thus addressing the skills and training gap.

Caroline Scurr, director of the ‘Driving for Better Business’ campaign, said: “I am not surprised that our ‘business champions’ want to see an improvement in the skills of young drivers.

“A range of factors put young drivers at particular risk, including their lack of experience, their weakness in identifying potential hazards and some attitudes, such as over confidence.

“Deadline pressures, unfamiliar routes and making frequent delivery stops can make driving for work very different to driving at other times and issues such as these are not covered during ‘L’ training.”

The young drivers’ workshop delivery guide will be available in March on the RoSPA website - rospa.com.