Fleet managers 'ignoring safety issues'
Fleet managers are failing to attach sufficient importance to the safety standards that are in place to protect their staff, one new study has suggested.
An overwhelming 94 per cent of corporate fleet decision makers rank vehicle reliability as being the most important factor when choosing vehicles, new research by automotive technology firm Bosch has found.
And while safety (89 per cent) and duty of care (87 per cent) followed close behind, the firm nonetheless found that fewer than half of the managers questioned were able to identify any safety equipment requirements.
David Ward, director general of the FIA Foundation, urged managers to place a greater emphasis on the provision of crash avoidance technologies, citing Bosch's Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) as one such utility.
"The benefits of ESP in avoiding accidents has a direct impact on reducing a company's accident costs - which according to one industry source accounts for 13 per cent of a fleet's total cost of ownership," added David Fulker, head of UK marketing at Bosch.
Vehicles that feature electronic stability systems are 25 per cent less likely to be involved in a fatal accident than those without it, recent research by the Department for Transport (DfT) has suggested.
