Managing risk and compliance with fleet data

Road risk management should form an integral element of construction companies’ risk management strategies. TomTom Telematics Director UK & Ireland, Giles Margerison, explains how fleet data can help firms reduce risk and meet their legal obligations.

 

According to HSE accident statistics, the construction industry accounts for 31% of all fatal injuries to employees.

Despite being a high risk business sector however, significant improvements have been made over recent years in reducing the number and rate of injuries to workers. That’s the good news. The bad news? A report published by the Transport Research Laboratory found that a higher priority has been given to on-site health and safety than to road risk.

The Health and Safety Executive’s advice is clear – companies and their HR departments should ensure work-related road safety is integrated into wider arrangements for managing health and safety at work. To ensure risks are effectively managed they must address their health and safety “policy, responsibility, organisation, systems and monitoring”.

With around a third of all road traffic accidents believed to be work-related, the importance of road risk management is brought into even sharper focus.

Furthermore, effective risk management can help construction companies achieve Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) accreditation. Recognition under the scheme, which has now been rolled out nationally, gives customers peace of mind that the organisations they do business with take safety and compliance seriously.

 

Unleash the power of fleet data

Simply ensuring vehicles are roadworthy and that drivers hold a valid licence is not sufficient to ensure their safety. Construction companies must strive to achieve a cultural shift among their employees to make sure policies are adhered to and that lasting improvements in a fleet’s risk profile are realised.

Telematics technology provides real-time information and insights into mobile operations, empowering businesses to identify and tackle risk as well as improve their operational efficiencies.

Ultimately, driver error remains the biggest single cause of road traffic accidents and modern systems empower management to monitor the performance of staff, helping to enforce behavioural changes and to modify driver attitudes.

Behavioural data such as fuel consumption, incidents of speeding, idling, and even harsh steering or braking can be monitored by construction managers – and this information can simultaneously be fed live to workers, to their in-vehicle terminals, enabling them to change their behaviour in real time.

By meeting targets to reduce the frequency and severity of motor claims, building contractor Breyer Group has benefitted from a 20 per cent premium reduction from its motor insurer. Using driver behaviour monitoring tools to underpin a three-year risk management programme, the company has already realised fleet insurance savings of £60,000 over the last 12 months.

 

A helping hand for working time compliance

The number of hours that a driver spends behind the wheel has long been monitored and reported by telematics systems, helping managers to enforce policies of regular breaks. Recent advancements however now allow for more effective management of driver hours and tachograph usage – reducing time-consuming administration and freeing up value business resources.

Smart tachograph management software systems can help reduce the risks of prosecution by automatically scheduling remote downloads to ensure deadlines are never missed. These systems also now incorporate reporting analytics to detail driver infringements.

Fines of up to £5,000 and, in some cases prison sentences of up to two years, can be imposed following convictions for drivers’ hours violations and tachograph offences. In light of this, the value of such systems cannot be underestimated.

 

Effective vehicle maintenance

According to road safety charity Brake, more than 2,000 accidents a year are caused by poor vehicle maintenance. Ensuring the roadworthiness of fleet vehicles should therefore be at the very heart of a construction company’s risk management strategy.

With a telematics system, managers can make use of the real measured mileage from their vehicles to plan service maintenance intervals. Reports can be generated offering maintenance overviews and enabling users to create maintenance tasks for each vehicle, copy maintenance tasks to vehicle groups, monitor their status and plan ahead.

Furthermore, the vehicle safety check process can even digitised. Applications that can automate such tasks have been specifically designed to be hosted on customisable driver terminals. These terminals can then be integrated with telematics platforms to improve business workflow and provide a reliable audit trail.

By reporting trouble codes directly from vehicle engines, telematics systems can also offer construction managers insights into how vehicles are performing. Engine faults, for example, or low oil warnings, can be immediately flagged up and fixed by management before they become more serious problems.

 

Assistance in adhering to site restrictions

Telematics software can enable geofences to be set up on and around construction sites to ensure mobile workers stick to designated access roads and do not drive in prohibited areas. Where strict planning and access restrictions are in place, this can prove invaluable.

Moreover, real time warning alerts can be set up to alert managers if drivers, journeying on and off site, break speed limits. Historical reports on speed and time spent by vehicles on site can be also accessed by managers for retrospective analysis.

By following best practice risk management procedures for their fleets, construction companies can look to the future with peace of mind knowing they’ve fulfilled their duty of care responsibilities and have protected their business reputations.

 

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