The 8th UN Global Road Safety Week, which runs from the 12th to the 18th May 2025, offers an opportunity to spur action at national and local levels to make walking and cycling safe, by highlighting concrete and specific interventions that can be taken by different stakeholders – governments, international agencies, civil society, businesses and schools.
These actions will help promote and facilitate a shift to walking and cycling, which are more healthy, green, sustainable and economically advantageous modes of transport. This will also contribute, directly and indirectly, to the attainment of many Sustainable Development Goals.
Caroline Sandall-Mansergh, © Vicki Couchman Photographer, 07957226911, vickicouchman.com
Caroline Sandall-Mansergh, Consultancy and Channel Development Manager at Alphabet (GB), discusses in this article as way of an introduction to next week’s Road Safety Week, the importance for fleet managers to ‘risk assess’ those who drive on behalf of their business – particularly those who make up the ‘grey-fleet’ contingent.
“To ensure compliance with health and safety legislation, companies are required to conduct assessments against any perceived risk. Everyone accepts that driving is a ‘risk’, so fleet managers should risk-assess everyone who drives for business, no matter how little mileage they do.
“For company car drivers it’s relatively easy to administer, as you know who they are, which vehicle they’re driving and how it’s been maintained. However, it’s far more complicated to assess and control the risk with ‘grey fleet’ drivers. One of the biggest problems is the assumption that grey fleet drivers have the correct insurance cover in place, or that they believe they have business cover, when they don’t.
“From talking to our partners, we know that there are drivers who have bought the cheapest insurance they’ve found online, which in some instances doesn’t even cover commuting mileage, let alone business mileage. Therefore, you can’t rely on people attesting that they have the right cover, you need a process in place to check that it’s right.
“For example, Alphabet has a product to help, appropriately named Driver Risk. Our customers can use elements of it, or all of it, for their company car drivers and grey fleet drivers. It’s designed to ensure that risk assessments, driving licences and insurance documents are all checked. A customer’s employees would log into the Driver Risk portal, which will then send them a notification to invite them to follow up on specific actions relevant to them, including licence checks.
“What fleet operators need to remember is that it makes no difference what proportion of their fleet is owned, and what is grey fleet. The responsibility to assess the risk still exists, and the risk is greater with grey fleet drivers as the fleet manager has less visibility and control.
“Our advice for fleet operators is to ensure you have a process in place which gives you control. In the event of a serious incident or, worse still, a fatality, you and your company will need to demonstrate that all employees knew what the process was and had engaged with it. It’s about being able to prove that, as an employer, you have done everything you reasonably can to mitigate or alleviate risk.”
