Such a move would ensure those in the role were better equipped to put risk management procedures in place to ensure their drivers were safe.
The call was made at the Fleet News Spring Conference 2004: Safety and Numbers by Brian Lee, motor risk manager for Norwich Union.
Last year, Fleet News launched its Get Trained campaign after we revealed that untrained fleet managers could be costing their employers hundreds of thousands of pounds every year because they do not have the right skills to run company fleet vehicles.
Lee told delegates: 'A lot of people in the role, particularly within smaller fleets, wear more than one hat. They don't have a lot of time to look after the fleet and they are certainly not looking at the drivers.
'There should be training available which is funded by the Government – that would start to improve safety on the road.'
Business mileage, he said, accounted for about 30% of all car mileage but drivers had 10 times as many road accidents.
A total of 66% of fleet drivers have accidents every year and one in five receives hospital treatment.
Lee quoted Association of British Insurers figures that state the average cost of an accident for accidental damage is more than £1,100 and almost £4,400 for a third party injury claim.
Lee said Norwich Union carried out a survey of 12,000 of its fleets and found that a massive 85% were not covering four basic risk management procedures of licence checks, new driver vetting, issuing a driver's handbook or investigating accidents.
He said fleets liked to think they knew exactly how many people were driving on company business. 'But do you?' he asked delegates. 'What about employees who use a pool car or a hire car?'
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