IT drives home health & safety
05 Jun 2007
Corus Distribution & Building Systems (CD&BS) has introduced a new ‘Driving Standards Improvement Programme’ to reduce accidents and improve safety for its IT department. Driving while on company business was identified as the biggest health and safety risk for members of the IT team, who each drive around 21,000 miles per year – nearly double the business mileage of a typical Corus employee.
A major road traffic accident involving a member of the IT team was the catalyst for the new driving safety initiative. Although the incident did not involve serious injury, it prompted CD&BS to look at the team’s accident history.
Andy Clay, Programme Implementation Manager - Stratix said: “Due to the high mileage covered by the IT team, their risk is estimated to be 400% greater than the average Corus company driver, with a one in four chance of being involved in an accident in the next three years. As a company we felt that we had a moral and legal obligation to our employees to reduce this risk.”
Developed in association with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), the new programme covers five areas: legal obligations, bespoke training tailored to the needs of each individual, safety and accident reporting, general driving guidelines and management review. Each driver undergoes a comprehensive risk assessment and completes a Defensive Driving Course.
Advanced Driver Training, has been introduced into the programme for 2007, aimed at high risk/high mileage drivers to further improve their skills. So far, 13 team members have completed and passed the Advanced Driving Test conducted by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) or ROSPA with 11 achieving the highest “Gold Standard”.
Additional training will also be provided where necessary, including Behavioural Aspects training and Stress Management courses. All company cars are fitted with safety equipment including ABS, drivers airbag, high visibility vest and warning triangle. Employees are encouraged to plan journeys, take regular breaks and share the driving where possible.
“Every year 320,000 people are injured in road traffic accidents and 3500 people are killed.” said Andy “Thirty per cent of these accidents occur while driving on company business. In the 12 months preceding the driver training being initiated, there was one accident every 105,000 miles. Since the introduction of the Driver Improvement Programme this has been reduced to one in every 285,000 miles”
The effectiveness of the training programme is reviewed on a monthly basis by the IT department’s management team to ensure that any areas for improvement are highlighted on an ongoing basis. In 2007, the department aims to reduce the accident rate to less than one in every 315,000 miles.
