Response to COVID-19 Relaxation of Driving-hours Rules
From 23rd March the Government will relax both the EU and UK driving-hours rules for all carriage-of-goods sectors.
Click here for details on the planned changes.
Although these measures will keep food on supermarket shelves, the decision will undoubtedly result in an increase in fatigue and stress for drivers, which in turn, will lead to increased driving risk.
In response, it will be even more important to monitor and support drivers closely and intervene with appropriate remedial action at the right time and, for the right reasons.
This task would be difficult to achieve during normal trading circumstances in a sensitive and effective way. However, with the immediate and huge transition to remote working for many businesses, the job of collating and interpreting risk data has just become more difficult.
Communicating with drivers, co-ordinating support and, remaining accountable, will be more challenging for most fleet managers and even for some specialist providers of risk services.
Here at Valentis Risk, we know there is always a person behind the wheel: which has never been more important to recognise. Putting driving safety first and with our sole purpose of reducing accident frequency and cost, we here to support existing and new clients.
it’s business-as-usual because our customers still run vehicles and our risk reduction objectives therefore continue. We achieve this in the following way:
- Our priority of supporting a culture of driving safety is now even more important
- Our use of technology ensures that we automatically receive risk-data from sub-contractors
- Our Personal Risk Managers continue to directly support drivers by phone or video call
- Our telephone system works with remote staff in exactly the same way as it works in the office
- Each Personal Risk Manager is connected to the Cloud and can access all our systems remotely
- Our systems create an automatic alert when non-standard risks are saved to our system
- Personal Risk Managers assess why and when to intervene with high risk drivers
- Many of our risk remedies use technology as opposed to using personal interaction
- Our Driving-Safety Passport App gives drivers access to all their risk data in real-time.
At this time of increased risk, we believe our consolidated fleet risk management solution has particular relevance due to its simplicity and convenience because we deliver it as one programme, from one supplier, using one team, via one mobile app, for one fixed price.
If we can help you at this difficult time, please contact me directly.
Paul Rose
Head of Risk
Paul.rose@valentisadvisory.com
07703596863
