The programme
How did this come about?
The Secretary of State for Transport asked the Motorists’ Forum how employers could be encouraged to give a higher priority to road safety for those who drive cars or vans for business purposes. Their key recommendations were:
- The need to make employers aware that workplace Health and Safety Legislation applies equally to work-related travel and should be applied in the same way as in the workplace.
- The need for a systematic programme of outreach designed to coordinate a network of employer champions drawn from public, private and voluntary sectors who will work through employer networks and associations to deliver awareness.
Motorists' Forum Report
How does the Programme run?
The Secretary of State for Transport has delegated the development and management of the outreach programme to a Steering Committee which is supported by RoadSafe under contract to Department for Transport. The Steering Committee consists of experts in Work Related Road Safety; business leaders; representatives of the transport industry; and the Department of Transport and its agencies. The Department for Transport wants to avoid imposing further legislation on Work Related Road Safety on business. But it wants improve driving for work standards and believes it can do this by supporting business to communicate with business and demonstrate the commercial benefits of effective Work Related Road Safety - an innovative approach.
What is the Programme trying to achieve?
The aim of the programme is:
to develop and co-ordinate a network of employers and champions to promote good practice in Work Related Road Safety in order to catalyse a reduction in deaths and injuries caused by vans and cars used for business purposes.
Every day of the year more than 150 vehicles driven on company business crash. Every year there are 14,000 road deaths and serious injuries involving people at work. Business pays for this. With the new Road Safety Act on the statute book and Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide legislation on their journey through Parliament, the issue of Health and Safety in the workplace – the business vehicle – is something business employers are no longer able to ignore.
How is the Programme doing this?
The programme is developing and coordinating a network of employers and their associations in order to deliver awareness. It is engaging partners as well as identifying and supporting champions. The programme will also implement a communication plan to support other Department for Transport initiatives in Work Related Road Safety in a coordinated and sustained way. The programme is being executed in three phases:
Phase 1: Establish the Steering Committee and Core Delivery Group. This phase is now complete.
Phase 2: Launch a pilot programme focussed on a limited number of organizations. This phase begins with the launch at the Commercial Vehicle Show on 24 April and will run until December 2007.
Phase 3: Develop and deliver a full scale programme expanding Phase 2 work into the car fleet management area. This programme will run for 2 years from Winter 2007.
Where are we now?
We have now moved into the third and final phase of the programme and are focussing on expanding the network with Business Champions at the core. We have recruited about 20 firms who are actively involved as champions by presenting at various events and distributing information through their own communications channels. We are still engaging with business leaders. In addition to the British Chambers of Commerce, we have involvement from the Institute of Directors ( we keep them briefed and were involved in a Work Related Road Safety publication with them and the Department for Transport in the Autumn - they do not have the staff effort to be able fully to commit to the programme); and the Federation of Small Businesses, which is fully engaged in the Steering Committee. The Confederation of British Industry is now also engaged in the programme and we will be providing input to work which they will send to 3500 key United Kingdom executives in July as part of their preparations to handle the changes to legislation dealing with Corporate responsibility.
What is the current focus of our effort?
We are still in the process of identifying further "business champions" who understand the business case for effective Work Related Road Safety whilst concurrently working towards the expansion of the wider network. We are working with our business champions to see how we can support them in telling their story to the business community.
