Eric Wright Group finds that electric vehicles mean safer drivers too

The most heralded benefits of electric vehicles are usually their lower emissions and reduced running costs, but Eric Wright Group has experienced another: improved safety.

Together with a continual improvement in driver communications and training and a robust vehicle handover procedure, the rapid adoption of EVs has seen the company reduce the number of recorded incident rates by 10 percentage points to 15% over the past five years.

“When someone takes on an EV and we do the vehicle handover, we go over the changes they should make to their driving style,” says Steve Openshaw (pictured), group fleet manager at Eric Wright Group, which won the fleet of the year (251-1,000 vehicles) category at this year’s Fleet News Awards. Openshaw was also named fleet manager of the year.

“It’s helped me to say ‘leave a gap in front as more gradual braking will help conserve your battery’, and it refreshes in people’s minds they don’t need to be that close, they should leave a bigger gap, which reduces the likelihood of driving into the back of someone.

“There’s also a calming influence from driving an EV and we can push that as a reminder to people that they should concentrate like they used to when they first passed their test.”

This improvement in collision rates has been accelerated by the construction company’s rapid adoption of EVs.

It had originally set a target of 50% of its car fleet being ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) by 2025, but has already smashed this figure. Currently, around 63% of the car fleet are ULEVs, with 44% battery electric vehicles (BEVs).