Four out of five company car drivers admit to motorway speeding

By Gareth Roberts
|
27 October 2015

Four out of five company car drivers admit to speeding on motorways, but still consider themselves to be law-abiding motorists, research suggests.

The survey from RAC Business has found that 81% of company car drivers admitted to regularly breaking the 70mph speed limit, compared to 69% of private motorists.

But when asked if they consider themselves to be a law-abiding driver, 90% said yes.

The research from the RAC’s Report on Motoring 2015 suggests some motorists don’t consider speeding to be a serious driving offence, especially on motorways. In fact two-thirds of company car drivers (64%) believe the law should be changed, with the speed limit increased to 80mph.

Almost half of company car drivers (46%) said they regularly hit speeds of 80mph on a motorway, with a further 5% admitting to reaching 90mph.

However, there are signs that motorists may be taking more care as compared to last year’s findings the proportion of company car drivers admitting to speeding on motorways has dropped from 88% in 2014 to 81% in 2015.

According to the RAC research speeding is 'less of an issue' in more residential areas, but still a quarter of drivers (23%) admitted to regularly driving at 35mph in a 30mph zone.

Jenny Powley, corporate business sales director at RAC Business, said: “When you drive as part of your working day and are running late for meetings, it can be very tempting to break the speed limit.

“It’s worth reminding drivers that the risks associated with speeding can far outweigh the time saved.

“After all, driving at 80mph instead of 70mph will only save you six seconds a mile, or 10 minutes over 100 miles.”

Speeding also impacts on fuel efficiency. According to the Department for Transport, driving at 80mph can use 25% more fuel than driving at 70mph, impacting a business’ bottom line.

Powley concluded: “The growing adoption of telematics technology across fleets of vehicles means that businesses now have more visibility on how often their employees are speeding.

“This can enable business owners to provide training to encourage better driving behaviour, which will not only mean their drivers are safer on the roads, but significant savings can be made in the cost of fuel and wear and tear on vehicles.”

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Author: Gareth Roberts

News editor

gareth.roberts@bauermedia.co.uk

01733 468314

Gareth has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist having started his career in local newspapers in the 1990s. Prior to joining Fleet News in 2008, he worked in the public sector as a media advisor and is currently news editor at Fleet News.

Comments (5)

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Norman Harding - 27/10/2015 11:42

I would suggest the speeding issue isnt just limited to motorways. I've approached many telematics companies enquiring whether their systems can interact with vehicle speed limiters to make it impossible to break the speed limit on any road.......sadly without success. Its possible to create a 'geo-fence' around a small area such as a depot or even a local community but only limiting the speed to a single set speed. This is OK in a depot say where you want to impliment say 10mph but no good for general driving. Once the technology develops there will be no excuses for speeding.
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Nigel Boyle - 27/10/2015 11:52

Motorways are really safe as they have good sold barriers now. So long as drivers leave a decent gap then to be at 80mph is safe. Country roads and 30 mph limits is where the focus is needed. Two cars meeting at 60 mph hit with a combined speed of 120mph , not much chance of surviving. A person hit at 35 is unlikely to survive, but are likely to survive at 30. We must sort the worst before addressing the easy safest sector.
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Glyn Holloway - 27/10/2015 11:54

As a 70,000 miles a year driver who pays for his own fuel I try to cruise at 65mph. I also try to keep to the nearside. My experience of accidents though is the majority are caused by tailgating and inattention either texting and I see a great deal of this and have been tempted myself. Also tiredness and to me tiredness is the greater risk. Speed is seldom a single cause of an accident, it always seems to be combined with another risk factor. It would be nice if the overhead signs dropped the limit by a single MPH on each successive gantry. The length of warning is ample for this to be done.
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Mr.Bean - 27/10/2015 12:09

On a country road we can travel at 60mph but on the motorway only at 70mph. This isn't right since the motorway is a much safer place to drive faster. I drive at 80mph all the time and on some occasions 80mph+. But I never speed if its a 30 or 40mph. The problem isn't to the fact people speed, its all down to poor training lack of awareness and serious bad driving which causes serious accidents. We only get tested once and that when we pass the test for the first time. There should be some kind of test every 10 or 20 years to ensure the driver is still fit to drive.
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Ste - 04/11/2015 10:54

The focus needs to be on residential. The comment in the article that speeding is "less of an issue" should read, "speeding as a proportion of total driver is lower in residential", but it needs to be top of the agenda. 20mph zones should be on every road adjacent to a school (not all residential roads, just those adjacent to schools as a minimum and possibly others in areas where children cross regularly. We also need to change this out dated clock change, its so hard to see people crossing in the evenings especially when its wet with leaves like now. A young girl got knocked down in our road, which is a quiet, school adjacent road, fortunately she was ok despite going over the bonnet, bouncing off the windscreen and over the roof - the driver wasn't speeding!! Most children die if hit at 35 or 40mph, so slow down!
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