So says Richard Brown, managing director of Licence Check, who is responding to latest figures from the Department for Transport showing an increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads in the year to June 2016.
DfT statistics show that a total of 24,620 people were killed or seriously injured in the year ending June 2016, up by 3% from the previous year. Furthermore, traffic levels rose by 1.5% compared with the year ending June 2015.
Brown describes the casualty number as “disturbing”, adding: “All the evidence supports the conclusion that the main cause of road traffic accidents is driver behaviour. If this is correct, it follows that the most effective way to reduce the accident rate (and the associated costs to the employer) is to address the root cause of the problem through the better education and training of drivers.”
However, he adds, driver training is a generic term and urges fleet managers to focus on changing driver behaviour, instead of teaching “the rules of the road”.
“The same driver may react differently to similar situations, depending on the prevailing circumstances. So a ‘one size fits all’ approach to training is unlikely to be effective... The difficult question is how do you change behaviour?”
The answer, he suggests, is to use tailored individual solutions. Licence Check offers a cloud-based solution, called Davis, which is a modular training and assessment product.
“A more effective method of directly addressing unwanted driver behaviour is to focus on the individual driver’s attitude and aptitude, with a view to building an individual profile that identifies areas of particular risk.
“Having identified potential areas of weakness, it then becomes possible to determine the type and level of intervention, or training that is needed to begin to address these.”
And Brown adds: “There is ample evidence to suggest that any expenses associated with running such a programme are far outweighed by savings from accident reduction. The hidden costs of any accident in terms of operational inconvenience and the administrative overheads tend to be ignored, but they generally far exceed the direct costs.
“Over time and with consistent commitment by management and drivers, this sort of intervention really works.”
Click the link below to see the new Davis website.