Speeding behind vast majority of fleet driving offences, says FleetCheck

More than four out of five driving offences that occur in company cars and vans are as a result of speeding, according to new data from FleetCheck.

The top five offences recorded from its LicenceAssured driver licence checking product are speeding (82%), phone use (2.7%), no third-party insurance (2.6%), failure to give information about the driver of the vehicle (2.5%) and jumping traffic lights (2%).

Peter Golding, managing director of FleetCheck, said: “The precipitous drop from top placed speeding to second placed phone use shows how simply going too fast is by far the biggest issue when it comes to real world fleet driver behaviour.

“In fact, further refining the data produces even more definitive findings. Drilling down into those 82% of speeding offences, three out of four are for exceeding the limit on public roads rather than motorways, so the problem is very much concentrated on everyday driving.

“All of this says one thing to us, that employers should be encouraging and training drivers to slow down and even potentially penalising them when they don’t.

“Driving over the limit is not just dangerous but uses more fuel and causes more vehicle wear and tear. It’s bad from every angle.”

All the other issues that FleetCheck recorded are dwarfed by speeding, but Golding says that does not mean they are not worthy of attention by fleet managers.

While much less of a problem than it once was, illegal phone use while driving clearly remains a problem, for example.

“It is also surprising that so many company vehicles are being found by the police without adequate insurance,” he said.

“These could well be grey fleet drivers and checking that employees have the necessary cover is something that all fleet managers should do.

Launched 18 months ago, LicenceAssured has already been adopted by 20% of FleetCheck’s customer base and was recently accredited by the Association for Driving Licence Verification.

Golding concluded: “We’ve been really pleased with the reception to the product. Licence checking is a fundamental part of modern fleet risk management and we are confident that we have made it as easy and as effective as possible.”