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Employers should make more effort to reduce in-vehicle distractions says road safety charity

Fleet managers need to take distracted driving more seriously says IAM RoadSmart

IAM RoadSmart has called for businesses to take distracted driving more seriously. The road safety charity believes firms can do more to reduce the kinds of technological in-vehicle distractions that are increasingly common in the modern world.

In its new report, IAM Roadsmart says that despite legislative moves to clamp down on mobile phone use at the wheel, the steady rise of new, potentially-distracting in-car technology is leading to a “tide of avoidable crashes on our roads.”

According to Department for Transport figures, over the ten-year period from 2007 to 2017 the number of casualties where ‘driver using a mobile phone’ was a factor rose by 37 per cent, from 565 to 773.

IAM RoadSmart reports that in 2018 research by RAC Business, one in five employers said their drivers have been involved in a crash after using a hand-held phone at the wheel. The same study found that 38 per cent of firms said they expected commercial drivers to answer calls while on the road. For larger businesses (500 to 1,000 employees) that figure rose to 49 per cent.

“The problem with any mobile phone conversation is that it takes the driver out of the loop,” said Dr Graham Hole, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Sussex. “It puts them into a different world, whether they are talking on a hands-free system or not.

“Many phone conversations involve mental imagery [...] which competes with the same brain resources as here-and-now real-world vision, needed for driving.”

Nor are mobile phones the sole distraction for professional drivers. An investigation by Auto Express magazine, carried out in conjunction with IAM RoadSmart in April 2017, found that programming a sat-nav was the ‘worst distraction’ for drivers.

Tony Greenidge, IAM RoadSmart business development director, commented: “Our white paper shows that with increasing sophistication of in-car technology there is an unintended consequence that requires drivers – typically in real time – to decide how to best process and utilise the information provided.”

He added that employers have a key role to play by ensuring that their policies allow drivers to take advantage of technology in a way that is both safe and legal.

The report itself concludes: “All it takes to undo a lifetime’s attentive and careful driving, even for a highly trained driver, is one unintended moment of distraction.

“In a world where almost all of us have become highly dependent on the ever-present smartphone, satellite navigation instructions and increasingly rich in-car entertainment, it has never been harder to concentrate on the task in hand; never harder for business to strike the right note on driving-for-work policy.

“This is why it is imperative that fleet managers – and their leaders – take a fresh look at professional driver training, to ensure that their employees reach the very highest standards – in the best vehicles available.

“This can only succeed if it is fully backed by a thorough company driver policy – a policy that is rigorously enforced and regularly audited, and that results in demonstrably better driver behaviour.

“Driver policy cannot exist in a vacuum, which is why it is equally critical that it becomes enshrined in business culture – supported at the highest echelons of every organisation.”

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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10 comments

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PRSboy | 5 years ago
1 like

Managed right, I don't have a problem with a good, clear sat nav system.  I'd rather a driver in a busy environment guided by clearly spoken instructions rather than the same with an A-Z balanced on their knee.

I do object to text messages being displayed on an in-car display.  Anything like this that takes a drivers attention away un-necessarily is not good.

The problem is that all the delivery companies, supermarket vans etc are all guided by smartphones which give them the job and the location.

I also find the general move toward multi-function touch screens a backward step.  I read of cars where you need to go into a menu just to do simple things like turn the heating up.  What is wrong with a simple temperature knob?

Avatar
kil0ran replied to PRSboy | 5 years ago
2 likes

PRSboy wrote:

Managed right, I don't have a problem with a good, clear sat nav system.  I'd rather a driver in a busy environment guided by clearly spoken instructions rather than the same with an A-Z balanced on their knee.

I do object to text messages being displayed on an in-car display.  Anything like this that takes a drivers attention away un-necessarily is not good.

The problem is that all the delivery companies, supermarket vans etc are all guided by smartphones which give them the job and the location.

I also find the general move toward multi-function touch screens a backward step.  I read of cars where you need to go into a menu just to do simple things like turn the heating up.  What is wrong with a simple temperature knob?

When I hired a modern Merc recently it took me half an hour to work out how to use the controls. I have a car laid up at present waiting for the summer months because of a failure in the electronic heater controls that in an older car would have been controlled by a slider physically connected to a flap.

That's progress...

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JMcL_Ireland replied to PRSboy | 5 years ago
0 likes

PRSboy wrote:

I also find the general move toward multi-function touch screens a backward step.  I read of cars where you need to go into a menu just to do simple things like turn the heating up.  What is wrong with a simple temperature knob?

This.

We test drove a Citroen a couple of years ago and everything bar indicators lights etc, was controlled from a touch screen down near the gearstick. Now several things strike me about this; 1) from long experience in the IT industry, electronic gizmos tend to have a very limited endurance - I can't see one of those screens lasting 10 years never mind 20, 2) let's say it does last 10 years then fails, whats the bets they've stopped making that part, and you're not going to fix it with a cable tie, 3) most importantly these are touch screens with no tactility so completely distracting - I'd say it's not a coincidence that the sharp rise in phone related crashes corresponds with the rise of the smartphone over the old feature phones with real buttons.

Car manufacturers are creaming themselves, built-in obscelescence from all the electronics, not servicable by anybody other than authorised dealers due to the increased complexity

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Daveyraveygravey | 5 years ago
2 likes

I don't have a sat nav in my own car, and when I occasionally drive a car that does, I find it very distracting.

I agree with the prof at Brighton uni, hands free isn't that much safer than just using your phone.  If you get a phone call, stop the car and concentrate.

It's also why I don't wear headphones when riding on the road, even if you think you can hear cars approaching just as well, assuming you think that matters,  you have less mental capacity to deal with potential problems.  I don't listen to music as background, I get right in to it, and yeah, it creates mental images.  Do one thing or the other!  Especially when if something goes wrong, your life is at stake.  Or someone else's...

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brooksby | 5 years ago
0 likes

"Employers Motor vehicle manufacturers should make more effort to reduce in-vehicle distractions says road safety charity"

FTFY 

 

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BehindTheBikesheds replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
3 likes

brooksby wrote:

"Employers Motor vehicle manufacturers should make more effort to reduce in-vehicle distractions says road safety charity"

FTFY 

 

Have you seen the size of the screens in some EVs, particularly the higher end ones, I think the one I saw in the Tesla was at least 10" 

There were several complaints last year to ASA regarding a car advert (Toyota IIRC) that showed the driver making multiple use of social media on a screen whilst on the move. ASA rejected the claims that it was a problem/socially irresponsible never mind illegal. I made an official complaint regarding this as they were basically allowing an advert to portray illegal actions that does lead to road deaths. Nothing came of it, and yet they withdrew that advert for safe cycling made by Cycling Scotland 'see bike, think horse'

Bunch of cretins

 

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brooksby replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
0 likes

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

brooksby wrote:

"Employers Motor vehicle manufacturers should make more effort to reduce in-vehicle distractions says road safety charity"

FTFY 

 

Have you seen the size of the screens in some EVs, particularly the higher end ones, I think the one I saw in the Tesla was at least 10" 

There were several complaints last year to ASA regarding a car advert (Toyota IIRC) that showed the driver making multiple use of social media on a screen whilst on the move. ASA rejected the claims that it was a problem/socially irresponsible never mind illegal. I made an official complaint regarding this as they were basically allowing an advert to portray illegal actions that does lead to road deaths. Nothing came of it, and yet they withdrew that advert for safe cycling made by Cycling Scotland 'see bike, think horse'

Bunch of cretins

 

I think the car companies have thought that they need to put all that technology in or else people can't cope. Like every car containing a cigarette lighter and an ashtray, fifty years ago. All that soshul meeja gubbins is probably fine if your car is KITT, but I imagine it's very distracting if you're also supposed to be in control of safely driving your car around..,

Avatar
kil0ran | 5 years ago
7 likes

My last employer had very clear guidance in the employee handbook - do not accept a phone call whilst driving. To that end they wouldn't fund hands-free kits and there was a clause that repeated phone calls to a colleague whilst driving would result in a disciplinary offence for the caller. If you had an accident whilst you were using a company-supplied mobile phone it was gross misconduct and likely instant dismissal.

They even discouraged the use of sat navs if they weren't integrated systems, and you weren't allowed to eat in a company vehicle. All disciplinary offences. And this wasn't ass-covering on their part (well, OK, maybe a little) - it was because they had a pervasive safety culture because they operated in the maritime sector. 

Agree that HSE could do more to investigate RTCs involving "professional" drivers.

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Zermattjohn replied to kil0ran | 5 years ago
2 likes

kil0ran wrote:

My last employer had very clear guidance in the employee handbook - do not accept a phone call whilst driving. To that end they wouldn't fund hands-free kits and there was a clause that repeated phone calls to a colleague whilst driving would result in a disciplinary offence for the caller. If you had an accident whilst you were using a company-supplied mobile phone it was gross misconduct and likely instant dismissal.

You obviously didn't work for one of our many wonderful delivery firms. DPD, Hermes and other drivers I see around here every day are often on their phone. I report every one, but always it's the same response: it's unacceptable and we'll deal with it. Next week I'll see the same driver doing the same thing.

The irony that a lot of the these vans are delivering online bike gear to my door is not lost on me.

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TedBarnes | 5 years ago
6 likes

HSE need to get involved as a matter of course in all commerical/business related traffic collisions/accidents...

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