Arval urges fleet to engage with Road Safety Strategy

Vehicle leasing and mobility specialist Arval UK is urging fleets to engage with the consultations contained in the government’s new Road Safety Strategy – the first for over a decade – to ensure that as many of their measures as possible are adopted, as part of efforts to reduce road accidents and deaths.

Five separate consultations are now underway – covering motoring offences, the minimum learning period for new drivers, mandatory eyesight tests for older drivers, improved moped and motorcycle testing, and mandating new technology – and close on March 31.

Ian Pearson, head of insurance at Arval UK, said the core aim of the new strategy, to achieve a 65% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on UK roads in Great Britain by 2035, should be supported by all fleets.

“We have been examining the Road Safety Strategy in detail since its launch and we believe it is a serious attempt to bring about a substantial reduction in accidents on roads.

“In our opinion, all of the measures contained in the five consultations should be fully adopted – a view our initial soundings suggest few fleets would challenge – and ensuring this happens is very much about participating in the feedback process.

“We’ll be taking part in the consultations and urge all fleet managers to become involved. Moves such as reducing the drink-drive limit and adding new protections for higher risk younger and older drivers need to be supported in order to ensure their implementation,” Pearson said.

While Pearson noted few of the measures under consultation would directly affect fleets, all would help to create a safer environment for all road users.

“Issues such as better motorcycle tests, failing eyesight among older drivers and increased training periods for learners, will be outside the scope of day-to-day management for most vehicle operators. However, they are part of making roads safer for all and should be supported in that spirit. They represent risk management in the widest sense,” he argued.

Investigation

Pearson added the most important developments for fleets in the strategy could prove to be proposals for a Road Safety Investigation Branch and Work-Related Road Safety Charter.

“These are perhaps not the most eye-catching parts of the government’s document but, for businesses operating vehicles at work, could have implications for decades into the future.

“Essentially, the Road Safety Investigation Branch should help us to understand in more detail why accidents happen, which provides the opportunity to adopt new measures that will mitigate those risks, while the Road Safety Charter will spread that best practice.

“Together, these two projects have the potential to reduce accident rates for employees and other road users substantially in the medium-long term,” Pearson said.

There were earlier proposals for a Road Safety Investigation Branch under the previous Conservative government, which were shelved. The Police Federation has welcomed the proposals in the most recent Department for Transport paper, describing them as “another significant step forward. Using linked police and healthcare data to identify root causes and target interventions, it promises the kind of systemic learning long missing from road safety policy.”

The five consultations are: