Seventy two per cent of people who drive for work in the UK have never been offered driver training, according to a survey by IAM Drive & Survive on Springboard UK, despite 44 per cent of those drivers saying they would welcome the opportunity. Only three per cent of the respondents said that they had been offered driver training but had declined.
When participants were asked which aspects of their driving they felt could be improved by training, 29 per cent 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 per cent
- Sticking to speed limits – 17 per cent
- Manoeuvering and parking – 14 per cent
While a high number of respondents did welcome 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 and employers are legally obliged to protect their employees. Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care. 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.”
In response to the finding that 29 per cent of drivers would welcome a refresher on the Highway Code, IAM Drive & Survive is running the 10 days of the Highway Code competition on Twitter, giving well-read drivers the opportunity to win an iPad Mini with Retina display. @IAMdrivesurvive will tweet one quiz question a day until the 18 July, based on different rules from the Highway Code, with all of the correct answers going into a prize draw for the iPad.
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