Driving for Better Business: Seasonal resources

Readers of BALI’s quarterly magazine, Landscape News, might be aware the Association is a strategic partner of Driving for Better Business (DfBB), a National Highways initiative aimed at reducing work-related road risk by protecting staff who drive or ride for work, as well as other road users. This partnership allows BALI members to access a range of toolbox talks, documents and videos for free.   

Industry identified as a road user requiring improvement actions

Leaders of the DfBB initiative first invited the Association to become strategic partners due to the landscape industry's reliance on light goods vehicles (LGV), a category which includes standard panel vans, as well as derivatives such as crew-cab, box van, chassis cab, tipper, drop-side, compact/car-derived, electric and pick-up vehicles.

Landscaping, and particularly landscape construction and maintenance, sit in a similar category to site-based trades including construction, demolition and engineering, where driving is an integral part of the job role but not always considered as such. This means there is a tendency to overlook the risk posed by work-related driving activities, and the skillset required to safely carry out this aspect of the business activity.  Consequently, LGV is a category with a poor record in relation to both accident statistics and roadside vehicle checks.

And it’s not just vans and trailers…

The danger of driving for work is not unique to the landscape industry or to drivers of light commercial vehicles; research reveals driving for work is one of the most dangerous things employees do, and around a third of road deaths (and one fifth of serious injuries) involve someone driving for work, which includes use of a company car or van, pool car or van, or an employees’ own car, van or motorcycle.

Fleet focus: Drink and Drug Impairment

In addition to the year-round suite of free documents and downloads provided by the DfBB team, the Association also has access to seasonal updates with specific messages.  This month is drink and drug impairment; understanding the risks and how employees and employers can manage these.

Research has revealed December is the second worst month for drink drive crashes (August was the worst ranked) with the number of drunk drivers spiking not on Christmas day, but between Christmas day and New Year’s Day.

England and Wales has the highest drink-drive limit in Europe (80mg alcohol per 100ml of blood vs 50mg in Europe and Scotland).  Some researchers and road safety groups believe this slightly higher limit has led drivers to believe alcohol before driving is acceptable.

As previously highlighted by BALI, the legal drink drive limit can (and often does) differ from employer and even site-based limits. Whilst fleet managers are unable to constantly monitor the activities of drivers and operatives, they can set their expectations through policies associated with driving for work.

Use the link in the Further information section of this article to download the drink and drug impairment documents, and visit the Driving for Better Business website to review all tools.

Further information

Driving for Better Business website

Driving for Better Business: Drink and drug driving impairment