Construction drivers among the safest

Company car drivers in the construction industry have less accidents than the average car fleet, new research has revealed today (Wednesday).

Traditional sectors such as construction, engineering, manufacturing and utilities are the industries with the lowest incident rates, while highly competitive service industries, including automotive, business services or retail, have the worst performing drivers.

ProAct, the accident management service of leading fleet company Interleasing, conducted the research by analysing the incidents involving a massive 20,000 company car drivers. The research showed that whereas the average incident ratio for company car fleets is 45%, the construction industry had less incidents at only 41%.

Diarmuid Fahy, accident services manager at Interleasing, said:  "The incident ratio shows the number of company car incidents in a year, expressed as a percentage.

"So if a construction company has 100 cars on fleet, it means that there were 41 incidents reported in a year. While this is lower than the industry average, it doesn't mean it is a good thing. Construction companies should be working to get this incident rate  much lower." 

The figures showed that 32% of reported incidents were accidents caused by the drivers, 24% were vehicles found damaged and only 6% of incidents were as a result of break in.

"This could be down to the environment that construction cars operate in, often being used for site based work," added Fahy. 

"Construction companies need to monitor the patterns of incidents and where they are happening. For example, it could be as simple as getting employees to park in more secure places. Driver training and better appointment scheduling may also be a consideration as construction employees are often driving from one site to the next, and can drive very long distances in one day."