Welsh road safety event targets businesses


Two of Britain's largest employers that are in the vanguard of promoting occupational road risk management will be among the speakers at a major Driving for Better Business event being in held in conjunction with South Wales Police and Vale of Glamorgan based Professional Driver Services. British Telecom and Tesco.com, which are both long-established business champion members of the government-backed Driving for Better Business campaign, which is managed by RoadSafe, will be helping to encourage Welsh companies to increase their focus on at-work driving safety and so reduce road crashes and cut costs. The Driving for Better Business Wales event on 29 September is being held at the South Wales Police Driver Training Unit in Cardiff. Almost 100 businesses based in Wales are expected to be represented at the event to hear a wide range of speakers. Apart from hearing the actions taken by both British Telecom and Tesco.com to improve employee safety when driving and reduce their risk exposure, delegates will also hear presentations from Caroline Scurr, director of the Driving for Better Business Campaign; Nick Croft Assistant Chief Constable and director of the training department for South Wales Police; Trevor Wedge, chief examiner of the Driving Standards Agency; Lisa Dorn, head of traffic research at Cranfield University; and Hazel Padmore, from leading law firm Weightmans.
There are an estimated up to 200 road deaths and serious injuries a week resulting from crashes involving at work drivers, and more employees are killed and seriously injured on Britain's roads while driving on behalf of their employer than in any other work-related activity. Ms Scurr said, "Due to the campaign and the promotion of the benefits of occupational road risk management by the almost 50 business champion employers from across the public and private sectors, an increasing number of organisations are realising that pro-actively managing at-work driving is good for their staff and for their organisation. "Our business champions such as British Telecom and Teco.com can prove that reducing the number of crashes involving at work drivers saves thousands and, in the case of large fleets, millions of pounds. In addition, cutting the carnage improves business efficiency, employee welfare and the image of an organisation.	AN in-depth look at how reduced public spending could impact on strategies to prevent accidents on the UK's roads will be the focus of RoSPA's 2011 Road Safety Congress. The event, taking place from February 14-16 at the Marriott Hotel City Centre in Bristol, will be the charity's 76th annual gathering for road safety researchers, practitioners and policymakers. The programme is currently being developed and RoSPA has issued a call for papers, including case studies, from the UK and overseas. Potential speakers are invited to outline presentations that focus on the future of road safety in the new economic climate.
"The result is complete legal compliance and a measurable contribution to business efficiency with savings that go straight to the bottom line as a result of putting in place a range of interventions. We are delighted to be working with both PDS and South Wales Police to further promote the benefits of at-work driving safety to employees in Wales." Rebecca Ashton, of Vale of Glamorgan-based PDS, said, "The event aims to bring together employers, academics and road safety experts to encourage more employers in Wales to address the legal, moral and financial reasons to manage work-related road safety with the business benefits highlighted through the two case studies."