Nigel Grainger brings together a related set of skills that all fleets require, to greater or lesser
degrees, but which may not have the staffing or the skills to fulfil those needs.
Bringing his wealth of experience in all areas of fleet management he offers a bespoke service through his company Fleet Risk Consultants, providing you with a cost effective fleet that complies fully with your 'duty of care' requirements.Risk Management – Should you make that call?
Have you ever considered whether to make that call? As a Risk Management professional I do, regularly.
Mobile Telephones are a great piece of equipment, they allow us to communicate with each other whenever and wherever we want to, but as most men will admit, and most women won’t, you cannot do two things at once and do either task properly.
The issue of trying to drive and operate a mobile phone is a serious one though, I have previously stated that it is my opinion that driving requires total concentration at all times and trying to use a mobile phone at the same time is really asking for trouble. This was proven recently in the landmark case of a women being prosecuted for causing death by careless driving and the mobile phone was a contributory factor.
This is also demonstrated by the incident detailed in this publication. It only says that the driver was distracted by the mobile phone, but whether she was speaking on it or just looking at it or worse still texting with it the result was an unfortunate fatality.
Now some people try to tell me that a hands-free phone is a safer option, which in the case of a hand-held phone I cannot argue with, but it is still a highly dangerous option none the less. This is borne out by studies that have taken place throughout the world, all of which reached the same conclusion. Hands-free phones are more dangerous than being at the UK drink drive limit.
My advice to all drivers is, put your phone out of reach and on silent. Better still divert it to your answer service and check your messages when you stop for a rest break from the driving part of your day. You should be stopping after every 2 hours of driving for a 15 minute break, during this time you can have a drink and check your messages. That way you are killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, rather than kill yourself on the road.
If you are a business owner you MUST have a policy that states that the use of mobile phones is strictly prohibited, unless you have an absolute business need to maintain contact with your staff. In this case you had better have a robust policy to protect you and your business from prosecution under corporate manslaughter legislation.
Nigel Grainger
Senior Consultant
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