Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Why Accident Causation is key to Fleet Risk Reduction

Most organisations understand the value of fleet risk reduction initiatives and how they can generate quantifiable results.

The Benefits of including Claims
An enduring risk reduction strategy relies on regular analysis and review of data that comes from all aspects of road risk, including claims.  Many fleets look at licence check results and online assessment results for clues as to how to proceed but often miss an important ingredient - a real understanding of claim causation.

A short-sighted risk reduction strategy omits to really understand why accidents happen and key objectives may fall short as a result.  Equally, where a company’s internal procedures may be having an influence on accident rates, risk reduction initiatives will have only a limited effect.

By studying the causes of claims within a fleet it is possible to identify the most common incident types which, in turn, will lead to decisions about the changes that need to be made to reduce accident frequency.

These changes could include training but they may also require a rethink on other things such as car park geography (if this is where most minor incidents are occurring) or journey planning for drivers, for instance.

Of course, accidents occur throughout the year, which means information is accumulating to form trends and exceptions. So once a fleet includes accidents within the scope of risk management, we need to take a longer-term view.

The Long Term View
A difficult message to get across is the importance of a longer term view of risk management as many fleets see the process as having an end date.  In truth, drivers need a constant drip-feed of the safety message and management need to make sure future changes to company policies do not impact road safety negatively.

If a fleet operator has ticked all the safety boxes by implementing a broad risk reduction scheme, management may assume the job is done and then implement operational changes that undo all that good work.  Logically, a short term fix does not apply to safety culture change.  Such a broad-reaching and long-term objective takes time; it is fragile and can be quickly and easily undone.

From our research, fleets are good at fixing one-off problems but not so good at consistently applying long-term changes.  Equally, when under pressure, a reaction to an immediate business need will cause safety to slip down the priority list.

As a result, specialist help from an outsourced supplier (that is only focused on reducing accident frequency and cost) may be the way to achieve the long term view.

How RVM Can Help
RVM’s expertise in fleet accident management led to the development of our all-encompassing road risk management programme: Full Circle

The reason an inclusive solution is better for fleets is because it is simpler, cheaper and more accountable because all the data is in one place via one portal controlled by one team on one number under one contract and for just one monthly payment.

Working in response to client feedback, Full Circle from RVM represents an outsourced and packaged solution that facilitates consistent and long-term action directly with drivers.

Outsourcing all aspects of risk to one supplier also solves other fleet challenges such as:

  • Assessing risk data from several suppliers or sources
  •  Setting fleet-wide risk tolerance policies
  •  Monitoring the success of risk reduction measures
  •  Measuring results against agreed safety policy objectives


Full Circle integrates the principal elements of a road risk program including:

  • Driver profiling 
  • Driver training
  • Licence checking 
  • Grey fleet monitoring 
  •  Accident management


Not only does this integrated approach allow a fleet to refine its risk reduction policies in line with internal and external influencing factors but it uses accident management as a tool to refine risk tactics as well as to prove if those tactics are working or not.

Permanently Lower Your Fleet’s Risk - Enquire now about Full Circle with RVM Fleet Services

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