Should fleets give their young employees the keys to company vehicles?

 

Two experts argue for and against the practice of letting young drivers get behind the wheel of a company vehicle

 

YES by Adrian Walsh, director of RoadSafe

 

Road crashes are the single biggest killer of young people in the UK and it is against that background that the Government is looking at reforming driver training and testing.

 

But it is hugely important that all organisations face up to their legal responsibilities now rather than waiting for those plans to reach fruition.

 

A duty of care extends to all employees, and companies that invest in their younger employees will reap long-term benefits.

 

This means companies conducting a risk management audit of all their at-work drivers and then putting in place good management practices to reduce any identified risk exposure.

 

Such a strategy is even more important to improving the safety of young at-work drivers. Rather than simply not giving them the keys, fleets need to invest in their drivers whatever their age.

 

Too many people view passing the ‘L’ test as the ‘be-all and end-all’ of driving.

 

It is not, which is why the Government wants to create a culture in which passing the driving test is a milestone towards lifelong learning.

 

A number of schools across the country have already started pupils on that journey with the launch of new initiatives including a BTEC level two qualification in ‘driving science’ – equivalent to a GCSE – and a valuable vocational qualification introduced by driver education company a2om.

 

We hope this qualification will become established as a must-have among employers offering jobs to young people that involve driving as part of their work.

 

But such a qualification should only be the start of the journey of lifelong learning.

 

Less than 0.5% of driving licence holders have passed an advanced driving test.

 

Three years ago, the first advanced driving test designed for business drivers was launched.

 

NO by Simon Monk, company vehicle operations manager, GM UK

 

We do not give young drivers the keys to company vehicles and we believe other fleets should follow our lead.

 

In 2004, GM UK did not have a minimum age limit for company drivers. While this was popular with employees, it did not make sense either from a health and safety or a financial perspective.

 

Following a risk assessment by our insurer, Zurich, we found that just 6% of our drivers were in the 17-to-21 age group and yet they accounted for 30% of our fleet accident insurance costs.

 

We could not live with this and so following negotiations with stakeholders such as the trade unions, we set a minimum driver age of 22.

 

There was also an additional insurance premium introduced for drivers aged between 22 and 24. We also restricted the company vehicles they could drive to less powerful cars.

 

The savings speak for themselves – we saved £1.2 million over two years on the back of taking under 22-year-olds off our company car plan.

 

Following a complete risk review by Zurich, we implemented many other safe driving initiatives, such as online risk assessments, 100% licence checking, one-to-one driver training and regular bulletins.

 

As a result, we enjoyed a 20% reduction in insurance premiums and a 54% reduction in own-damage costs.

 

These are direct cost savings that other fleets could see if they reconsidered giving young drivers the keys to their company vehicles.

 

However, we have not opted out of our corporate and social responsibility and we run safe driving workshops for employees under the age of 22 to raise their awareness of the risks they face while driving and to improve their general driver behaviour, prior to them joining the company car plan.