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On investigation it appears that company car drivers have been found as being one out of the three most at risk groups on the road at the moment and it has been said that they should be targeted as part of a major campaign to improve road safety by the government.

In a report that was commissioned by the Motorists Forum on road user behaviour, drivers who are at work are highlighted as the group imost in need of attention (also mentioned were the under 25’s and motorcyclists). This forum advises the government on the policy proposals that affect motorists.

The report has estimated that there is 1000 deaths on UK roads every year that involve people who are working at the time, they then add that a further 13,000 people are also seriously injured in a year. It states that about 1/3 of all road accidents involve people who are working at the time of being on the road.

The statistics for those of us who do drive as part of our job could be seen as somewhat disturbing – as they state that an employee who drives 25,000 miles per annum has a one in 8000 chance of being killed behind the wheel of their company vehicle. The same risk of miners dying at the coal face, and not quite so severe but just as alarming, 65% of all company vehicles are typically involved in an incident in one form or another during one year.

This report suggests that in order to overcome the problem the government should suggest reviewing the basic driving test and training and making employees who are out on the road retake their tests on a frequent basis.

It reads ‘For those who drive as part of their work, employers should be encouraged to have a health and safety policy dealing with the risks of work related driving put in place. There should be a top-level commitment to work-related road safety and adequate systems in place to carry out risk assessments, deliver training and monitor performance to ensure that a work related road safety policy is effective.’

The government has now made a pledge that it will listen to the views expressed by the public regarding the road pricing scheme that has been circulating since 2005.

There was a petition posted on the Downing Street website, calling for the general public to sign against the proposed vehicle tracking, not only has this now attracted over a million signatures – but it also crashed the website over last weekend!

The transport secretary Douglas Alexander has now said that the government would listen to its public, and that they recognised that it is important to “deliberate, discuss and then to make a decision.”

In a recent interview Mr Alexander said:

‘Ultimately it will be a matter for parliament to make decisions but it is important that people have the chance to have their say and no doubt people will offer a range of opinions during that debate.’

He did want the public however, to understand that the UK did not have the luxury to do nothing on this matter, as he mentioned our roads are ‘literally filling up’.

Since the government mentioned the proposed road pricing scheme back in 2005 many fleets have been understandably worried about the financial impact such charges would have upon their company, a highly reported case was that of a woman who used her vehicle to take her kids to and from school would end up paying £86.00 a month in additional costs. In line with this shocking figure drivers who use the least congested roads at the quietest time of the day would still see a massive increase in their cost of motoring.

Those high mileage drivers, more typical of large fleet companies, who drive around 30,000 miles a year, even charges at an average of 10p per mile (which is well below any figure being mentioned) would be paying an extra £3000.00a year.

The Conservative party gave their opinion on the scheme last year saying that the plan was ‘all at sea’ and mentioned their doubt on the current governments ability to deliver the scheme.

They mentioned that the governments poor track record with IT (remember the murderers, rapists and paedophiles who went ‘missing’ on government databases) would mean that they would not be able to keep track of the 28 million cars that are currently on our roads. When he spoke in the House of Commons the Tory Transport Spokesman stated it would be the ‘biggest IT project this country had ever seen – tracking every car in every road for 24 hours a day, collecting the data, processing the data, issuing a bill and then collecting the money.’

There has been widespread press this week regarding the concerns of the proposed introduction of fingerprint scanning of motorists at the roadside.

The proposal - which is in fact already in motion with 10 police forces across the UK - has caused businesses to raise concern over the increase in time spent on the road for its fleets with this new spotcheck being introduced.

This roadside device would work by electronically scanning a drivers index finger, and the scans are then sent via wireless to a central fingerprint database. Any matches can be identified and then returned to the police officer within a targeted time of less than 5 minutes, during which the driver is still pulled over on the side of the road.

As well as the increased time on journeys for people who are presumably already trying to stick to a tight schedule it could be said that this on the spot check could bring more intrusion to the individual which would by far outweigh any benefits it might provide. It will again provoke debate on the ‘Big Brother’ attitude across the UK where it appears the government is trying to locate people at all times!

However the benefits of this proposal can be that the identity of a driver who is uninsured can be traced so quickly that it would hope to provide a reduction in incidents as well as reducing the increase in insurance premiums.

NEW RATES

Engine Size Petrol Diesel LPG
1400cc or less 9p 9p 6p
1401-2000cc 11p 9p 7p
Over 2000cc 16p 12p 10p

The new rates were announced by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) last week and fleet operators’ association ACFO called for clarification on how some of the new figures were derived.

Tax officials have agreed to meet representatives of the UK Fleet industry to discuss new advised fuel rates as they have been criticised for leaving drivers out of pocket.

The rates apply to claims from employees for reimbursement of fuel for business journeys and also for claiming back private mileage from employees where all fuel is initially paid for by the employer, for example on a fuel card.

The rate system has been put in place to reduce administration by providing a set of advisory fuel reimbursement rates that are deemed tax-free.

The HRMC have been contacted on several occasions and their spokesman has said that they are willing to meet industry representatives to discuss the rate changes, they have said they will be meeting members of ACFO to discuss it further.

ACFO have also been contacted by a number of members who complain that the new schedule will leave many of the drivers seriously out of pocket in terms of fuel for business mileage.

They have also released a statement saying that
‘There is a long-term concern for fleet managers that many individual tax offices will ignore the advisory nature of the schedule, and instead apply it rigidly, irrespective of the flexibility that was agreed in the structure of the arrangements’.

ACFO mention that they are concerned about the underlying fuel consumption figures that were used by HMRC, which it says have automatically assumed that an overall improvement of almost 2% in delivered fuel consumption performance and that all rates on the schedule have been reduced by either 1p or 2p per mile. It adds that in some cases this amounts to a near 20% cut, although only petrol prices have dropped by more than 10%, the level declared by HMRC at which any rate change could be introduced.