Road safety is essential to fleet management because it protects drivers, reduces accidents and minimises costly vehicle downtime. It also helps organisations maintain compliance, safeguard their reputation and ensure that operations run smoothly and efficiently every day.
Over the past twenty years, employers’ awareness of the risks faced and created by at-work drivers, and the need to control them, has increased enormously. However, with at-work drivers involved in around a third of all road collisions, there is still much more that needs to be done to make our roads safer for all road users.
What key roadsafety challenges should fleet managers prioritise to reduce the risks associated with workrelated driving?
Developing a driving for work strategy
All employers must manage the health and safety risks to workers who drive or ride for work in the same way as they manage other work-related health and safety risks. Conducting a risk assessment and reviewing the data are the starting points. Information from both will enable an employer to develop a driving for work policy that covers the organisation’s key driving risks and the control measures needed to mitigate them.
For any driving for work policy to be successful, it needs to be continuously reviewed and evolve to match the needs of the business, based on your driving data. Talk to your drivers about road safety and the risks they face and create on the road.
Managing occupational road risk is an ongoing process. Leadership of the management of occupational road risk needs to come from the top, and employees need to know that senior management is fully on board.
The ‘fatal five’
The five main causes of road deaths are known as the ‘fatal five’: drink/driving; inappropriate speed; not wearing a seatbelt; fatigue; and distraction. Employers should have clear, evidence-based policies and procedures in place for all these issues as part of their management of occupational road risk, and provide training, guidance and advice to their employees where needed.
For fleet managers, addressing driver fatigue is a key health and safety issue—not only to protect their workforce but also to protect other road users. Employers must take steps to ensure that their drivers are not at risk of falling asleep at the wheel, including:
- Organising shifts and workloads to reduce the risk of driving while tired. Include time for rest breaks (and, if necessary, overnight stops). Breaks and break locations should be planned in advance.
- Plan journeys to minimise driving during periods when drivers are generally more tired (between 2am–6am and 2pm–4pm).
- Avoid systems of work (e.g. ‘just in time’ delivery, payment by calls made, unrealistic guaranteed call-out or delivery times, etc.) that put drivers under time pressure.
- Set limits for unbroken driving hours, including daily, weekly and monthly limits for all classes of drivers. No driver should be required to drive continuously for more than two hours without at least a 15-minute break. Professional drivers must follow the drivers’ hours rules, which set statutory maximum driving hours.
- Ensure there are enough drivers to cover work schedules while maintaining required safety standards.
- Educate drivers about: the importance of getting adequate sleep before driving (tiredness can affect your driving in the same way as having a drink); how to recognise the early signs of fatigue (yawning, heavy eyelids, inability to concentrate, micro sleeps); and what to do if they begin to feel tired during a journey (pull over in a safe place to rest).
- Foster a culture that encourages drivers to acknowledge when they are fatigued and should not drive. Line managers have a vital role to play in preventing their staff from driving when tired.
Sharing our roads safely
It’s been four years since a major update to the Highway Code introduced a new ‘hierarchy of road users’, reflecting the need to protect the most vulnerable road users from injury on our roads. Vulnerable road users are most likely to be injured in a collision—that means pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders and motorcyclists.
In 2024, in Great Britain, half of the 1,602 road collision fatalities were vulnerable road users. Employers should ensure that all their employees who drive for work understand the organisation’s driving for work policy, are fully aware of changes to road rules, and receive refresher driver training where needed.
Tyre Safety
Defective and incorrectly inflated tyres pose a serious road safety risk. Yet in Great Britain, one in five tyres (around six million) on the roads are estimated to be illegal and unroadworthy.
Defective or incorrectly inflated tyres increase the risk of your drivers being involved in a collision because they significantly affect how the vehicle handles. Ensure daily pre-journey checks of your fleet’s tyres (air pressure, tyre condition and tread) are carried out to mitigate the risk of a tyre-related incident.
LGVs
For many businesses, Light Goods Vehicles (LGVs) are an important part of their fleet. One of the challenges LGVs pose for road safety is that they can be driven by drivers with only a standard UK car driving licence (Category B). LGV drivers don’t have to undertake the professional driver training that HGV drivers do.
When you combine this with the fact that, due to their size, LGVs are commonly used in built-up urban areas—putting them in contact with many vulnerable road users—it is easy to see how important it is for employers to ensure their drivers are competent and that vehicles are fit for the road.
In Great Britain in 2024, LGVs being driven for work were involved in 5,428 collisions that resulted in injury—that’s 20 per cent of all injury collisions involving at-work drivers.
Employers should ensure that all LGVs in their fleet are roadworthy and safe, and routinely carry out vehicle checks. Work schedules and driving routes should be planned to allow drivers sufficient time to carry out their work and deliveries, and to allow time for rest breaks where needed.
Younger and older drivers at work
In Great Britain, young drivers aged 17–24 account for around 7 per cent of full driving licence holders but are involved in around 20 per cent of fatal and serious road collisions. One in five new drivers of all ages is involved in a collision within their first year of driving.
Ageing can also affect our driving ability in many ways. For instance, changes in eyesight can make it harder to see hazards and affect our ability to judge speed and distance. Changes in cognition can make our reaction times slower.
It’s vital to consider age when conducting risk assessments and determining training requirements.
Electric vehicles
When introducing electric vehicles (EVs) to your fleet, take a fresh look at your organisation’s driving policies and procedures to ensure they remain fit for purpose, and educate drivers on the driving techniques required to operate EVs, particularly regarding EVs’ faster acceleration and deceleration.
Post-crash response
Ensure accident and incident reporting policies and procedures are in place, alongside comprehensive collision investigation procedures, as part of your occupational road risk management system.
Train drivers and riders in accident, incident and near-miss reporting. They should know what to report, to whom, by when and how. Investigate accidents, incidents or near misses.
Climate resilience
Driving is the most dangerous work activity most people do at any time of year, but adverse weather conditions, such as snow, ice, high winds and fog, make it even more hazardous.
Employers have a duty to ensure their drivers and vehicles are safe on the road and prepared for any conditions they may face. Plan ahead to manage the risks your drivers may face. When weather conditions are severe, decide whether the journey is actually necessary. Consider whether there are alternative modes of transport you could use, or whether you could make the delivery on a different day, for example.
For more than 100 years, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has played a central role in shaping UK road safety—from campaigning for seatbelt laws to creating pioneering initiatives such as The Tufty Club, Cycling Proficiency and the first minibus driver guidance.
Today, we continue to support organisations across public and commercial transport to strengthen their safety culture and protect employees, passengers and other road users.
FREE ebook
To support your organisation’s work in this area, we’ve produced a free ebook: Tackling the dangers of work-related driving. This practical guide outlines how operators can reduce incidents, improve compliance and safeguard staff, highlighting the vital need to consider the health and safety of employees who drive for work (whether in fleet vehicles or in their own) as part of their wider approach to health and safety at work.
Download your copy and find out more about RoSPA Fleet safety services here: www.rospa.com/shop/health-and-safety-courses/fleet-safety-services#guide
This article appeared in issue2(2026) of Essential Fleet Manager Magazine
