The implementation of the Collision Avoidance Programme in your business involves risk assessment to a significant extent. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers and the self employed to assess the risks to anyone who might be affected by the work activities of their business and take appropriate steps to control the risks. Depending on the business, work activities for some employees can include driving; therefore a driving risk assessment is required. The control measures generated by the risk assessment process need to be implemented and the contents of this section will assist with that process.

All work activity needs to be subject to risk assessment and when your employees are driving on your behalf they are still at work. A risk assessment on the driving activity is therefore needed. The risk assessment process will give useful control points to help reduce the risk relating to a particular type of journey etc. We provide a template form here.

According to Brake, the road safety charity, 1 in 5 drivers have a collision within a year of passing their test. Another tragic fact is that over 1500 young drivers are killed or seriously injured on UK roads every year.

There are also factors that are more likely to become a cause of collision for a young driver. These include driving with passengers, driving at night, distraction from a mobile phone, speeding and drink and drug driving.

With those issues in mind, it’s a good idea to develop a separate risk assessment for your young or inexperienced drivers.

On line driver profiling sessions can give an effective risk assessment of a particular employee. The profiling process can be used as part of your recruitment procedure, as a consequence after a blameworthy collision or simply on a regular basis as a driver risk assessment. You can try a leading driver profiling service as a Fleet Safety Academy member. We provide further details here.

Journey planning is an important part of the risk assessment process, even if it’s having a plan of when to take a break. This ties into the fatigue management approach adopted by your organisation. We provide some guidance here on the journey planning process.

Collisions often occur at the end of a journey when your driver has reached their point of delivery or pick up. This document gives a template to help assess the point of delivery or pick up that is often on a third parties site. Any particular details of the third party site in respect of restricted access or other fixed hazards should be noted in the risk assessment. The findings of the assessment can then be communicated to the next driver who is required to deliver or pick up at the location.

Bridge strikes can result in significant claims and disruption, we include a form to help you plan your route to avoid low bridges.

Eyesight checks on a regular basis provide an opportunity to remind your driver that there are management expectations in relation to driving standards. They’ll clearly flag up issues with eyesight too! Using the UK Highway Code approach provides a cost effective method for administering an eye test. We include a template form here to record the checks on retain on your employees file.

Completing a medical declaration on a regular basis provides an opportunity to remind your driver that there are management expectations in relation to driving standards. The process of having the declaration signed also gives an opportunity to discuss health issues. We include a template form here to record the checks on retain on your employees file.

Ensuring that you vehicles are roadworthy is vital and we include a template form to help record your checks. We recommend that managers check a sample of vehicle condition forms against the relevant vehicles on a regular basis. This will give an indication as to whether the checks are being carried out effectively.

Camera systems are increasingly being fitted to vehicles and they provide invaluable data for use in collision investigations. However, the camera footage should also be used proactively to assess the driving performance of an employee. This form can be used to record good and bad practice when reviewing footage of drivers picked on a random basis or due to the high risk profile of the driver. Appropriate coaching conversations can then be held between manager and driver.

Many organisations do not set key performance indicators in relation to driving performance. We include some ideas in this document that should help you set some key performance indicators so you can measure improvements. The indicators can be included in the responsibilities for key roles within the business and included in staff appraisals.

When you start to take action against employee who demonstrate poor speed management there may be occasions when the driver disputes the circumstances under review. This form helps formalise discussions and provides a record for the employees file.

Taking consistent action when employees do not follow policies and procedures sends an important message to the driver workforce. Keeping a record of disciplinary procedures on the employees file helps provide a consistent approach and we provide a form to assist n this process.

We have provided a stress management policy in an earlier stage of the programme. We’ve already noted that stress symptoms can have a significant impact on driving performance. Competing a stress risk assessment will allow your organisation to gauge where stress may be generated and what actions should be taken to reduce stress levels. We provide a template document to assist in the thought process.

If a particular individual is identified as having stress symptoms, action will need to be taken to manage stress levels. We provide a document to help identify the issues and plan the appropriate control measures and monitor their implementation.

A large proportion of collisions can be prevented. They are caused by the mindset and poor driving performance of the employee. To take a real step forward in reducing collision frequency, a consequence should be implemented if an employee has an avoidable accident. Consequences should also be introduced if in vehicle technology indicates that an individual employs a poor driving standard on a regular basis.

The consequence should be designed to improve the knowledge and competence of the employee in respect of their driving skills. The process of driver improvement suggested here makes use of resources from the Academy to give a cost effective approach to raising driving standards. Depending on the severity of the collision, disciplinary action may also be relevant.

Fatigue is an increasingly important issue to manage and we know that fatigue is a causative factor in many serious vehicle collisions. Many organisations will need a fatigue management system to ensure that the issue is managed in a consistent and proactive manner. This template document gives a checklist on the steps needed to develop a fatigue management system. Use the document to check the work that’s been carried out, allocate tasks and check on progress.