According to the Department of Transport, it has been estimated that up to a third of all road traffic accidents involve either a company car or a private car being driven on company business.
Driver training is now at the forefront of many leading business’s concerns about risk management. Recent legislation has significantly increased both the obligations on businesses and the penalties for non-compliance, yet many companies are not in a position to feel confident that this risk is being managed effectively.
As the blame culture continues to gain traction, victims are increasingly looking to employers for proof of the vehicle’s suitability and roadworthiness together with details of what driver training had been provided and that the organisation has complied with current Health and Safety laws.
Smaller businesses often lack awareness of the latest legislation, and the actions that they are legally required to take in respect of their business drivers, because they don’t have the luxury of large HR and compliance departments. It is these businesses that would most probably be unable to withstand the potential penalties that would go with a successful prosecution – penalties that can include huge fines, director disqualification, publicity orders and even imprisonment.
And these laws extend beyond company car drivers. If your company staff use their own cars for business journeys – even simply stopping off at the post office on the way home – the same laws apply.
In response to this, Ultimate Car Control UK has launched a new driver safety programme called ‘UltimateCare’ to help smaller businesses understand the latest legislation and begin an affordable compliance programme. The programme includes all the elements a business needs for complete compliance including a company risk assessment, as required under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations Act 1999, employer and driver policy handbooks as required under the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974.
The pinnacle of UltimateCare is the groundbreaking EPD driver training programme – the most innovative, exciting and complete fleet driver training programme available anywhere in the world and used by organisations of all types from small local businesses to government departments and leading global companies such as Sony Europe to dramatically cut both their incident rates and fleet management costs.
Respected lawyers and business risk insurance experts working in the field of road safety agree that EPD provides you and your business with the maximum possible protection: “due to the high quality of the EPD programme and the fact Ultimate Car Control is providing an established audit trail and hard evidence that each client has taken the necessary steps to adhere to legislation it would be extremely unlikely, bordering on impossible, for a successful claim to be brought against their clients.”
Robb Gravett, former British Touring car Champion and founder of Ultimate Car Control says: “I am particularly proud of the UltimateCare driver safety programme. Many businesses have already started working toward driver safety compliance although, often, businesses need assistance in understanding fully what the law requires them to do and completing the process. What we wanted to do with UltimateCare was create a programme that would allow an organisation of any size to achieve complete compliance from scratch, or just cherry pick the parts needed to complete their own programme.”
Further information on the UltimateCare driver safety programme can be found at fleet-driver-training.com. Ultimate Car Control also has a limited number of spaces available on the EPD course for evaluation purposes. Please call Cate Walton at Ultimate Car Control for further details on 01344 751669.
