Fleet Support Group and GreenRoad scoop Michelin award

The judges for this year’s Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards have recognised that companies with the most successful safe driving for work programmes do not just provide training and risk assessment for drivers, but also provide real-time information to the companies’ transport heads so specific action to cut accidents can be taken.

Two companies were singled out for their innovative road safety work at the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards today (December 6) at an awards’ presentation in London.

They were Fleet Support Group’s RiskMaster programme which is central to the fleet management programme in Geoffrey Osborne, a nationwide construction, civil engineering and property services company employing 1,000 people, with nearly 500 cars and vans and a further 366 employees driving their own cars for work.

And GreenRoad’s programme for Iron Mountain, a global leader in information management partnered at the outset with Zurich Insurance’s Zurich Risk Engineering team. Iron Mountain has a fleet of 450 vehicles in the UK and Ireland, including 290 vans and various heavy goods vehicles.

RiskMaster was introduced at Osborne’s in 2010 and the results are already impressive. Vehicle crashes have fallen as has the severity of the accidents – and consequently so have repair costs. Comparing 2009 with 2010, vehicles accidents have fallen from 325 to 294 and repair costs 26% in the same period, saving the company nearly £75,000.

The RiskMaster online managements system focuses on three main risk areas – driver, vehicle and journey. It collects and analyses date for occupational road risk, including accidents; driver negligence, vehicle inspections, driving offences, health issues, driving licence checking, real-time telematics and DVLA licence checking.

RiskMaster also record individual on-line accident reports, health, eyesight, any driving offences and grey service records.

Each Osborne employee is required to have a “Permit to Drive” which enables the company through RiskMaster, to manage its road risk and provides driver risk profiles. With this information, the company can target those drivers who are most at risk with training to improve their road safety and is in touch with all employees who are driving for work. The overall aim is engender an ethos of safer driving among all Osborne’s employees.

Adrian Walsh, director RoadSafe, organisers of the Prince Michael Road Safety Awards, said: “This year our judges noted an important thread in all the entries.

“Companies with the most successful safe driving for work programmes all used technology, not simply to asses risk, but to provide real-time management information. GreenRoad and Riskmaster do just this.”

The special Fleet technology Award is sponsored by Michelin.