Floris van Hattem Insurance Sales Director, LeasePlan Insurance

Safety is an increasingly key topic in my meetings with clients. There is a growing demand from local and international customers for safety solutions. Not only our clients see their drivers' health and safety as a top priority, but safer driving and less accidents can also help them reduce costs related to insurance premiums, sick leave, damages and repairs. Research tell us that company car drivers have a crash and casualty rate that is around 50% higher than private motorists, with over 90% of all accidents being caused by driver error such as poor anticipation, inappropriate reaction to a hazard or violation of road traffic laws [i].

A first step in our process is assessing our clients’ insurance fleet strategy and their specific challenges dealing with accidents and vehicle damages. The main challenges we see are related to reporting insights and to driving the number of fleet accidents down for a safer fleet. So we start by capturing their data or looking at their claims and accident data on My Fleet reporting, and by performing a thorough root-cause analysis, while benchmarking our clients against their peers. Based on this, we are able to provide specific recommendations tailored to their situation and of their specific countries.

As an employer, you are responsible for the health and safety of your employees – and of others – in every work-related aspect. This means you must evaluate all the risks your employees may be exposed to and put in place preventive and protective measures. In many countries, vehicles are also classified as a ‘workplace’, so any company operating vehicles must view fleet safety as an essential consideration [ii].

Increasing safety starts by agreeing on your fleet safety strategy. To operate an effective strategy, a crucial element is reducing the number of accidents. This can be achieved by implementing an accident prevention programme. This should comprise measures including educating drivers about responsible and safety-conscious behaviour and making sure that the vehicles they drive are safe. The below figure shows the steps of such a prevention programme, that can assist to improve safety in your fleet.

Want to learn more about the top driving risks and how to avoid them? Check out our white paper on how an active fleet safety programme contributes to a healthy business.

LeasePlan aims to make its fleet the safest in the industry by working towards zero serious road traffic injuries by 2030. SafePlan Zero includes content, tools, guidelines and reports on the three major safety areas: the driver, the vehicle and fleet management. Contact your account manager and join us in our journey to zero!

[i] https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/its/road_it [ii] https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/human-resources/social-security-health/work-safety/index_en.htm