Would you send a worker into a factory without training? Of course not. But most people who drive for work have never been offered driver training.
Seventy-two percent of people who drive for work in the UK have never been offered driver training, according to a survey by IAM Drive & Survive, despite 44 percent of those drivers saying they would welcome the opportunity. Only three percent of the respondents said they had been offered driver training but had declined. It’s probably a similar situation in Australia, although with our well-documented disdain for any form of driver training, almost certainly worse.
When participants were asked which aspects of their driving they felt could be improved by training, 29 percent claimed that they would benefit from having a refresher course on the Highway Code. Other areas of their driving participants felt could be improved by training included fuel efficient driving (19 percent), sticking to speed limits (17 percent) and manoeuvring and parking (14 percent).
While a high number of respondents welcomed the idea of training, just under half of those polled said they wouldn’t be interested. The two most common reasons were the time it would take and a belief that it wasn’t necessary.
People driving for work are involved in an estimated third of all fatal and serious accidents in the UK and employers there and here are legally obliged to protect their employees. Under Australian federal law, employers may be legally responsible if they fail to actively implement precautionary measures to minimise the risks faced by their employees. Driving for business sits firmly within this legislation.
IAM Drive & Survive’s chief executive Simon Best said: “These findings reflect poor management decisions as business leaders fail to act to adequately protect their employees and in doing so put them and other road users at risk.”
“A third of accidents involve somebody driving for work and these results show that government initiatives to enforce driver safety are simply not working. It is clear that businesses such as ours must work even harder to get the message out on the importance of continuous development.”
There are many driver training courses available to employers. Not only is it corporately responsible for companies to implement driver training programs, it may well make them substantial savings in the longer term.