– By David Brown –
Fleet Auto News has noticed a significant number of P-Platers driving fleet vehicles and this raises the issue of how a fleet manager should deal with road safety issues in general and young drivers in particular.
Safe driving has benefits all round. Businesses will be directly affected by the cost of repairs and should be concerned about the pain and suffering of its employees all of which can be reflected directly or indirectly through insurance costs. But more detailed research has highlighted the huge disruptive costs such as administration to deal with crashes and the disruption to productivity which can impact in the long term.
Some research has even sought to prevent road trauma and the associated costs of absence from work resulting from non-work-related crashes.
The law puts extra restrictions on P plate drivers. For example in Victoria P1 drivers:
- Must carry driver licence when driving.
- Must display red P plates.
- Must not use a mobile phone of any kind – no hands-free or hand-held, or any messaging (includes reading text messages).
- Must not tow another motor vehicle or a trailer.
- Must not drive a probationary prohibited vehicle. Certain vehicles are prohibited because of their high performance level.
- Must not carry more than one peer passenger aged 16 to less than 22 years of age. There are exceptions for certain family members and in some states for work situations.
- Must have a zero blood alcohol content (BAC).
- Must drive an automatic vehicle if tested in an automatic vehicle.
When the driver graduates to a P2 licence some of these restrictions no longer apply but some still do.
Different states have variations in these rules. For example in NSW a P1 driver can tow trailers up to 250 kilograms of unloaded weight but you must display a P plate (red P on a white background) on the back of the trailer while towing. They also have a maximum speed limit of 90 km/hr.
Some restriction may have exceptions but companies should be aware of the restrictions in the state where driving will occur so as not to inadvertently aid illegal behaviour.
We have not found any insurance companies who forbid P-Plate drivers from using cars insured under business vehicle policies (one even noted that companies have had learner drivers listed as frequent drivers). But all companies will rate your premium on the age profile of nominated drivers and they typically have different excess amounts depending on the age of the person who driving.
What can companies do to reduce road crashes?
Driver training is often promoted as a cure-all for ensuring safer driving. It can be helpful but it is not quite that simple. There has been a huge amount of research that has found that certain forms of driver training has had an overall detrimental effect on crash history. The problem is that you can give young people, especially males, a feeling of confidence that exceeds their skills and this produces unintended consequences such as driving faster and more recklessly because they now believe that they can cope with these situations.
I once did a talk-back segment on ABC radio where a caller said that he sent his five taxi drivers to an advanced driver training program. They still had the same number of accidents only they were bigger impacts and they wore out their brakes in half the time than they did before. Clearly they were pushing their limits much harder.
Advance driver training has generally moved to defensive training. In other words learning how to prevent getting into dangerous situations rather than how to get out of them once they occur.
The other limitation of driver training programs is that they tend to be one-off events. Education is most successful when delivered over a period of time. Continually sending people driver training programs can be time consuming and expensive.
Any training should help provide information that we then relate specifically to our own behaviours.
One of the most pivotal road safety programs was conducted at Swedish Telecom. They found that the most effective (and cost effective) program was when employees had a regular time when they sat down and discussed road safety when driving for the company.
This may sound a bit warm and fuzzy but it evokes several key points. People become accountable to others for their driving. If you will have to come back and tell your group that you had a crash and have to describe what you did wrong you might be more cautious in your driving. Also by talking about it you relate it to your situation and so can internalise messages to your specific experience.
A colleague and I have been working on a new approach to bringing about behaviour change with road safety. Monitoring and enforcing the right behaviour is essential but this is enhanced by an on-going dialogue with drivers, not just the occasional sermon from an adult. Making effective conversation needs skill and patience.
Poor driving is not just about people who wilfully push their limits. Recent research has indicated that one of the most dangerous situations is when the driver is emotionally upset. Visiting American expert Dr Bruce Simons-Morton, as reported in Fairfax Press, said the single most important way of preventing further fatalities was reducing “secondary tasks”. Secondary tasks are not just holding a phone. In most cases it is mental tasks that take our attention.
Companies can unintentionally put pressure and stress on drivers.
A UK study of crashes when driving for business found the most influential reason was found to be a desire to arrive at meetings on time, even if this meant breaking the speed limit.
Recent work by the Australia Road Research Board highlighted that chatting to a passenger is a distraction but the passenger can see if the situation is getting difficult and adjust their talking accordingly. A person ringing up on the phone has not such understanding. And if you ring a person with a work problem with a great deal of urgency, being on a hands free phone is not going to help.
