Driving for work

Driving is one of the most dangerous things that people do in their daily life, particularly if that driving is as part of their job. Driving for work can be especially dangerous for many reasons, with speed, alongside fatigue and distraction, being one of the main risk factors.

The temptation and pressure to speed is a significant risk for anyone driving for work; there are always deadlines to meet, even if simply driving to an appointment, and with time pressure comes a temptation to drive faster. There is a growing type of driving for work in which the risks are even more direct, almost to the point that we would identify it as a paradigm shift; this growing area is home delivery. With the rise of online shopping and on-demand food deliveries, companies that offer a speedy delivery service are at a direct advantage for winning contracts with sellers and consumers. With each reduction in the time from pressing ‘order now’ to the arrival of an item on a customer’s doorstep comes increased time pressure on the delivery companies that distribute the estimated 4 billion packages to households in the UK each year. In order to fulfil these needs, delivery drivers – whose wages can be linked to a ‘drop rate’– are likely to take more risks and drive at a higher speed to save time. We have known for a long time that driving at inappropriate speeds for the conditions and the road environment increases crash risk, so what is being done to keep drivers safe from speeding at work, and especially in the growing home delivery logistics industry - a critical industry for the UK? 

Ultimately, the responsibility for choosing a safe speed resides with the driver, but in the context of a Safe System approach we need to do better than this. Specifically, when the vehicle is being driven for work purposes, the employer has a legal and moral duty of care, having responsibility for ensuring that the vehicle is driven safely and is serviced and maintained properly. This is because when that vehicle is driven for work, it becomes a working environment and employers have a responsibility to keep employees safe while at work.

Employers need to ensure that they have taken all reasonable steps to ensure drivers use the road sensibly when at work. A responsible employer should ensure they take steps to reduce risk. This includes not putting unreasonable pressure on drivers to task risks to complete the ‘job’. One way to approach this is with safe and fuel-efficient driver training as recommended by ECO Stars – another important point here being that safety improvements link to environmental ones, and (as noted for many years by Driving for Better Business) to economic ones, with reduced costs from collisions for businesses with good safety records.

Alongside fuel-efficient training and traditional driver training, technology has an important role to play in manging speed. In 2020 the HSE’s guidance for companies on work-related road risk was updated, with TRL contributing to advice given to businesses on vehicle technology. Companies and vehicle manufacturers are introducing modern telematics systems, and Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) is being introduced into the European General Safety Regulations meaning this critical technology will become the norm on roads in those countries that choose to implement the regulation. Telematics systems can monitor driver behaviour and provide driver assistance to help potentially improve safety, reduce costs, and reduce legal liability. Alongside the HSE guidance there are a large number of commercial companies with offerings in this area. Previous reviews by TRL and its partners have suggested that we need to understand how best to employ such technologies in fleet settings.

Home delivery is a huge industry and is driving major increases in the logistics sector. The time pressure for delivery is competing with safety. To help with understanding, TRL is supporting UCL in a project funded by the Road Safety Trust to understand perceptions towards the use of telematics systems to manage speed in this context. Do the drivers feel like they are being too closely watched? Do they and their employees see the difference that the systems have on their business from not only a cost saving, but a safety perspective?

Other technology has made ordering goods online extremely easy for the consumer but as road safety professionals we need to keep asking the question, at what cost? TRL’s view is that we need to find ways to use technology responsibly to help keep safe those people who are the final step in the logistics chain. We must stop discounting safety to enable more convenience for consumers. Fast home delivery need not require fast speeds.

As part of TRL’s support for Road Safety Week, we will be posting a series of blogs written by our in-house experts, looking across the different themes Brake has identified as encapsulating the overall theme of ‘Safe Roads For All’. TRL’s experts have focused on some specific road users and topics within these themes and have tried to think about how all of this relates to a future in which transport is safe for everyone. The blogs cover active travel (Monday); how we teach children and young people about road safety (Tuesday); speed (Wednesday); road users with differing needs (including a focus on mental health and motorcyclists – Thursday); the future of driving (Friday); and the importance of learning from collisions (Sunday).

Check out TRL’s website and social channels for the latest blog.

Road Safety week runs from 14th to 20th November 2022, to find how out you can support Brake visit Road Safety Week | Brake<

Alice Holcombe is a Behaviour Change Consultant at TRL, with five years’ experience of applying psychology to road user behaviour in order to improve safety.

Her research has focused on behaviour and attitudes towards new and existing technologies (autonomous vehicles and telematics), road layouts and incentive schemes. Her work has provided recommendations for clients such as National Highways, Transport for West Midlands and DfT; including evidence that has influenced changes to government policy.

Ashley Pressley is a Principal Behavioural Consultant at TRL with over ten years’ experience in road safety. His research interests span young drivers, motorcyclists, and work-related road safety. Ashley has designed and evaluated road safety interventions for National Highways, DfT and Transport Scotland, as well as projects in the Middle East. He has a particular interest in telematics as a behaviour change tool, especially in the young and novice driver insurance sector.

Stuart McLean is a Sustainable Transport Delivery Lead at TRL, working directly with a wide variety of stakeholders, operators, and their drivers through his involvement as the Contract Manager and Specialist Consultant of the ECO Stars Fleet Recognition scheme. He has over 20 years' experience as a commercial fleet manager with direct experience of implementing change and improvements in the haulage sector. Since joining TRL he has built strong and successful customer relationships, sharing expertise in sustainable transport and the ways that fleet operations can be run in the most safe, efficient and environmentally friendly way.