Officially launched in April 2007, the Driving for Better Business campaign is now ten years old!
For 2017, the campaign has been revitalised – a new look, new supporters and partners, and a new energy to engage and support the many businesses in the UK who employ staff that drive for work.
The premise is still the same: to help employers better understand the business benefits, such as reduced costs and improved efficiency, that come from managing work related road safety well.
Our Business Champions are testament to this approach because, as employers themselves, they are already well advanced on this journey. And they have to be good at it – many of them are well-known brands with hard-won reputations at stake. The safety of their employees, and a well-run efficient business are central to their ethos.
Our Champions are already seeing these business benefits and have agreed to share their stories with you, partly as inspiration for you to get started, and partly as a ‘how to’ guide to show you how they’ve achieved those results.
The campaign is now being led by Highways England and supported by Charity RoadSafe. Highways England are investing a massive £15 billion in our Strategic Road Network of motorways and major trunk roads to improve safety and reduce congestion.
Highways England see the DfBB campaign as complementing this approach by encouraging safe management of businesses to deliver safe vehicles and safe drivers.
As the new Campaign Director, it is my job to see that this message is shared with as many businesses as possible. Our team, together with our partners, will be delivering an amazing programme of seminars, conferences, in-car events, webinars, digital campaigns, podcasts, magazine editorial, and free resources to help employers understand the challenges and start to deal with them.
We’ll be publishing content from Champions, partners and technical experts so you can get to grips with many of the latest developments that help you manage your drivers and vehicles more effectively. Of particular interest at the moment is the speed at which vehicle safety systems are being developed to help assist the driver.
As we head towards full autonomous driving (and it really isn’t far away) the day of the car designed not to crash is drawing ever nearer. Many of the systems required are already appearing on today vehicles and could be saving your company money now, in reduced damage, if they were fitted to your fleet.
We’ll gladly look at any suggestions you may have for interesting content and helpful resources. If you haven’t already done so, please sign up to our mailing list on the home page to get alerts as this new content is published, get access to exclusive offers and find out when we have events near you.
I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible as we go into our second successful decade.
Simon Turner MAIRSO
Campaign Director
