What’s happened to the issue of driver safety?

Corporate Manslaughter and Duty of Care. At one stage it dominated fleet thinking, especially when the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into force on April 6, 2008.

The legislation brought renewed focus on duty of care for “work-related road deaths”. Quite right, too.

But since then, driver safety has been slipping down the fleet agenda. We need to re-start the conversation and make it central to fleet policy.

Why? There are several reasons. But let’s start here:

Road safety rate worsens.

Data from the Office of Rail and Road shows that 1,931 people were killed or seriously injured on England’s strategic road network in 2024, up from 1,908 in 2023, reflecting a longer-term trend of increasing road casualties. One in three of these casualties are someone driving or riding for work purposes.

Yet at the same time, modern cars are loaded with safety equipment.

These driver safety aids are loosely grouped together under the acronym of ADAS for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.

Since 2024, the law has required such safety technology to be fitted as standard to all new cars sold within the EU (usually the same for UK cars). ADAS includes:

• Advanced emergency braking – not a new feature but now has to detect pedestrians and cyclists.
• Driver drowsiness and attention warning – a camera near the top of the windscreen monitors the driver’s eye movements and alertness, and judges if they are distracted or drowsy.
• Emergency lane keeping system – again, not new for many drivers; these correct the steering until the car comes back into lane.
• Intelligent speed assistance – uses camera or GPS data to warn drivers exceeding the speed limit. Some systems will slow you down.
• Reversing detection – will warn if somebody is moving past the car.
• Lastly, in the event of a crash, an event data recorder evidences data on the car and driver before the collision.

If you’re coming to a new company car today, maybe after driving a used one privately, some of the visual and audible alerts can come over as a bit annoying – especially if you think the speed limit signs aren’t being read accurately, for example, or if the lane-keeping assistance is over-sensitive.

The intention is good, but the execution can vary between cars and it’s starting to give ADAS a bad name. The driver can temporarily disable tech such as lane-keeping assistance, although it will always reactivate at the start of each journey. But, of course, switching off these driving assistance aids defeats the purpose. Their benefits need to be spelt out.

Time for a new dialogue?

Companies have a duty of care to their employees, but with all this technology there must be a temptation to think that the safety box has been ticked, that the car will do all the thinking to keep everyone safe. Some drivers could also be lulled into paying less attention to the road and road users because the car will step in.

Fewer companies, especially SMEs, have dedicated fleet managers. The function is often included in HR departments. If a fleet driver chooses their car from an online list and has it delivered to their home, it’s all down to the often over-worked delivery driver to give any explanation of the technical features.

With the post-Covid rise in working from home, many employees don’t need to be at an office on a regular basis, so the car is seldom seen at a work base.

Do we need to bring back face-to-face safety briefings? At handover, surely there’s a case for 30 minutes (could be video) and 10 essential things every driver needs to know about their car and keeping safe?

Turning Technology Into Safer Driving

As a result, many companies are following the lead of professional delivery drivers, who have telematics fitted in their vehicles so a fleet manager can monitor their driving and the maintenance state of the vehicle. These are connected to apps which provide reminders and rewards – and they work. Who doesn’t like a £20 Amazon voucher for driving safely and reporting fault warnings? These are positive steps to help improve driving (not to mention reduce fuel costs).

Salary sacrifice cars are mostly electric or plug-in hybrids. If you’re stepping into an electric car for the first time it can be quite a shift, even before tackling the safety system tech.

So it’s doubly important that HR teams or fleet controllers consider the new tech on cars and guide their drivers through the equipment on their new vehicles.

ADAS systems are there to assist the driver, to help prevent collisions and, ultimately, prevent road fatalities. In an age when road fatalities are increasing, it’s more important than ever that fleets take the issue of driver safety seriously. Once more.

That’s why when Fleet Alliance crafts an electric car salary scheme for clients, our support doesn’t end when your scheme launches. Your business and your drivers will be continuously supported by your dedicated Account Manager.