Drive & Survive, the Institute of Advanced Motorists commercial division, has launched a new occupational driver risk management programme, which it claims will enable fleets to continue training their drivers despite the recession.

A recent Fleet News poll (Fleet News April 16) revealed that 41% of fleets had seen their training budgets cut due to financial concerns.

Experts claim it’s a false economy – trained drivers can save companies money through better driving behaviour, which leads to fewer accidents and lower fuel usage.

DRM Ensure is offered on a fixed monthly fee per driver plan over a two or three year contract. Pricing starts at £2.50 per driver per month for the basic programme which includes online risk assessment and eLearning modules.

Fleets can incorporate additional modules such as on the road driver training, licence checking and grey fleet training for a larger monthly fee.

“The cost is spread evenly over the period of the contract – the client knows what they pay per driver irrespective of the amount of training involved,” said Drive & Survive managing director Seb Goldin.

“In the current economic climate, this fixed cost smoothes cash flow and can help companies sustain training and manage the associated costs.”

DRM Ensure has been on trial for the past year with 10 fleet companies, ranging in size from 10 vehicles to 1,000.

Each driver undergoes risk assessment to establish their training needs based on three elements: skills, attitude and behaviour. Drive & Survive says the average fleet will have 10-25% of its drivers rated as high risk, around 30% medium risk and the rest low risk.

“The programme targets the client’s resources at their greatest risks – they don’t have to pay to train all their drivers irrespective of their risk,” said Goldin.

“It’s like an insurance solution – the lower risk drivers are compensating for the higher risk drivers.”