THIRTEEN company car drivers were responsible for 99 insurance claims in 12 months, highlighting the importance of concentrated driver training, according to VELO Insurance Services.

In the 12 months to September 30, 1995 incidents involving VELO's 'top 13' company car drivers resulted in repair costs of £250,000, according to recently released figures. VELO's figures, gleaned from 25,000 fleet vehicle insurance claims in the period from the company's total fleet of more than 50,000 vehicles on accident and insurance management and 18,000 on a range of other fleet management and financing services, come soon after Fleet News revealed the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents was campaigning for improvements in company car driver safety (Fleet News April 19).

According to VELO one company car driver had 10 incidents in the 12 month period, five claimants had eight incidents each and 10 claimants had seven incidents each with the 'top 13' drivers responsible for 99 incidents. Around 47% of company car drivers did not have an incident, while 17% of the drivers were responsible for 53% of the incidents, 17% of drivers had more than one incident in the period and 5% had more than two incidents.

VELO recommends three driver training companies - BSM Qualified Driver Training, Driving Services UK and Richard Oliver Risk Managers. In addition VELO says the true cost of personal injury accidents pushes the total price far beyond that of insurance repairs and medical bills.